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

[LibertyForMe]

Your resume needs to be more specific. I won't do it all for you, but here are two examples:

1 BEFORE:
I oversee the helpdesk staff, provide tier 1 and 2 helpdesk and network support, and handle IT department purchasing for all four company facilities.

1 AFTER:
I oversee six helpdesk staff, provide tier 1 and 2 helpdesk and network support to over 50 clients, and handle IT department purchasing for all four company facilities, totalling over $50,000.


2 BEFORE:
Acted as the sole on-site IT staff for both the Pittsburg, KS and Tulsa, OK facilities, facilitating desktop and network support.

2 AFTER:
Acted as the sole on-site IT staff for two facilities, supporting over 200 people in their desktop and network support needs.

 

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[Late Start]

Great feedback - thanks!

 

[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]

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.

Not at all, man - this is exactly what I need, and I appreciate it greatly. Breaking out of a bubble (in this case, the rural southeast Kansas bubble) often requires a bit of a$$ kicking, and the advice you are giving me is incredibly valuable.

 

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[SWB]

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

 

[DjangoBot]

Check out this website, might be useful. It is still in beta and some functions don't work the way they should, but I think their CV format is good and your resume will stand out: http://www.enhancv.com/ . If you decide to use it, kick out the picture from the template, it can do you more harm than good.
Good luck!

 

[Late Start]

Django, thanks for the tip - I used it to do a total overhaul using the input you all have given me, in particular the advice on using metrics and accomplishments that @JAJT gave me. I've sent it to both he and SWB.

Next up is redoing my cover letter, unless the importance of those are overhyped, as I suspect mine needs the exact same total overhaul as my resume.

 

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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!

 

[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.

 

[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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[Bouncing Soul]

"Me me me, is dull dull dull." -Old sales axiom

Generic resumes don't get tossed in the trash because of which font or what bullet points you use.

Your resume is the least of your concerns. Spend one day on it. Then go do the real work. Then if you have a hot lead, customize your resume for that position and company.

 

[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.

 

[Bouncing Soul]

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.

Correct. The one I just used auto-populated from LinkedIn, it was awesome.

Having to then pee in a f#$%ing cup and then getting assigned a number wasn't so awesome, but hey, I agreed to the trip...

 

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[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!

 

[JAJT]

Your positions / companies need to be consistent. You swap between "company - position" to "position - company" half way through. Also you use all bold on the first two and half bold on the second. Go with half bold throughout and stick to one format of "position - company" (or the reverse).

I'm not going to go through it line by line, word by word but this is a million times better than what you started with and likely better than most resumes out there now. In my humble opinion. Read it through a few times, make any tweaks you think are worth tweaking, walk away from it for a day and come back and do it again to look at it with fresh eyes.

Well done. Very good job.

 

[Late Start]

Your positions / companies need to be consistent. You swap between "company - position" to "position - company" half way through. Also you use all bold on the first two and half bold on the second. Go with half bold throughout and stick to one format of "position - company" (or the reverse).

D'oh - that's where the fresh eyes approach comes in handy.

 

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[oimate]

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?

Personally I would not pay a service like TopResume-By doing so you are effectively letting some stranger who probably wont even speak to you decide on your CV and what bits to cut/put in and you may blindly continue to send that CV out in the mistaken belief that 'a top resume company' wrote it for you.

Having worked within the recruitment world as a dreaded consultant the best and dare I say only piece of advice, and often the biggest mistake people make with their CV/Resume is to sent the same generic CV to every job they apply for and expect a reply.

If you really want a specific job take that extra 30 mins tayloring it that specific job. Companies/recruiters see the same CV's day in day out-If a applicant has actually taken the time to actually look at the job description and highlight their skills and experience in this job..plus more.. then hell yes they'll look at you and want to speak to you-otherwise probably not and if your're lucky you'll be selected to make up numbers.

On the flipside I can re-edit it for a princely sum

 

[FiftySeven]

LS,

Thanks for bringing this up. Based on the input you attracted to this thread, I was able to update my resume by simplifying it - less is more- and also reformatted it to enhance readability & scan-ability.

 

[BlakeIC]

Make a job posting on a website that people could not refuse

Now you will have a ton of people submitting job apps

And now you will have a database of templates to choose from

 

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[DjangoBot]

Hey LS,

In my humble opinion it looks much better now . I would suggest to consider adding a "Thank you" letter to your "arsenal". You send it only after you have passed the gatekeepers (recruiters/HRs) and had the interview with the respective manager (the decision maker). Nothing complex, just a several sentences expressing your gratitude for their time and valuable input during the interview, in PDF format. People tend to remember such candidates, because so few candidates are actually doing it, at least from my experience....

 

[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.)

 

[Guest24480]

Does the advice provided in this thread apply to internships or securing a first job out of college as well?

If I don't have any relevant experience in the field I'm trying to get an internship in then what do I do?

I worked construction for many years, a little bit of retail, and in an athletic setting for reference, but I'm trying to land an internship in real estate, finance or the entertainment business. Or possibly at a startup.

 

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[M'egga Wolf]

Does the advice provided in this thread apply to internships or securing a first job out of college as well?

If I don't have any relevant experience in the field I'm trying to get an internship in then what do I do?

I worked construction for many years, a little bit of retail, and in an athletic setting for reference, but I'm trying to land an internship in real estate, finance or the entertainment business. Or possibly at a startup.

I'm in a similar situation, graduated this past June. I've had my education at the very top since I created my resume, back in community college. Thing is I only used it in a academic/ research setting. Where that side focused on GPA and academic achievements. Gained 4 internships off that (all academic).

Fast forward, I haven't been receiving a lot of love in the industry. I think my process all together needs to be revamped, but I do think resume plays its role.

I will push education experience to the bottom ( it hurts because I have 3.8 GPA & numerous awards). If I can make the person read all the way to the bottom and see my education experience, IT WILL BE THE PERFECT CLOSER !

Now, for your case, you might need the educational experience at the top until you can build the experience that translates to your career choice. It all depends on how good your spin game is with your past experience.

 

[Guest24480]

I'm in a similar situation, graduated this past June. I've had my education at the very top since I created my resume, back in community college. Thing is I only used it in a academic/ research setting. Where that side focused on GPA and academic achievements. Gained 4 internships off that (all academic).

Fast forward, I haven't been receiving a lot of love in the industry. I think my process all together needs to be revamped, but I do think resume plays its role.

I will push education experience to the bottom ( it hurts because I have 3.8 GPA & numerous awards). If I can make the person read all the way to the bottom and see my education experience, IT WILL BE THE PERFECT CLOSER !

Now, for your case, you might need the educational experience at the top until you can build the experience that translates to your career choice. It all depends on how good your spin game is with your past experience.

Hey, thanks for the response I completely forgot I had posted this. I've kind of changed course since then and have been doing some IT side projects both freelance and in school. I've listed some of those on my resume along with work experience in the hopes of standing out to employers since I don't have much tangible experience in an office setting. Hopefully that will get my foot in the door.

 

[M'egga Wolf]

any update @Late Start ?

 

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[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".

 

[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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[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.

 

[shelton]

I would say it's not just because there are plenty of examples/template/inspiration available online for free. Like someone suggested have another pair of eyes look at it. I've redone my resume many times over the past five years with all the travelling back and forth until I settled in Chicago.

Formatting: ONE font. 12/14pt.Two at most and that's pushing it. Name fairly big, in bold. I used to pick a single color and use it there and for categories titles. Subtitle-like line should be phone and email so its easy to find where to reach you. Underline categories and make them a couple points bigger for good organizational and ease of reading (that's a big point there). Double space your lines and a little extra between categories (again, ease of read). Using cursive/italic for time frames is a good detail.

Highlight your experience at the top, don't start with the "professional objective" thing. The HR person reads hundred CVs a day. You need to be brief and concise. Same with work/tasks descriptions. One sentence at most with the most impact.

After work experience follow with "Skills and Expertise" and name your best. Kinda like the LinkedIn endorsements. Responsible, dependable. Meet deadlines. Don't need somebody to hold my hand (important for telecommuting). HTML. CSS. Archiving. Bilingual. Etcetera.

Then after that, your education/courses. 2000-2004. Place. Major.

Short and to the point. Easy to read. High impact with few words.


If you need an opinion I'll take a look, just inbox it to me.

I need an opinion please help me. I'm trying to apply to stores in New York because I can't go to college and I don't know what kind of person they want.