A: No resume writer can promise you a job.

That said, there's a wide range of guarantees--short of job assurance--that resume writing services can offer.

Satisfaction: At a minimum, your writer should guarantee your satisfaction with your new resume. This usually translates into 7 to 30 days or so of review time in which you can request editing changes or re-writes at no additional charge. Some call this a "happiness" guarantee, meaning you must be happy with the resume or they will work on it until you are. Keep in mind the deadline, after which any editing changes will cost you.

Interview: The measure of a resume is whether or not it can generate job interviews. When a resume writing service offers an interview guarantee, they are offering to re-write your new resume if it doesn't generate one or more interviews after a set amount of time, say 30 or 60 days. While that's a pretty big gesture and one I like to see, expect some degree of fine print--usually relating to the degree of diligence on your part in applying to available positions.

Money: Taking the "interview guarantee" model a step further, a few companies (a scant few companies) offer the added bonus of getting money back if the resume doesn't produce at least one interview in the allotted time. Usually it's a partial refund of the resume fee, but at least two major companies offers a full money-back guarantee.

Caution: a company that has logged time on your behalf and paid a writer his or her fair fee is none too excited at the prospect of returning your investment, despite their marketing claims. So expect some serious fine print--that is, hoops to jump through--before you see a refund. Some of those hoops are reasonable to expect, otherwise they might as well put up a sign saying "we work for free." Still, read the terms and conditions of that money-back offer, and be prepared for resistance.

Better yet, don't go into a resume project expecting to get your money back. Indeed, don't even allow such an offer to sway you to one company over another in the first place.