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?"

Comments

Missing the point

[cybermace5]

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.