Reply to: CV Writing services - are they worth it?

[deckster]

i was in the same situation a little while ago, and I believe they are not worth the money. The company I spoke to looked through my cv and offered a free review. This was just some woman reading through my cv giving me pointers of where it could be improved. This was just so they could get to the real hard sell. She wanted £700 to write my cv and said it was worth it as i could earn that back in a few days if I was in a job.

I have no real opinion on whether CV reviews are a good idea or not - I guess it depends on many factors and they will be more valuable for some than others - but this tickled me. You paid nothing, got some free advice, and it stil wasn't worth the money?! Do you get all huffy when you take your car in for a 'free pre-winter check' and they offer to top-up your antifreeze! Of course they're going to go for the hard sell after the free bit, did you think they were a charity?

[software tester]

i was in the same situation a little while ago, and I believe they are not worth the money. The company I spoke to looked through my cv and offered a free review. This was just some woman reading through my cv giving me pointers of where it could be improved. This was just so they could get to the real hard sell. She wanted £700 to write my cv and said it was worth it as i could earn that back in a few days if I was in a job. Nice if you have it to burn, and even if I do, I'm not wasting my money. Do your reserach on the internet and you will find lots of free advice, and most of it will say pretty much the same thing. Once you have the right words you need to find a nice format and post it on a few websites and sit back. You can have it reviewed in here as I did and the feedback was worth more than than these companies prices. I would also be open about contract or permanent and take whatever you can get at the moment. I have been looking for over 2 months and i get more calls for permie roles, just the way the market is at the moment, good luck.

Thank you very much for this advice. As you say if they were any good then their fee would justify itself very quickly through extra work. Sadly, they don't appear to be any good.

[Bill]

i was in the same situation a little while ago, and I believe they are not worth the money. The company I spoke to looked through my cv and offered a free review. This was just some woman reading through my cv giving me pointers of where it could be improved. This was just so they could get to the real hard sell. She wanted £700 to write my cv and said it was worth it as i could earn that back in a few days if I was in a job. Nice if you have it to burn, and even if I do, I'm not wasting my money. Do your reserach on the internet and you will find lots of free advice, and most of it will say pretty much the same thing. Once you have the right words you need to find a nice format and post it on a few websites and sit back. You can have it reviewed in here as I did and the feedback was worth more than than these companies prices. I would also be open about contract or permanent and take whatever you can get at the moment. I have been looking for over 2 months and i get more calls for permie roles, just the way the market is at the moment, good luck.

[software tester]

Give me a break. As a manager he should be more than capable of doing certain tasks his subordinates do on his behalf. Report writing and hence writing your own cv is one of them.

It really depends on whether you see a CV as a report or an advert. If you see it as a report then I can quite easily put together a standardised and rather turgid document listing my work history (and I have one on my hard drive now). If it's an attention grabbing advert I can do this but a good copywriter will be able to do it better.

The question is whether the CV writing services are good copy writers or whether they will do as good (or bad) as job as me at advertising myself.

I've seen lots of CVs, most of them written like reports as you suggest and they haven't done well.

[BolshieBastard]

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.

Give me a break. As a manager he should be more than capable of doing certain tasks his subordinates do on his behalf. Report writing and hence writing your own cv is one of them.

[TykeMerc]

In my opinion CV writing services are not worth it.

Do some research and you will come up with a format you like, the words have to be your own. A contractor CV should be relatively short and to the point, leave out interests, irrelevant memberships, and fluff that makes you look like a rounded person it's meaningless.
Your CV is there as a sales document for selling professional services that presents your experience and skills in an easy and quick to read format so that cogent points stand out clearly.

[software tester]

Follow this link... Some very good advice

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

That's fantastic. I've added that to my favourites to re-read it tomorrow and a few more times.

The idea of getting the skills and achievements on the front page is really very good, if obvious once you think about it.

[MPwannadecentincome]

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..

The perm job market is not so hot - at least in my experience - so may as well try contracting - better than doing nothing?

[BrilloPad]

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

[basshead]

Follow this link... Some very good advice

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

No, follow this link...

[Solent]

Follow this link... Some very good advice

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

[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.

[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..

[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.

[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.