# Professional Resume writing $$ worth it?



## Pylonman (Aug 16, 2004)

Has anyone used the professional resume and cover letter services you see on monster.ca and workoplois.ca. Monster offers the service for a resume and cover letter in 3 formats for $321.00. Sounds expensive. Need proof if this or a similar service really works.


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## Puccasaurus (Dec 28, 2003)

If you're a good writer and have a few sample resumes from your line of work, you probably don't need them. But $321 isn't that much if you get the job


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## JumboJones (Feb 21, 2001)

Buy a book and write your own, now if you want it to stand out, make sure it is well designed and easy to read, stay away from gimmicks.


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## ErnstNL (Apr 12, 2003)

In my opinion, 

$321 !!!  
Instead, go take a "writing a resume" course. 
Or buy a book as suggested. Or hire a Post Graduate Business student to write one for you, for a lot less.
At $20 an hour you should be able to get a good resume in a few hours.

( I'm not looking for the job, in case you're wondering)


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## Pylonman (Aug 16, 2004)

Thanks, I do have a recent resume/cover letter. I haven't gotten any bites for a while and was leaning towards a professional second set of eyes/tune up.

Suggestions on where or whom to talk to?


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## acc30 (Apr 26, 2006)

not sure of what the age requirement is, upto age 27 I think, could be more, but check out your local YMCA, they do offer services like this for free. A friend of mine works as an employment councillor at the Y and that's exactly what she does, talks to you about the job your seeking for, look at your resume, gives you the whole what's good and not good about your resume, tell you how to format it properly and gives you a whole bunch of resources. Even gives gives you pointers for interviews. And it's all free! Even if you don't use their other resources and services, at least they'll fix your resume.


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## MACSPECTRUM (Oct 31, 2002)

sounds like there might be an idea for a reivew of resume writing services website/business


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## redheadgod (Nov 18, 2003)

I used one and it was worth the money, it cost around 200 at the time. It must have worked since it got me to Europe 

I would go with someone that is trained and certified. It seems a little cheezy, but it is good to have someone else look at your skills. I could have done my own but it is easier to have someone else sell your skills. The women who wrote mine interviewed me for about an hour. The really good ones dig into what you have done and ask a lot of questions to get an idea of who you are. Most people who say they do resumes just take your info and reformat it. Turns out she was so happy with mine she submitted it to one of those resume books. Thinking back maybe I should not have agreed to it, since others can use my format  but I will probable get a new one when I return to Canada since mine was designed for someone doing a career change and out of university which I no longer need.

Here are some links to a professional org and one that talks about the different certifications.

I looked at the monster.ca ones and it seemed more expensive and less personal than the route I took. Shop around and see if someone specializes in your career area. I would suggest the person I had used but she has since moved from Vancouver to Ontario or somewhere.

Good luck!


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## Jeepdude (Mar 3, 2005)

As an HR Manager I'll tell you, it's your resume that's going to get you in the door. It will either get you to the top of the "stack" or not. 

If you're a good writer, and can design an effectively written resume that highlights your skills through your achievements, you'll be fine. Some people however, need some assistance in getting that across the first time.

That said, ask for some samples of resumes that this service has done. Make sure that they're not just offering desktop publishing and making the resume look pretty--look for what message they send in their work.


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## Cliffy (Apr 18, 2005)

I wanted to make sure I got in at a good job so I went to a resume service in town. It was a woman who worked in HR, still stayed in the professional circles and knew what she was talking about. And it was only $80 (eight years ago).


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## Sonal (Oct 2, 2003)

I wouldn't, but I am (er, probably more like have been) a professional marketing writer, so if I couldn't write my own resume effectively, I certainly couldn't write copy for someone else's product.

That said, here's my free tip.

1) Come up with the 8 or so best accomplishments of your career--by this, I mean the ones in which you felt most personal pride.

2) For each of those accomplishments, write does the situation, the task, the actions you took, and the result. Quantify this as much as you can, even if you are doing good approximations.

3) Write down all the skills you used to accomplish that task (organize, created, lead, etc.) You can find a list of similar action words on various resume writing sites. It is helpful to have someone help you with this, because sometimes, we don't recognize what skills we use.

4) Select the ones that best reflect the skills you want to show, or that demonstrate your accomplishments best, and use those. You might be able to combine a few, but don't overdo it.

This may seem like a lot of writing for a few lines of text in the end, but it's better to write everything and pare down than do start small to begin with. 

Plus, by doing this, you can refresh your memory for interviews when the ask all those "Tell me about a time when you...." questions. And sometimes, you uncover skills that you use constantly, but don't see that you use.

I got this model for resume development from some career transition training that I went through a few years ago, but I found it very useful as a structured way of doing things.


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## Pelao (Oct 2, 2003)

> Thanks, I do have a recent resume/cover letter. I haven't gotten any bites for a while and was leaning towards a professional second set of eyes/tune up.


Well, perhaps I am taking this statement too literally. but I would strongly advise against having a _single_ resume and cover letter.

Too often a base resume is used, with a few tweaks appropriate for the job applied for.

Each prospective employer will have a different emphasis in their search, even though the positions have a lot in common. Take the time to recognize their priorities and shape the resume to meet their needs.

The same goes for the cover letter. Make sure it has a headline, _appropriate to each application_, that grabs attention. If it is a position likely to receive lots of applicants, the cover letter can often be the weapon that ensures your resume is read.

Think of ads and promotions. You have to look attractive before they read your specs...like buying a Mac!

I feel Sonal's advice is spot on. Print that one and keep it. Oh, and to answer your original question...no. It's not worth it unless you are uncomfortable with writing, but even then, find a friend to do it and take them out for a pizza!

Finally, grab this book:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1593374526/sr=8-1/qid=1151405996/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-9765870-6160015?ie=UTF8

There is a version just about resumes, but this one is more comprehensive. We recommend it to our clients. It's based on real world knowledge and is very effective.

Best wishes!


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## IronMac (Sep 22, 2003)

Another book that is highly recommended is:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/15...104-8167421-9808709?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

Good luck!


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## HowEver (Jan 11, 2005)

Don't forget that the best books on résumé writing are also available from your local library for free (or rather, not for free, but already paid for via your municipal taxes).

The advice in this thread is also incalculable. I would follow it and not overpay for the help the OP cited.

I'd also suggest having someone in the field have a look at what you wish to submit, if at all possible. That person might be able to recommend networking options too, groups to join, perhaps. If you don't know someone, if might take some bravado, but you could consider just calling someone you've heard of and asking if you can have 15-20 minutes of their time for some advice. The worst that can happen is they say no, and if not, there's a free resource person. Bring them a thank you like some chocolate or the like.


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## modsuperstar (Nov 23, 2004)

acc30 said:


> not sure of what the age requirement is, upto age 27 I think, could be more, but check out your local YMCA, they do offer services like this for free. A friend of mine works as an employment councillor at the Y and that's exactly what she does, talks to you about the job your seeking for, look at your resume, gives you the whole what's good and not good about your resume, tell you how to format it properly and gives you a whole bunch of resources. Even gives gives you pointers for interviews. And it's all free! Even if you don't use their other resources and services, at least they'll fix your resume.


My girlfriend actually worked for the Y doing this very job. They do good work and it's free as a service to the community. There are no age restrictions or anything either.


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## modsuperstar (Nov 23, 2004)

Sorry to hijack the thread, but I have something that I run into and wanted some opinions on. 

I'm a designer and like to have a nicely styled resume with properly applied fonts. The best way of delivering this is via PDF, as you can assure it will look proper to the person on the other end. Now the other side of the coin is that a lot of employers want resumes supplied in Word. Word is very limiting at times, as it pretty much leaves you to choose from the handful of web fonts that are assured to be on the recipients computer to design your resume with. So I ask this question, in what format do you supply your resumes in? Word? PDF? By hand?


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## ErnstNL (Apr 12, 2003)

Our corporation, Eastern Health, accepts resumes in both Word and PDF.
Word is preferable, though.


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## PenguinBoy (Aug 16, 2005)

modsuperstar said:


> So I ask this question, in what format do you supply your resumes in? Word? PDF? By hand?


It depends on who you're sending the resume too. A lot of big companies have tools that swallow the resume files and throw them into a database, so all the nice formatting gets thrown out. The hiring manager can then query the database for keywords.

A smaller company likely doesn't have such a system, and so you might get points for style, especially for a graphic designer position.

Some sort of soft copy is probably preferable to hard copy in most cases as the resume is easily distributed in soft copy form.


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