Is it worth it to pay for your resume to be re-done multiple times?
18 months ago when I got serious about finding a new job I hired someone that came recommended by a neighbor. I paid about $500 for the resume, cover letter and reference sheet. Since then I have had 5 interviews. I have applied to well over 100 jobs, I am a director level currently. I had my resume reviewed by someone at my college career office (we have lifetime career support) and they said it was fine.
I am also not getting any recruiters reaching out on LinkedIN. My resume is not posted but my availability is turned on to recruiters.
I need to get a job sooner rather than later, my company has already gone through one round of layoffs and another is definitely coming.
I am considering hiring a career coach because I am stuck, I am clearly not getting calls, there are a limited number of jobs in my field even in the major metropolitan area I live in but I feel like something is missing. How do you determine who is a good coach or the right fit? The price range seems to be all over the place with some charging as little as $75/hr ala carte and others charging $6-10K for their package.
I have been in operations/administration within the real estate and construction world for my entire career, real estate, construction and workplace strategy planning.
3 Comments
3 Comments
Anonymous
01/29/21 at 8:58PM UTC
Great questions that I have as well. I will be following this post & responses closely. Thank you for posting.
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Barb Hansen
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01/29/21 at 9:56PM UTC
I have only had my resume professionally done once in my business career. I had very specific needs for my resume rewrite:
- I wasn't going to pay someone to update the layout
- I wasn't going to pay someone to edit the summary and add adjectives to the rest of the resume
- I wasn't going to pay someone to update my LinkedIn profile
- I needed my resume to reflect my seniority and my knowledge but not highlight my age
- I needed my resume to look like "some older white guy's" resume
I interviewed three different resume companies before I selected one. Found a great person who (about three years) ago charged me $600.00 for one interview session, a draft resume, another video session to edit the resume together and she also did some copy editing on a pitch deck that I was working on.
That resume got me interviews which is a resume's main (and perhaps only) job. I tweaked the resume a bit depending on the job that I was applying for but basically that resume stood up well.
I'm happy to share the name of the person who did my resume (she specializes in more senior career peeps) Her company has grown a lot over the last few years which is understandable considering how good she was so I can't speak to her current costs.
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Anonymous
01/29/21 at 10:43PM UTC
This is a really good question! I don’t have a definitive answer although I do wish you happiness and prosperity! I am going off of a loose definition of prosperity that doesn’t necessarily reflect whatever societal norms the average person goes on in present day. I say it this way because of how rapid those ideas are changing.
I have resume redrafting burnout since November 2019. Since Covid19 hit, so much has changed also and I had been employed but, I’m not trusting in certain jobs that may not have my best interest at heart and am not willing to risk my health.
My resume burnout made me reflect on what is it all for. I can’t say that there was a previous job that I liked 100%. It may not even stem from the tasks I did. Commute factored in at some, but the most pressing issue would be coworker drama. I can’t say there’s been a workplace situation we’re everyone got along and it’s not fun being pulled into that sort of energy.
If I had the goal of having the most perfect resume I could have, it doesn’t mean I’ll get the most perfect work situation for me. I haven’t picked up a Resume instruction book in the past year, but new editions come out every year and it seems the advice given changes drastically from year to year. Ten years ago, twenty years ago this was not the case.
I’ve stumbled upon old Malcolm Gladwell lectures related to his book Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking where a lot of the data he’s researched shows unconscious biased within several fields. He mentioned that companies hiring off of resumes get it wrong often. It’s interesting that since then resume advice changes drastically from year to year and now people are resorting to paying lots of money to hire professional resume writers.
I am not working right now but I’m surviving. I have more time to spend on my health and fitness and cannot help but to see the irony in how easy it has been to turn around my health situation when I’m not dealing with day to day work drama.
I know finances is always going to be an issue but, for myself I don’t want to be 100% career driven. If you want to spend money on resume writing please reflect on what it is you want out a career and also your wellbeing. I just think the system is out of whack and I’ve worked with a lot of sick people who were literally working themselves into an unhealthy situation.
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