Resume writing services - discuss
Back in February I felt a "disturbance in the force", and dusted off my 5-yr old resume, updated it, and went shopping for a new job. Several interviews between Feb and April, but no offers (mostly because I cannot relocate, have been a successful telecommuter, and wanted to continue that instead of moving.) Anyhoo.... I didn't feel my resume was putting my best forward - Like many people, I can laud others all kinds, but fail to sell myself. I made the decision to drop a couple hundred on a resume re-write. Received the handy-dandy-updated document (peppered with "auto correct" nightmares, "Mortgage Servicing" is NOT "Mortgage Serving" - no big, i fixed those. Still, it was in a nice new format and achievements had numbers with them as I had never gotten that specific!)
I turned my new-and-improved resume loose - and......
CRICKETS! SINCE APRIL! Any interviews I have been invited to were from organic leads I found myself, or from manually completed profiles and added to a company's talent pool.
Not one single resume-based (you know, when you load your resume and it auto fills everything?) online submission (since I dropped $200 on a new resume) has resulted in a single interview.
QUESTIONS: Are these services better suited for less-experienced job seekers? (i.e., 5yrs or less in career?) Do well evolved and more mature job seekers (20+ in career) have such a resume/history that rewriting it does little/no good? What is the benefit of dropping a couple hundred on a new when my old one was considerably more effective?
hey I would recommend looking at LinkedIn and posting your resume on there!!
Hi Christine Ladd - those are some great questions.
I would say that paying for a resume rewrite is not a great way to unless you are really desperate on how to format and create your resume, and the cost is no concern. Otherwise (and this is my opinion), it's better to learn how to do it yourself. I find it also helps with organizing and structuring your own thoughts on your past work and experience, which helps in interviews.
Autofilling forms on an application do not make sense for this resume, as you mentioned it is better formatted. Don't you lose the formatting when it autofills, or am I misunderstanding what you mean?
So yes, I would say the service is better suited for less experienced job seekers. However, I think there is still value in it.. You don't want overwhelm a hiring manager, and including 20+ years of experience is going to exactly that. And the benefit of dropping a couple hundred on a new one is having a fresh pair of eyes look at it and having an alternate copy... it's up to you whether it's worth the value.
However, it sounds like adding the achievements with numbers (i.e. demonstrably showing your worth via discrete growth and numbers) is a fantastic way of proving you are going to be able to add value to a company. So in that regard, I think the rewrite provided some good additions.
Check out this conversation by Patrick Coppedge on trimming your resume, as I think it could definitely help you discover ways to improve your updated version even more!
I hope this helps! Please don't hesitate to keep the community updated on new developments. We are here for you!
Dominos