Is it worth it to pay for someone to redo my resume?

[JAJT]

Most people can't write a resume. I mean like 90+% if I had to pull a number out of my a$$.

I've received jobs I had no logical right to have on account of my resume kicking a$$ and me being able to kill it in an interview.

Let me give you some tips that will put you ahead of 90% of other people (in my opinion - this isn't the "only" way, just a damn good way):

- Remove your street address, keep the city. If two people are equally qualified they are likely to choose the closer one. If your address is ambiguous and you're a final candidate they'll try to remember you, not your location.
- Put a summary at the top, 2-3 sentences, that explains how the awesome shit you've done in the past applies to the new company. Not that you need a job, or want to gain experience, or you think you're a valuable cog. I mean real achievements, bold statements, and proof of why to hire you. What you've done in the past and/or what you want to do for this company. The words "hard working" and "go getter" and similar nonsense fluff should not appear here.
- Kill all job descriptions from your resume. I mean it. Everyone knows that a F*cking barista serves coffee. You don't need to list points like "served coffee" "interacted with customers" "made drinks" "cleaned up" "opened store" "closed store". That's bullshit. Every point on your resume should be an achievement and preferably quantified to the best of your ability. Shit like "served 150 people per hour, 40% more than the next best barista" and "implemented a change in service that decreased spilled beverages by 12%" and "employee of the month 7 times in the last year". Those are "wow, this guy knows his shit" bullet points. Compare that to Mr. I-Served-Coffee's resume.
- Put your most important and impressive achievement first for each previous company on your resume.
- One page. Unless you are a world record holder in kicking a$$, your resume is 1 page. One.
- Every word needs to fight for the right to be on that page. This relates to the above point. Simple. Word. Choices. No redundancies or fancy lingo or "business speak". Don't fluff shit up or blow smoke up asses. The words on the page should be connecting the numbers together or explaining an achievement in the fewest logical words. Little else.
- Put your linkedin url if your linkedin is very good and follows most of what I said above. Add an email and a phone number.
- Education goes at the bottom and limit it to your degree, school and year graduated. Nobody cares what you did in school. Nobody. No, really.

If you can follow the above you're ahead of most people. The rest is simple - keep the resume clean, consistence, use one tense throughout, etc...

Also, if you put hobbies and interests on your resume I don't think we can be friends anymore.

 

[theag]

Depends. Do you think some random guy from a service like that can sell you better than you could sell yourself?

If the answer is yes, you have bigger problems than your resume.

 

[Vigilante]

Make it a goal to never need a resume again.

I was in discussions this past week with an Executive VP of a company I am hoping to do some consulting work for.

She asked for my resume. I laughed. Haven't had one (or needed one) for a dozen years. I'll never have one again.

So, you might need one now, but make it a goal to get yourself in position to never need one.

A resume means you have to sell yourself (figuratively and literally) to someone else. There's a derogatory term for that, but it's not appropriate for someone working towards breaking out of the game.

 

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[SWB]

I have been in the recruitment game for over 20 yrs. I feel sorry for people who have paid good money to have their resume professionally written. It's crap, don't do it. You're feeding their dream, not helping get yours. Make sure your CV has the pertinent information easy to find. That's it. Remember, if your CV is going to a recruiter they have 100+ to get through for each role. Make it easy for them to put you in the yes or maybe pile. If you don't, you're in the no pile. It's that simple.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Obviously I have nothing to contribute here other than your resume must show value to your potential employer. It's copywriting -- but instead of a product, it's for yourself.

Anyhow, I learned something from this thread...

I expected it wouldn't be a good topic. I expected it wouldn't be helpful.

But I was wrong.

Some really great stuff here. Marked notable.

 

[Andy Black]

I was pretty good at getting IT contracts back in the day. I lived and died by my CV, and interview skillz.

I'll do a new thread about it.



EDIT: WOW... I presented my strategy and tactics to my team years ago, and one of them literally just LinkedIn PM'd me linking to an article he wrote about it here:

• http://legalcareers.lawyer/cv_and_recruitment.htm

I'll do a video of it and drop it into my thread over here.

 

[Andy Black]

I was pretty good at getting IT contracts back in the day. I lived and died by my CV, and interview skillz.

I'll do a video of it ...

Here you go:

(Also posted in my video progress thread here.)

 

[Vigilante]

Also hit LinkedIn pretty hard. Great research and networking.

 

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[Vigilante]

So my first step on getting out of the slow lane is to get a job that doesn't require two hours of my time each day in a car. The downside to this is that I live in Southeast Kansas, where IT jobs aren't super plentiful. My goal is to score a telecommuting job, and I've been a member of FlexJobs.com for a couple of months now. Around here, I can get my foot in the door pretty easily (last summer I turned down two jobs before accepting my current one), but I'm having trouble getting so much as a phone interview competing on the national level.

Is it worth paying a service like TopResume to rewrite it for me, or finding a freelancer online? If so, does anybody have any good recommendations?

First step? New profile pic.

 

[JAJT]

Making the jump married with three young kids is a little intimidating,

I quit my job at the age of 30 with a newborn and a 2 year old. It can be done. Just be smart about it.

Good luck!

 

[JAJT]

I just looked at your sample resume.

I'm going to be an a**hole now. I'm sorry. Hopefully it means you'll land a better job as a result.

Stripping away all of the technical jargon, what I really do is make people feel like they have an advocate on the other end of the phone who is on their side and truly wants to help them. I have over ten years of helpdesk experience in the manufacturing and healthcare fields, both in solo roles and as part of a team, as well as exceptional skills in both relationship and team building.

If you were hiring, would these sentences wow you? What do they really say?

"Stripping away the technical jargon" - useless fluff.
"What I really do is make people feel like they have an advocate on the other end of the phone who is on their side and truly wants to help them" - Starts off weak, mentions advocate, then gives two examples of what an advocate is. This is a useless sentence with redundant language. It's not proof to make an employer impressed, it's just more fluff.
"I have over ten years of helpdesk experience in the manufacturing and healthcare fields, both in solo roles and as part of a team, as well as exceptional skills in both relationship and team building." - You could have started this entire part of the resume with this sentence. The problem is that there's a ton of useless shit in this sentence too, such as "both in solo (...) team" and then use a fluff word (exceptional) without proof and give no reason to believe you when you say you are good. If you are exceptional, tell me how exceptional with a number. If you have great team building qualities - what have you done?

Then we hit your education. Which nobody cares about. Nobody. Education isn't experience. Or proof of skill. Or competency on the subject matter. Put it at the bottom.

Then a skills section? Really? We still don't know how good you are and we're half way through already.

Experience! Oh there it is! At the bottom! This doesn't bode well. Let's take a peak.

Title:

- Your position is before your company, that's a little weird.
- Position and company all bold? Hard to read and they look like they are a single point, not two.
- Where? Who cares.
- Your date format sucks and is hard to understand at a glance. Seconds matter here - don't make people interpret anything. "5/13 - 8/14" looks like a math problem, not a date.
- Holy shit. Not a single quantified metric in your entire work history. Are you F*cking kidding me?
- Not one achievement either? Okay...
- "This was a part time position while I was back in school". Why did this earn a spot in your resume? Is it to say "this position really didn't matter much, please ignore, I was just a student"? I don't get it.

Dude, your resume SCREAMS "don't hire me". I'm sorry, it does. Even the formatting sucks.

I've attached the format I use for mine so you can build off it or gets ideas if you like. I've sanitized and bastardized it for public viewing. If you don't know exact numbers or metrics - make them up to the best of your ability. If you say you did something that caused a positive result of 15%, but you don't know if it was really 15%, but that's a really good educated guess - use it. You aren't lying, you are being as honest as possible to indicate your ability. Do not lie. If you did not improve anything don't say you did. Making guesses on a resume is fine as long as you can competently talk to them and explain them. Flat out lying is not okay. On my resume I might say I decreased customer complaints by 70%. This was not a tracked metric, but I noticed when I did a thing it caused almost all the bad calls from happening, and I estimate it around 70%, so I say so. If someone asks how I came up with that number I can tell the story of what I did and what result it caused and if they talk to a former cooworker or manager they'll say "Well, I don't know if 70% is right because we never really tracked it but he did do that thing and things did improve so yeah, I guess that makes sense".

 

[Late Start]

Alright, I've combined all the input here, as well as the @JAJT template (scrapped the Enhancv template after @SWB 's counsel on avoiding icons and gimmicks, though I'll likely use it for local gigs where I know the competition will be sparse and it won't be put through an ATS).

@MJ DeMarco , I didn't know what to expect when I started this thread, but it's been a goldmine for me in terms of helping me flip my mindset from employee/cubicle drone to salesman, which is going to be critical for me on my fastlane journey (particularly since part of my fastlane plan involves selling physical products). Also, thanks for starting me down this rabbit hole in the first place!

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, thank you all for the input and advice. I love this forum!

 

[iAmTrade]

How about having your sister or female friend or someone "smart" review and edit it for you. Just takes a new pair of eyes to see what you've been missing.

Review it yourself and just reword things to sound much more intelligent.

You should be applying to jobs left and right- dont entirely qualify? Hit apply. Sometimes the company will see it and forward you to something you do qualify for.

A resume is words on a paper-make yourself sound like a lottery. Put it in terms of what you can offer them- not what you know or do...but what value* you can give them.

Good luck...or find a staffing agency


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[LibertyForMe]

Another thing that I would recommend doing, is to take charge of the relationship. If you find a job that sounds great don't just apply to it.

Here are my golden tips that I've learned through trial and error:

1. Try to find out the company that is hiring. If the company name is listed, your job is easy. If not, google some of the phrases in the descriptiona nd try to figure out the company.
2. Research the company, and learn about it. What do they do, what direction are they headed? How does the role they are filling fit in with the overall company?
3. Come up with a list of 2 thoughtful questions that relate to the job. These should be good questions, and NOT something that is already answered in the job description. Make these questions related to your skill set. These should be questions that you already know the answer to, and that answer should make you look GREAT. More on this later.
4. Call the company and ask to talk to the hiring manager. If you get the gatekeeper, they will assume that you are just an aggravating job seeker. If they ask why you need to talk to the hiring person, you should say "I'm calling about the XYZ position. It seems like a great position, and it really appears to fit well with my skill set, but I have a couple questions about the position that I wanted to ask before I applied and wasted their time if I'm not a good fit."
5. You will get transferred to the hiring person. Say "Hey, my name is XYZ. I was checking out the posting online for the XYZ position, and I had a couple quick questions. I think the job sounds great, and that my skill set would be perfect for the job, but I wanted to make sure before I sent in an application and wasted your time."
6. Ask your 2 questions. As mentioned earlier, these should be answers that you kind of already know the answer to. For example: "I see that the job position mentions that you are looking for someone who is familiar with a couple different platforms/programming languages/softwares. Are these the only things that are required, or do you think that there will be additional software/platform changes in the future?" This is a good question because of course there will be changes at some point. The recruiter person will say that they primarily need the listed software, but things could change in the future. They you talk about how, conveniently, you happen to be really good at all the software that they listed, but that you are also really good at learning new systems. Might go like this: "Ok great. Yea, I am really well versed in those requirements, but at my last job I helped us migrate to a new system that I hadn't worked with before. I had to learn that system from scratch, and even train other people on how to use it, so I think that I would be a great fit for right now, and also if you need to adapt in the future." The point of this exercise is to make you look really good to the recruiter, and also add a new requirement in their mind to the job (that they didn't originally list), and conveniently be excellent at that new requirement.
7. After your questions, you should say: "Ok, awesome. It sounds like this position would be a perfect match for my skills. Thanks for answering the questions that I had. What's your email, and I'll shoot you over a copy of my resume right now so you've got it?"
8. Get their email, then send them your resume. Say something in the email like, "Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions, it really meant a lot. Please see my attached resume and let me know if you have any questions. Thanks."
9. By doing this, you've skipped ahead of the entire line of other applicants, and already made a personal connection with the hiring person.

For those with testicular fortitude, make a modification to step 7. Instead of (or in addition to) asking for their email, SET UP YOUR OWN INTERVIEW. Say something like, "Ok, awesome. It sounds like this position would be a perfect match for my skills. Thanks for answering the questions that I had. I'd love to talk some more about this position and how I can help you guys. I've got a few interviews already for Wednesday, but do you have 30 minutes on Thursday, I think I can make some time in my schedule."

This make you become an item in demand. You already have interviews set up (and hopefully you don't need to lie, because you should). You have to find some time in your schedule to fit them in.

This works quite well, and I used this technique to get 3 job offers at the same time for my current slowlane position.

Let me know if you have questions.

 

[Late Start]

So my first step on getting out of the slow lane is to get a job that doesn't require two hours of my time each day in a car. The downside to this is that I live in Southeast Kansas, where IT jobs aren't super plentiful. My goal is to score a telecommuting job, and I've been a member of FlexJobs.com for a couple of months now. Around here, I can get my foot in the door pretty easily (last summer I turned down two jobs before accepting my current one), but I'm having trouble getting so much as a phone interview competing on the national level.

Is it worth paying a service like TopResume to rewrite it for me, or finding a freelancer online? If so, does anybody have any good recommendations?

 

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[Late Start]

I absolutely intend for my next job to be my last, and if I'm still at said job in two years, I've failed (hoping to be done within one year). I envy you guys who smartened up to the Fastlane in your twenties. Making the jump married with three young kids is a little intimidating, but I know I can do it, plus it provides me with a niche to work in and grow, so in a way, it's actually sort of beneficial.

Thanks for all your feedback, guys - it's been incredibly helpful in making me realize what's holding up my progress on this front. As usual, overthinking something has lead to a self-created roadblock.

 

[Ninjakid]

Care to peruse the samples I just posted?

maybe later, I'm just about to head out into the wilderness and find a mystical bacon-wrapped watermelon

 

[SteveO]

I still maintain two resume's. One for investment partners and one for banks. I update these whenever they are needed.

I have also hired more than 50 people. Many of those for my own companies. I have reviewed hundreds of resumes. Nobody has ever sent in a resume that caught my attention quickly. That is not what I have EVER looked for either. All I wanted was one page that showed me that you have the basic qualifications for the job. That will get a phone call or an interview.

The only part of your resume that I did not like was the opening line about the technical jargon. Rephrase or remove that. Be prepared to talk about that in the interview rather than on the resume.

Of course, every hiring manager is different and some may be captured by the line.

To be honest, I don't even spend a lot of time in interviews anymore. I ask about things like commitment to task, ability to work with people, basic problem solving skills and test on the technical skills. I then hire and monitor closely. If it is not a fit, the change comes rapidly.

 

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[Late Start]

We've got avatars of Putin, Leo as Jordan Belfort, etc, but Mantaur is too far? Okay, I'll yield to peer pressure. How about Barry Champlain?

 

[Contrarian]

Every point on your resume should be an achievement and preferably quantified to the best of your ability. Shit like "served 150 people per hour, 40% more than the next best barista" and "implemented a change in service that decreased spilled beverages by 12%" and "employee of the month 7 times in the last year". Those are "wow, this guy knows his shit" bullet points. Compare that to Mr. I-Served-Coffee's resume.
- Put your most important and impressive achievement first for each previous company on your resume.

So much this. Everything else that's been said here about putting your resume together is important, but it's defensive - i.e. it's part of the price of admission of having an acceptable resume. This ^^ is going on the offensive. This is why you get hired in the first place, for your achievements rather than your experience. And so few people do this. Then when you get in the door you have an immediate lead in to starting a discussion about how you can decrease their spilled beverages by 12%, too, and how valuable that would be to them.

But, like Vigilante said, best not to need one in the first place. You probably can't do that right now, but you can and should call and speak to the person who would be your manager first and if needed, send it to them directly (if you're persuasive and the company isn't too bureaucratic they might just invite you in for a meeting). Then you bypass the ATS and all the BS that goes with it.

You might still need to submit it through the "official channels", but at least make sure the person hiring is there to beat the official channels with a stick on your behalf first.

 

[LateStarter]

Make it a goal to never need a resume again.

<- THIS.

And...no. Why invest in someone else to create something that is within your grasp? If you want to revamp your resume then read, learn and do yourself. You'll learn fundamental skills that you're going to need if you want to start a business, so might as well start now. Think of it as a copywriting exercise. The best part is, with each resume submission, you get a new chance to try something.

I also object to your username.

 

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[DjangoBot]

Thanks, mate, you are welcome In regards to the cover letter- some say it is dead...IMO this is true and false in the same time. It depends on the position. For example, if I am looking for web developers I see that my clients don't care about the cover letter at all. Even if they require it, no one is looking at the cover letters or cares if they look copy-pasted or generic. Why? Because what they really need in the first place is someone to code. On the other hand, if you are applying for copywriter or a recruiter, cover letter matters. For example, I’m always requesting and reading the cover letters from recruiters. Why? Because after each interview they will need to sit and write a profile of the candidate which goes to the client, hence I need people that can express well in written form.

Anyways, having a cover letter usually won't hurt your application, unless you are sloppy and don't invest the time to tweak it for each position. You won’t believe how many cover letters I read, where people forget to remove the name of the previous company that they have used it for. So they apply for a company X, but in their cover letter it says "I am very excited to explore the opportunity to work for your company Y"

• Make it to sound human and specific to the job as much as possible. If you have the chance to find out the name of the person who will be reading it use their name. Dear John, always sounds better than Dear Hiring Manager.
• Don't make it a summary of your resume. The cover letter should add to your personality and CV - for example info that doesn't belong to your resume - personal traits, work habits, professional goals, why are you interested in this particular job, what value you can bring to the table
• If you know you are overqualified for the position, but you don't mind - explain why you won't mind
• Use balanced conversational and engaging tone - pretty much like a copywrite not something dull and formal
• Tweak it each time according to the position - believe it or not, recruiters or hiring managers can easily recognize a generic letter that you send with all of you applications and a letter written specifically for the job
• Last but not least you might want to check out this thread from SinisterLex, It looks like it is devoted to copywriting, but as he says actually it isn’t. Take a look at how he was applying for gigs with “You” centered approach not “I”. You can incorporate this approach in your cover letter as well. Make it more about them, not about you. Applying for gigs on Upwork is not very different than applying for a job you found on a job board.

https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/co...ith-no-degree-no-feedback-no-portfolio.58837/

Good luck!

 

[SWB]

Three tips.
1. Think of a résumé as a brochure. A brochure is used to get you into the store it's not the product. Anyone's resume is designed to get them into the yes pile so you can get in front of the person.
2. Always tailor a resume for the role. Have a standard copy and tweak it for the role you're applying to
3. Don't try and be clever. Any recruitment heavy organisations will have a ATS (applicant tracking system). The good ones have a parsing engine at the front end. The parsing engine scans your CV, creates a record in the system and populates the main fields. If you use pictures or icons then the parsing engine MAY have issues and ignore your CV.

 

[G-Man]

- Kill all job descriptions from your resume. I mean it. Everyone knows that a F*cking barista serves coffee. You don't need to list points like "served coffee" "interacted with customers" "made drinks" "cleaned up" "opened store" "closed store". That's bullshit. Every point on your resume should be an achievement and preferably quantified to the best of your ability. Shit like "served 150 people per hour, 40% more than the next best barista" and "implemented a change in service that decreased spilled beverages by 12%" and "employee of the month 7 times in the last year". Those are "wow, this guy knows his shit" bullet points. Compare that to Mr. I-Served-Coffee's resume.

I see the poorly done version of this strategy all the time. My assistant was an inventory clerk in the military and her resume said something like "managed over 1 million units of inventory", which I guess means she figured they had over a million total nuts, bolts, washers and spark plugs in the motor pool cage?

I gave her an interview because I have a soft spot for people trying to transition out of the military with skills that don't translate well, and she killed it in the interview, but every other time I saw stuff like that, it went straight to the trash can. If you're gonna use that strategy, you have to do it very well, and not BS it at all.

 

[JAJT]

If you're gonna use that strategy, you have to do it very well, and not BS it at all.

If by bullshit you mean lies. I 100% agree. However I do have a soft spot for "marketing facts" (200% instead of 2x, for example, or using odd numbers to seem more realistic, etc...)

You may have spotted the marketing speak quickly and easily but another hiring firm could have easily said "how in the hell did she manage a million pieces of inventory?!?!". There's just as many dumb work seekers are there are dumb work providers

And ultimately, I'd still prefer to see unimpressive or "marketing" spins on a resume than job duties. Job duties are always 100% unimpressive. Someone may spot the bullshit when someone says they managed a million pieces of inventory but it's a hell of a lot nicer than saying "Kept track of a warehouse full of nuts and bolts".

 

[MidwestLandlord]

And ultimately, I'd still prefer to see unimpressive or "marketing" spins on a resume than job duties. Job duties are always 100% unimpressive. Someone may spot the bullshit when someone says they managed a million pieces of inventory but it's a hell of a lot nicer than saying "Kept track of a warehouse full of nuts and bolts".

Action verbs and quantifiable measures of performance.

It works.

It's what I look for when hiring for sure.

 

[Late Start]

I can sell myself exceptionally well on a local level, but if you believe what is out there, larger, national employers put your resume and the hundreds of others through Applicant Tracking Systems that mine it for various metrics and keywords they are looking for, and you have to know how to get your resume through the gatekeeper before it is even read. Marketing BS? I have no idea - I've never gone job hunting on a national level before. I've never worked for a company with more than 500 employees, for that matter.

I'm just trying to glean some wisdom from the forum on how best to position myself.

 

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[SWB]

DM me your email address and I will send you a format to use.

 

[G-Man]

it's a hell of a lot nicer than saying "Kept track of a warehouse full of nuts and bolts".

You're not wrong there!

 

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[Late Start]

Dude, you're awesome. Thanks!