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Tips for Those Using a Resume Service?
hireMePlease asks: 'I am getting ready to re-enter the job market because I work in the 15 hours a day company that was mentioned in an earlier Ask Slashdot. I realize that the job market for us techies is not very good right now(especially where I live in the southeast), so I am trying to find any edge that I may be able to get in order to land another job. My question to the slashdot community is have any of you used one of the many resume services (where you tell them about yourself and they write a resume for you) and were they at all helpful?"
Why do you think that somebody else could do a better job describing your positive attributes than you could? Honestly, don't let anyone write your resume for you. Instead, have them assist you. Have them help you determine what order to put things in. (The most important stuff should be at the top -- whether that's experience, skills, or whatever.) Have them review it for grammar. Have them help you make it look good. But never let them write it for you. Otherwise, you'll end up with something that doesn't match the way you come across in the interview. I once caught a glimpse of my resume that a recruiter "revised" for me, and it was complete and utter nonsense.
Software sucks. Open Source sucks less.
So far, the replies seem to assume the asker is talking about online job sites. No, they're talking about a resume writing service, in the hopes that they will be able to put together a good resume.
Frankly, I've never used one of these services. Perhaps they have ways to word things that make you look really good, but I prefer my resume to be an example of my work. It's done well enough the way it is...I'm currently looking for an engineering position, but the real reason I don't have one yet is the market itself.
Employers are being swamped with resumes. One employer I interviewed with showed me a stack of resumes four inches thick. Even if your resume is more distinctive than the Declaration of Independence, it still has a good chance of being lost in the mess.
One flat piece of paper looks pretty much like any other flat piece of paper after the first two hundred.
Write up a good resume, but don't focus entirely on it. In today's job market you need phone time and face time. There is no other way a recruiter will notice you more than others. Well yeah, if your resume is currently written in crayon, a resume service will help, but in that case you're not going to get a job anyway.
Flashy, glitzy, buzzword-filled resumes are probably as much of a put-off as anything. I'm sure a recruiter can look at a resume and say "This person did not write this."
Go to places you want to work, call them, get face time and phone time. Don't just inquire at companies who say they have jobs...they get the most motivated employees when they wait for the candidates to ask if a position is available.
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Like I said....forget about it. Don't waste your time. The job boards are for inept recruiters that can't find anyone on their own and for the shady recruiters that harvest your resume and send it off w/ out your knowledge to their clients. They are merely fishing and snake the good honest recruiters out of helping you be/c when you/they find something good, you will inevitably get "your resume is already on file." They spend their days spamming clients w/ your resume..... I am not sure how many people know about this, but many staffing firms do this. My advice is to find a hungry recruiter who needs to eat, impress them w/ you skills and get them to find you a job. It's what they do. But make sure they listen and have at least half a brain! Don't say I didn't tell you wusuup!