resume professionals? any recommendations?

[freshbreath]

has anyone here ever used a professional resume writing service? I searched and there are a lot, but can you recommend one specifically that made a good resume for you, good enough to generate more than a few offers?
thanks

 

[the_big_E]

I could probably use that too...

 

[hawkeye69]

Professional Resumes

I have seen thousands of resumes over my career and keep mine up to date thanks to headhunters that want my business.

There are 2 areas that writers focus on:

1. Professional look. margins, spacing, tables, fonts, alignment. If you are good at Word you don't need them, if not, most places that adervertise can do this part reasonably inexpensivly.

2. Content. This is where you will pay the big $$$ and most likly get ripped off. Content is easy if you follow these rules, tell a little about the company, your position and then focus on your accomplishments and the accomplishments need to be measurable. For example, postion : buyer, I renegotiated our top 3 supply contracts which resulted in savings of $3,000,000 a year. Accountant: I implemented a standard monthly closing process that reduced the monthly close from 8 days to 3 days.

If you can't measure your accomplishment, you didn't accomplish anything.

Hope this helps and saves you some money.

 

[freshbreath]

one question, is the accepted format still Word? what about PDF? it's a lot more universal, and my word processor can save as PDF

 

[Harry_Z]

has anyone here ever used a professional resume writing service? I searched and there are a lot, but can you recommend one specifically that made a good resume for you, good enough to generate more than a few offers?
thanks

I believe Joyful C was in the resume writing business a few years ago, you might ask her if she still does that, or if she could make a recommendation for you.

 

[Cassini]

one question, is the accepted format still Word? what about PDF? it's a lot more universal, and my word processor can save as PDF

I would make two resumes. One in PDF for distribution to people that will read them. Make the other as a plain text file with no formatting. Use this to send to places like Monster that want a flat text file.

Essentially, many larger companies and on-line recruiters are using automated tools to scan resumes into databases. They then search the database with stuff like "C#", "Programmer", and "MBA". Everyone who is a C# programmer with an MBA pops up. If you are applying for jobs in a database, put as many buzzwords as possible on the resume.

A heavily formatted or graphical resume will likely confuse an automted database, and it will silently ignore what you wrote. You will never know about the jobs you didn't get.

 

[hawkeye69]

Pdf or Word

I would stick to Word. I have never received a pdf resume, most headhunters like to put their "stamp" on it to claim you.

If you go direct to a company try pdf, it might make you standout which is the important part.

 

[freshbreath]

thanks for the tips guys

I use OpenOffice primarily, it can work with MS word documents but sometimes it's not totally correct in terms of translation
but a PDF is almost 100% guaranteed to display the same on any machine

I also have my own webspace, so I can host multiple versions of the files there too, and provide links

 

[fantasiafan]

has anyone here ever used a professional resume writing service? I searched and there are a lot, but can you recommend one specifically that made a good resume for you, good enough to generate more than a few offers?
thanks

Hands down the team at http://www.resumeplanet.net although I see that they are currently redoing their website, but drop them an email and they'll usually be quick to reply.