Professional Resume Writers, worth it?

Are "professional resume writing" services worth it?

A few weeks ago, I was laid off from my last job after nearly 14 years. Started from low level pushover to go-to guy for practically everything.
Unfortunately, the financial distress the company was in for the past 2 years finally claimed me as their latest victim. A dwindling industry + bad management decisions had my layoff written on the wall for a long time.

Ive already had my resume written for several months to be ready.

So far in these past 2 weeks, Ive submitted about 20 applications for open positions, but only had 2 interviews. Both came from Indeed.
I was hoping for more interviews. So Im starting to wonder if my resume is actually working against me rather than with me.
I forget how hard getting a good job can be.

On the plus side, a former boss of mine who left to start his own company a few years ago called me and gave me a temp position.
The pay is not close to what I was making, but definitely better than collecting an unemployment check.

A polished resume is important. I don’t know what cost would be
but if it is too much ch you could get helpful hints online. I was “fortunate”
that the company that laid me off provided job search training which
included resume writing. Some points:
Try to keep it to 1 page.
Use numbers to show achievements and growth.
Make it a living document, tailored to match the position applied for.
Use key words found in job description so companies search programs
will find your resume.
Include your email address, telephone# and city you live in.
Make a Linkedin profile and include the link in your resume.

And if you haven’t already, sign up for your unemployment benefits.
You’ve been paying in for years so there’s no shame.

What industry do you work in and how do you feel your writing skills are? Resume writers can be really useful to people who don't write much and work in a general "business" kinda industry. If you are in a specialty field or are used to writing a lot, they seem to be a lot less beneficial. You might be better off just having someone in the industry review it for you.

One page resumes are a thing of the past, just a FYI.

Not.

Disagree but that’s fine. The training I was given recently
from professionals paid off big time.

I think it depends a lot on context. If you are a consultant who has worked on a ton of diverse projects over the last couple of decades, you need to show it off. However, if you have worked at the same general position for the last 15 years, you don't need to spend three pages explaining your job - pick the important stuff and highlight it.

When I do a first review of resumes, each one gets about 30 seconds to grab my attention. Often, but not always, it is more beneficial to have a shorter resume that focuses attention where you want it.

One page resume in the IT and engineering field is solely for entry level. With that said over 4 pages is also to much.

Your resume is your interview before your interview

I spent 25 years as a headhunter and learned that there some important considerations.
1. It needs to be a marketing document; not a chronoligical history of your different jobs. To shorten the rejection odds, look at the target company’s needs and change your resume to meet their needs. Yep, it’s a lot of work but your current job is to find a job.
2. The first “look” at your resume will be an automated resume “picking and scoring” program. It’s like most programs , very sophisticated and dumb as a box of rocks. If they are looking for the word canine and you say dog, it doesn’t know the difference. And, the more times you say canine, the higher your score goes.

Only then does a human see your resume. He/she will be a Personnel type. They may or may not understand your job. Their job will be to send the highest scoring resumes to the decision maker.

Send it to me and I’ll call you. Ddavidson1942@att.net

Having been in education as a teacher, I have helped my students to write resumes and continue to work on polishing my resume. if you want to send it for me to take a look at I would be glad to look at it before you decide to pay someone. if so, message me and I will give you my email.

But i will say that out here in the oilfield, too much can be overlooked just as much as too little. You have to have a fine line.

What Dave is telling you is companies and recruiters use Boolean word searches to auto rank candidates. More hits, higher the rank.

Example: if you are an Autocad analyst/engineer. Autocad is very relevant and the more times your resume states auto cad the higher the ranking. In addition a sub set of the job may be more 3D experience then 2D so, all the different Autocad versions and Products like 3D are very relevant and will help rank your resume higher.

Read the job application and make sure your resume reflects what they are looking for. If it emphasizes time management then your resume needs to emphasize time management. That goes for all the attributes they are looking for.

Some companies use software to sort applications so if it doesn’t contain certain words it is never seen by a real person.

I bet Colt.45 could write you up a sure fire humdinger attention grabbing CV.


I was in your shoes a couple of years ago. Was considering hanging up my own shingle or joining an existing firm. I chose the latter and the resume base template from Microsoft Word got my foot in the door.

Length depends on the industry I think. I looked through Chief applicant resumes for the pd a few years back. They were all much longer and in depth that one page.

You 100% need to have a great, not just good, resume. My wife hires a lot and she will sort out candidates first solely based on their resume, and sort them fairly quickly. After that, she will get into the details of the resume based on how well the applicants resume fits their needs. She can sort from 100 resumes down to 20-30 really fast. IMO, you have to have a resume put together well enough to get past the first sort or two. She has shown me some resumes and they were awful. So, yes, a great resume is 100% worth it if you have to pay to get there. Have several people look at it that have seen resumes and look at them.

Feel free to bash it, but be constructive
for privacy concerns, Ive removed names

its just a copy & paste:


Career Summary
My career is built on over 14 years of service dedication and initiative in the fields of global logistics, supply chain, hazmat compliance, asset support, and export compliance.

Professional Highlights

Global Logistics & Supply Chain Coordination
 Generated export & import shipping documentation for international & domestic shipments. Managed all shipping record keeping.
 Obtain multiple quotes with freight forwarders while simultaneously weighing multiple shipping options.
 Coordinate internal & external supply chain for upcoming projects to ensure efficient & timely delivery.

Hazardous Materials / Dangerous Goods Compliance
 Generated Dangerous Goods Declarations for dangerous goods being transported via land, air, and sea. Managed all hazmat record keeping.
 Research IATA, IMDG, and DOT regulations for all company equipment & supplies.
 Established company-wide procedures & policies and maintain them with latest updates.

Export/Trade Compliance
 Run screenings of customers against the BIS’ Consolidated Screening List to ensure compliance. Advise sales departments of any issues or concerns.
 Research BIS regulations on items that are export-controlled or restricted.
 Establish & implement company-wide procedures & policies to ensure all personnel conduct ethical business practices that are compliant with regulations.

Global Asset Support
 Supported accounting & sales departments with weekly reports of all fixed assets spread out on a global scale.
 Established & maintained a MS-Excel database for all fixed assets that totaled over $70 million dollars in value.
 Assisted auditors for fixed asset & inventory audits that were done per quarter.

Skills
 MS-Excel
 Fluent in Spanish
 Hazardous Materials
 Forklift Operation
 Warehouse Supervision
 MS-Office
 Project Management
 U.S. Export Controls Trained
 Shipping/Receiving Supervision
 Project Planning

Employment History
Global Logistics Coordinator Houston, Texas 10/3/05 to 5/17/19
Shipping/Receiving Houston, Texas 1/10/04 to 1/20/05

Education
A.A.S. in Electronics Engineering Houston, Texas 6/1/2001

I see "a lot" of resumes each year and NO, I don't recommend paying a service for one. I've helped several people including a couple on this site and would be willing to look at yours and make suggestions. Just let me know.

When I have taught this stuff to groups I always tell them to sell what someone wants to buy. Don’t ever hope someone will buy what you want to sell.

Professional sales types spend time studying a potential target. Then they design their sales pitch to show how their product will benefit the potential client.

A resume that isn’t designed for effectiveness becomes junk mail.

Great advice...I have a multi page complete work history including dates of employment, responsibilities/accomplishments, etc

I then can pull from that to customize a resume and/or application specific to the company/job...

Another consideration. Ina sea of words, numbers stand out. The size, budget, # or amount of resources, etc. what difference did your involvement make?

What did you accomplish? Without these, you were standing around when things happened.