CV Writing services - are they worth it?

[software tester]

I've just lost my permanent job and I thought that I might as well take the plunge with contracting.

I've read the advice about CVs needing to be very skills focussed and looking at my current CV it is angled towards permanent roles. I was wondering whether CV writing services are a good bet for me? I've searched on the site and can't find many mentions of these.

Are CV writing services worth the money? Which ones tend to work best?

I'm a tester currently at management level with financial experience, if this influences the answers.

[pmeswani]

I've just lost my permanent job and I thought that I might as well take the plunge with contracting.

I've read the advice about CVs needing to be very skills focussed and looking at my current CV it is angled towards permanent roles. I was wondering whether CV writing services are a good bet for me? I've searched on the site and can't find many mentions of these.

Are CV writing services worth the money? Which ones tend to work best?

I'm a tester currently at management level with financial experience, if this influences the answers.

Personally, I don't think they are worth the money. Some of them make basic grammatical and spelling mistakes. The best person who can write a CV is the person whose CV it belongs to. Nobody knows you better than you. Save yourself the money and write it yourself. Trust me, it's worth the effort.

[BolshieBastard]

I've just lost my permanent job and I thought that I might as well take the plunge with contracting.

I've read the advice about CVs needing to be very skills focussed and looking at my current CV it is angled towards permanent roles. I was wondering whether CV writing services are a good bet for me? I've searched on the site and can't find many mentions of these.

Are CV writing services worth the money? Which ones tend to work best?

I'm a tester currently at management level with financial experience, if this influences the answers.

Nope. But are you telling me after being a permie manager you cannot write reports etc setting out the progress, dependencies \ issues and your own cv?

Sorry, but if you cant figure out how to present yourself, expertise and achievements in writing you shouldnt be looking at being a contractor!

[thunderlizard]

That's rather bolshie, Bolshie. As a permie manager he should have learned to delegate anything of importance to somebody with a clue. No reason why he shouldn't do the same here.

Especially because testers' CVs are usually written in such a dreary way that it's a miracle they get jobs at all. They have such a repetitive, humourless, impersonal, mistake-free style that I can never read beyond the first paragraph. Why use a verb when a bullet point will do? The same qualities that make good testers make for awful CVs.

[chicane]

There seems to be a focus in this thread on the textual content of the CV - I'd argue that the visual presentation also needs to fit the bill. I've seen plenty of CV's detailing excellent skills and experience that are difficult to follow due to badly thought out line spacing, indentation, font selection/size, paragraph size and so on.

Not sure how many of these CV writing services consider these factors, but I'd suggest that they're skipping one of the significant requirements of a good CV if they're not.

[chef]

not quite on topic but have you seriously thought through the idea of being a contractor, this is probably the worst possible time for someone to start contracting, there is a lot of very experienced people out there with years of contracting under their belt who are also looking for work right now, if the answer is still yes then make sure you have 6 months rainy day funds and welcome to being on the bench, bring a cushion, it gets a bit tough on the bum..

[software tester]

not quite on topic but have you seriously thought through the idea of being a contractor, this is probably the worst possible time for someone to start contracting, there is a lot of very experienced people out there with years of contracting under their belt who are also looking for work right now, if the answer is still yes then make sure you have 6 months rainy day funds and welcome to being on the bench, bring a cushion, it gets a bit tough on the bum..

I do have rainy day funds that will last me more than six months, but I will need those to get a permanent job any way.

[Solent]

Follow this link... Some very good advice

[URL=http://www.contractoruk.com/news/00405.html[/URL]

[basshead]

Follow this link... Some very good advice

[URL=http://www.contractoruk.com/news/00405.html[/URL]

No, follow this link...

[BrilloPad]

Aren't there more permanent than contract jobs out there at the moment?