Resume Writing Service

[kronik]

I (and my girlfriend) need new jobs. I've decided to eschew updating/rewriting it myself in hopes that a service would do a better job than I.

Any recommendations?

Danke.

 

[vanity]

I considered it until I saw the cost was over $300. There is absolutely no way that type of cost is justified. It's a 'tard-tax.

 

[vaclava krishna]

You can use me, for reference, if it requires.

 

[kronik]

I've been looking at e-resume.net - they were in LA Times and I've seen them mentioned in a couple other places after Googling. Their prices are "fair" I suppose, at around 120-150 for the level of resume I'd want from them.

They charge approximately 250 for an executive / senior management resume; I'm not sure where you were looking that was charging 300 bucks, as that is fookin' ridiculous.

 

[globetrotter]

I used this lady

[email protected]

I was happy with what she did. honestly, wehn I first saw it, I thought "that isn't so much better than what I had written myself", but then I got a great deal of good feedback aout it.

 

[vanity]

How much did she cost?

 

[globetrotter]

I don't remember - at the time I thought it was obscene, maybe $300 or so. but frankly, it was worth it. I have gotten large numbers of compliments on my cv, and 3 jobs out of the same one, with updates by myself.

 

[vanity]

So I guess the question is this:

Do I buy my first pair of AE's, or do I have a new resume.

 

[raley]

I'm not sure I understand what a resume service does. Do they just provide the format, or do you just talk to them for a few hours about what you did at your other jobs and they do everything? It seems like you are paying them to find out what you did that was important at your other jobs (along with your EC's, etc.) and they just type it up and format it to look pretty.

You can take a couple of hours yourself and think about what you did, and the formatting part is easy.

Vanity, if you need/want them I have a pdf that contains a couple hundred Wharton resumes if that would help you with formatting/ideas.

 

[globetrotter]

Originally Posted by raley

I'm not sure I understand what a resume service does. Do they just provide the format, or do you just talk to them for a few hours about what you did at your other jobs and they do everything? It seems like you are paying them to find out what you did that was important at your other jobs (along with your EC's, etc.) and they just type it up and format it to look pretty.

You can take a couple of hours yourself and think about what you did, and the formatting part is easy.

Vanity, if you need/want them I have a pdf that contains a couple hundred Wharton resumes if that would help you with formatting/ideas.


when I did this, I sent the writet mine, which, I really thought was a fantastic resume - I had probrably read 6 books on resumes, and worked maybe 20 hours on it. she then sent me an extensive questionaire that took me a few hours to fill out. then we talked for about 1 hour on the phone. she wrote the first draft, we talked again on the phone, and then she made some changes.

the result was significantly better than I would have done myself.

I can, if I have to, hang dry wall. I will get better results if I pay somebody to do it for me. I think that writting your own resume is the same thing - you are leaving money on the table, in terms of how atractive you are to future employers.

or, let me put it another way - when I applied for positions on Monster and career builder, I got a phone interview about 50% of the time. what I have heard that is a huge success rate for that stage of the search.

 

[drizzt3117]

I think it depends on a few factors.

A resume writing service will help a bit if you're applying for jobs all in one functional sector. If that's not the case, you're primarily going to be using their services for formatting because you'll want to tailor your resume towards opportunities in different functional areas and they may be significantly different.

I don't think it's inappropriate to spend $300 on a resume writing service, but it also depends. If you have 2-4 years of experience and just a few jobs under your belt, beyond formatting and how you describe each individual job, there won't be much to modify. Admittedly the two things I mentioned are very important.

I suppose it just depends. Having read tens of thousands of resumes in my professional career, I think the salient points to focus on in a resume are:

1) Make it short.
Unless you're a executive-level candidate with 10+ years of experience at a number of different jobs, make your resume 1 page.

Most people aren't going to do be able to do that, because they don't...

2) Make it relevant.
Everything on your resume with the exception of some extracurriculars that give your resume a little depth should be targeted towards the job you are applying to. Some people it's cheesy to "give them exactly what they want" but read the last phrase again... I imagine most hiring managers will spend 30 seconds or less browsing a resume, which one do you think they will pick?

3) Only list what's important
As I mentioned, resumes get about 30 seconds of viewing on the first pass, so you want the points you feel are important to jump out. If everything on your resume is important and relevant to the job in question, it will be obvious on the first pass.