I’m mid-40ish, looking to get into another career, and need to rework my resume. Can anyone inform me of the pluses and minuses of a service versus software? Can anyone recommend particular ones?
Have you considered the possibility of simply writing your own resume? If you’re unable to do that, I wouldn’t hire you.
True to an extent but not entirely fair.
Not everyone is a writer and good with words. If the OP wanted a job as a journalist (for example) then writing skills are obviously important but if they are going for a job as, say, a construction worker then writing skills are not really necessary.
That doesn’t mean it isn’t worthwhile to have a well laid out and easily readable resume and some are better at it than others.
I have no experience with resume writing software but I cannot see how it’d be all that great of a help. There are resume templates freely available for programs like Microsoft Word which will handle the layout for you. After that it is up to you to write it. But again I have not used this software…maybe it asks questions and then generates a resume from that. Not sure how it’d generate a decent cover letter though.
A resume writing service will interview you and take most of the effort off your hands. Generally these writers are savvy about “better” phrasing in a resume which can help. That said there are a lot of people out there offering this service and how to sort the really good ones from just any person with a word processor will take some research.
I think there’ve been a few threads in IMHO where people have posted resumes, had them ripped to shreds, reassembled, and polished.
It’s not so much that I can’t write one, but I hear so many stories about resumes programmatically scanned for key words, or visually scanned for several seconds before being consigned to the slush pile…I thought a professionally prepared resume might offer an opportunity I might otherwise miss. Mind you there are executive level job seekers who can write their own, but who will pay $700 or more to have someone who really knows the ropes do it for them.
I’d create a poor resume.
But then, I’ve worked for the same employer for 13 years, I’m rusty at jobhunting, & don’t really “get” the buzzwords needed to excite reume scanning software.
At the same time, I’m motivated, & regarded by local management as “the only guy for a @#$% in the photo lab”. So, I’m a good employee.
You’d lose out.