Has anyone paid to have a resume written for them?

A few questions:

* How much did you pay for it?

* What was unique about it?

* Was it more effective than your old resume?

* Would you do it again?

I did. I was using a resume I wrote in my resume class in college. My teacher gave it a good grade and I felt that i was good to go with it. I wasnt though. I looked in my phone book and found a good amount of writers. I called each one that would be a fit with me (i.e. didnt call any writers who only focused on a field i wasnt in) I asked the following questions 1.) How long have you been doing it 2.) Is it your only job or do you do it on the side (go with people who do it as a career they must be doing something right) 3.) cost (flat rate, per page, per word) There are some other things to ask as well but these are the most important ones/. Now your questions

Cost- 100.00 flat rate, got two cover letters and two resumes (one general, one degree specific) 20 copies of each on the correct paper and free updates for life

Uniquness-It was. It baisicly had the same info as mine, but it was the way it is presented. The layout was nice, good buzzwords etc.

Effectivness- Much more effective. I got more emails/calls from potential employers then before with my old one( I pulled all of my resumes off the net since the monster.com situation)

Do it again- In a heartbeat.

Hope this helps a litte.

986 in Seattle, Washington said: I did. I was using a resume I wrote in my resume class in college. My teacher gave it a good grade and I felt that i was good to go with it. I wasnt though. I looked in my phone book and found a good amount of writers. I called each one that would be a fit with me (i.e. didnt call any writers who only focused on a field i wasnt in) I asked the following questions 1.) How long have you been doing it 2.) Is it your only job or do you do it on the side (go with people who do it as a career they must be doing something right) 3.) cost (flat rate, per page, per word) There are some other things to ask as well but these are the most important ones/. Now your questions

Cost- 100.00 flat rate, got two cover letters and two resumes (one general, one degree specific) 20 copies of each on the correct paper and free updates for life

Uniquness-It was. It baisicly had the same info as mine, but it was the way it is presented. The layout was nice, good buzzwords etc.

Effectivness- Much more effective. I got more emails/calls from potential employers then before with my old one( I pulled all of my resumes off the net since the monster.com situation)

Do it again- In a heartbeat.

Hope this helps a litte.

what are you referring to by stating the "Monster.com" thing? thx di

Career Hunter does free resume critiques too, from one of the 5 HR execs there. I think the email for it is freecritique@career-hunter.info, or you can just look on the website under resumes.

No, I think you could do it by yourself. Just mind the industry and adjust your resume fields to it.

thanks

I thought about having someone write mine but I found this link and decided to do it myself. I do believe it is better to write your own because only you know yourself best:

www.rockportinstitute.com/resumes.html

I had mine written and the results were rather dramatic. My writer was amazing and she was able to ask me questions that brought out more skills than I knew I had. I have since referred her to my husband, sister, and neighbor. Seriously she's that good and I say it's totally worth the money. If anyone wants her contact info google "jennifer anthony" or "resumeasap". I found her on LinkedIn and contacted her that way.

I have posted before that I strongly believe having your resume written (or simply reviewed) by a qualified professional is extremely valuable. I don't say this simply because I offer resume writing services but because my years in HR and recruiting have made it very clear that most people are not objective enough to present themselves in the most favorable way. I really believe that crafting a resume is a completely different skill than "being a great writer."

A good resume writer will not create a document that is their "conception" of you. Anyone worth the money will take an individualized approach; working with you to uncover talents, skills and competencies that you may not even be aware you posses. A professional resume writer will take the time to make certain the resume is an accurate depiction of you and also make certain that the final product is one to which you can speak.

K.C.
www.tandemresumes.com

I think it really depends on the individual's writing abilities and willingness to assess their strengths and liabilities.

A good resume writer should also be on top of what buzzwords make a resume look fresh vs. outdated, for example, "traffic and distribution" vs. "logistics" vs. "supply chain". They should also have a sense of how the job market works and how hiring managers think.

Most people can get a job without professional help, whether legal, taxes or resumes. Others prefer to spend a couple hundred bucks to get another set of eyes on the problem as well as a specialist's experience. If you don't feel comfortable doing it yourself, you should probably trust your instincts and at least review your options.

I paid $250 and no, it wasn't worth it. I'm in high-tech and the resume company consisted of 1 person who probably knows a lot about resumes but knows nothing about my industry. Make sure you get that info before shelling out any money.

I had my resume updated by a "professional resume" writer and am still having difficulty landing a job. I have now been out of work for over 90 days and obviously need income to get a professional resume writer. It seems the cost for my skillset is going to be roughly around 300 bucks, plus or minus a few bucks.

I am trying to remain positive but seriously...how do you make money if you don't have it to get to the income you need? Help!

I paid $650 which isn't all that much when you consider how much time I saved and how quick I got back to work after being laid off. Well worth it in my opinion. It was only 1% of what my total salary is for the whole year.

Hey you! Get in contact with me ASAP. Your old e-mail address is bouncing my e-mails. I frequently Google my name and found your post here and I want to send you something to thank you and show my appreciation for your amazing recommendation. I also want updates on what's new from you. :)

Jennifer

Marketing Executive in Portland, Oregon said: I had mine written and the results were rather dramatic. My writer was amazing and she was able to ask me questions that brought out more skills than I knew I had. I have since referred her to my husband, sister, and neighbor. Seriously she's that good and I say it's totally worth the money. If anyone wants her contact info google "jennifer anthony" or "resumeasap". I found her on LinkedIn and contacted her that way.

Thanks, Jennifer. I'm guessing this post was for me :-/ You didn't specify. Let me know??

Sherletta

If you decide to write your resume yourself, be sure to have someone else critique it. Sometimes your fingers can't keep up with your brain and you will overlook errors that will cost you a job. In addition to that, you might highlight qualities that someone else will see as unnecessary.

If you do have it professionally written do not pay more than you can afford. When I read someone paid $650 for a resume, my eyes almost popped out of their sockets. A professional will be able identify areas of weakness and strengths because they have experience. If your writing skills are not the best, this is not the time to chance it. Good luck & best wishes!

Our most important commodity, asset, belonging in life is our time.

We can't store it, save it, use it later, or get it back.

I will always hire a professional in any field to do a project for me -(whether landscaping, snow shoveling, home remodeling, pizza making, hair styling, or whatever!) so that all that time and energy I would have had to put into that same project (perhaps with a scary result that then leads me to a professional eventually anyway) I can use for what is important to me - spending quality time with those I love, working on my own business, creating new things, reading, rubbing my dog's belly, hugging my horse - whatever!

If you can read and write - you can put a resume together. Everyone knows that.

But that is not the point.

If I wanted to bake an amazing cake from scratch for an upcoming event, it might take me 20 trial and errors! Or, I could hire a person who spends his/her entire work day passionately and joyfully creating aesthetically-appealing and delicisious cakes! (And probably spends his/her evenings and weekends learning and exploring new cake-making tools, techniques, and skills.)

Granted, I might not get the kudos at the party that I may have gotten if I was able to boast that I baked the cake myself, but if the end result is that everyone loved the cake, ate the cake, and asked me to come back to all future parties - I made the right choice of the use of my time!

For a resume, especially today - in these times, you do NOT have the luxury or time to WASTE trying to put an amazing, jaw-dropping, goosebump-inflicting professional profile together yourself, do you? If the first one you "write" doesn't get a response, will you then redesign it and send it back to the SAME potential employer who originally ignored you? How long will you keep doing that (and passing up all those family gatherings) until you decide that hiring a professional to help you is the only choice?

vicque fassinger in Cleveland, Ohio said: ...For a resume, especially today - in these times, you do NOT have the luxury or time to WASTE trying to put an amazing, jaw-dropping, goosebump-inflicting professional profile together yourself, do you? If the first one you "write" doesn't get a response, will you then redesign it and send it back to the SAME potential employer who originally ignored you? How long will you keep doing that (and passing up all those family gatherings) until you decide that hiring a professional to help you is the only choice?[/QUOTE

Extremely well put Vicque!

* How much did you pay for it?
$300

* What was unique about it?
The suck factor was really high. The writer came recommended to me and was supposedly an industry pro who held several certifications.

* Was it more effective than your old resume?
No. Complete garbage. Full of grammatical errors. Writer had no basic understanding of my industry's terms, acronyms and what employers look for. Several recruiters said it was worthless and that I previously wrote myself was far more professional.

* Would you do it again?
Never.

Career Hunter in Denver, Colorado said: A few questions:

* How much did you pay for it?
$200

* What was unique about it?
Nothing really.

* Was it more effective than your old resume?
No. I got way more interviews and the like with the resume I wrote myself. I even got an employer with the authority to hire and he said that the so called professional resume someone else did for me was not very good.

* Would you do it again?

SunnyD in Toccoa, Georgia said: No, never again.

Proves the point one more time: if your resume is working, like in the case of SunnyD, why would you pay $200? The point of seeking professional help is to change something that does not work. Resume-sending is not a numbers game. You are NOT bound to win if you keep trying. If 9 months of sending resumes resulted in no interviews, the next 9 months are not bound to provide the lucky break.

To all the people who had bad luck with professional resume writers, my apologies. Your claims that resumes had errors (spelling, grammar, etc.) indicate that these were not professionals (whether certified or not). Most companies (or individuals) will guarantee their services. So, part of the burden is on the candidate - to demand satisfaction for services rendered.

Last, but not least, a professional resume writer can only operate with information you provide. So, if there is not much in your work experience to begin with, putting a pretty wrapper around it, however attractive, is still a pretty wrapper around thin air.

I am in support of casey45. If you bash professional services, do it with explanation, and provide full details.

As with everything else, there should be a system of checks and balances. Typically, a process of working with a Professional (with a capital "P") resume writer is iterative. It involves going back and forth, reviewing versions, incorporating comments from the candidate. As such, it is based on real input, rather than just being a product that one purchases "as is".

Also, on the employment front, even if the resume is full of hype and fluff, an interviewer (typically) cuts through that, to weed out people who are too full of themselves :)

So, living up to hype only works if hype is real (or if a hiring organization is not aware of reality, but then again, the candidate will swim just fine).

I'm a former recruiter who's edited hundreds of resumes as part of my job, and since I actually enjoy doing this I launched a resume editing service. But I also want to share knowledge and put to rest some common misconceptions so here's a link to a free resume editing guide I put up on squidoo: www.squidoo.com/resume-design

I have some very specific opinions about what the purpose of a resume is, and what it isn't.

Also happy to provide guidance (within reason), feel free to email me at peter@sustainablestaffing.com.

Pete Nowicki

986 in Seattle, Washington said: I did. I was using a resume I wrote in my resume class in college. My teacher gave it a good grade and I felt that i was good to go with it. I wasnt though. I looked in my phone book and found a good amount of writers. I called each one that would be a fit with me (i.e. didnt call any writers who only focused on a field i wasnt in) I asked the following questions 1.) How long have you been doing it 2.) Is it your only job or do you do it on the side (go with people who do it as a career they must be doing something right) 3.) cost (flat rate, per page, per word) There are some other things to ask as well but these are the most important ones/. Now your questions

Cost- 100.00 flat rate, got two cover letters and two resumes (one general, one degree specific) 20 copies of each on the correct paper and free updates for life

Uniquness-It was. It baisicly had the same info as mine, but it was the way it is presented. The layout was nice, good buzzwords etc.

Effectivness- Much more effective. I got more emails/calls from potential employers then before with my old one( I pulled all of my resumes off the net since the monster.com situation)

Do it again- In a heartbeat.

Hope this helps a litte.

who was that with , i am currently looking for the same thing but am finding it difficult to find..

thanks for info

:)