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James P Shelley Resume Service

49,346 Views | 156 Replies | Last: 4 yr ago by PlanoAg98
I Am A Critic
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powerbelly said:

That doesn't read as a ringing endorsement like you seem to think it does.
To me, it also sounds like Mr. Shelley wrote his own recommendation and gave it to his customer to copy & paste.
3rd and 2
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AG
I Am A Critic said:

powerbelly said:

That doesn't read as a ringing endorsement like you seem to think it does.
To me, it also sounds like Mr. Shelley wrote his own recommendation and gave it to his customer to copy & paste.
Username fits.
PlanoAg98
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Quote:

Contact him. It's not cheap.
So I've read through this post and only caught $500 as one of the costs. The below link shows the top package (full service) as $125 and up. I'm currently employed stably but like to keep my resume on line just in case something better comes by. What drives the cost up from $125.

http://www.jamespshelley.com/Justin.html

Quote:

FULL SERVICE

Full Service includes a start-to-finish professional drafting of your document. The process includes:

  • Review of institutional document guidelines (if applicable).
  • Presentation of from five to 10 inquiries for which your responses serve as the document foundation.
  • Presentation to client of authored document.
  • Editing and revision process (highly collaborative).
  • Proofreading.
  • Presentation of completed, and mutually agreeable, document.
  • Two to three business days.

$125 and up
JMac03
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PlanoAg98 said:

Quote:

Contact him. It's not cheap.
So I've read through this post and only caught $500 as one of the costs. The below link shows the top package (full service) as $125 and up. I'm currently employed stably but like to keep my resume on line just in case something better comes by. What drives the cost up from $125.

http://www.jamespshelley.com/Justin.html

Quote:

FULL SERVICE

Full Service includes a start-to-finish professional drafting of your document. The process includes:

  • Review of institutional document guidelines (if applicable).
  • Presentation of from five to 10 inquiries for which your responses serve as the document foundation.
  • Presentation to client of authored document.
  • Editing and revision process (highly collaborative).
  • Proofreading.
  • Presentation of completed, and mutually agreeable, document.
  • Two to three business days.

$125 and up


On the first page he goes into how he determines his rates (essentially he looks at your current resume, and determines what you are wanting out of it, determine how much time its going to take). He explained it far more eloquently. But that is the gist of it.
zooguy96
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AG
As previously posted, no one is making you pay for his service. We used it for my wife, and she had far more interviews than before and landed a good job.

I'll use it for my resume next.
I know a lot about a little, and a little about a lot.
JamesPShelley
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PlanoAg98 said:

Quote:

Contact him. It's not cheap.
So I've read through this post and only caught $500 as one of the costs. The below link shows the top package (full service) as $125 and up. I'm currently employed stably but like to keep my resume on line just in case something better comes by. What drives the cost up from $125.

http://www.jamespshelley.com/Justin.html

Quote:

FULL SERVICE

Full Service includes a start-to-finish professional drafting of your document. The process includes:

  • Review of institutional document guidelines (if applicable).
  • Presentation of from five to 10 inquiries for which your responses serve as the document foundation.
  • Presentation to client of authored document.
  • Editing and revision process (highly collaborative).
  • Proofreading.
  • Presentation of completed, and mutually agreeable, document.
  • Two to three business days.

$125 and up

The link leads to my page for Personal Statements, Statements of Purpose, and essays associated with candidates seeking admission into a medical program, doctors applying for U.S. based medical residency programs, and candidates seeking admission into any academic pursuit or program requiring such a document.
BrazosDog02
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powerbelly said:

That doesn't read as a ringing endorsement like you seem to think it does.
Yeah...when I hire a guy to write my resume, I prefer he not speak to me at all, make sweeping assumptions, and hack up a turnkey document that I can fire off. No customization or client understanding required!

HARUMPH.

I have more email correspondence with my wife trying to figure out what we are doing on 2 day vacations. I think there is a LOT of butt hurt over this service and I cannot for the life of me figure out why.

What on earth has all these skirts blown up?
Dark Helmet
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BrazosDog02 said:

powerbelly said:

That doesn't read as a ringing endorsement like you seem to think it does.
Yeah...when I hire a guy to write my resume, I prefer he not speak to me at all, make sweeping assumptions, and hack up a turnkey document that I can fire off. No customization or client understanding required!

HARUMPH.

I have more email correspondence with my wife trying to figure out what we are doing on 2 day vacations. I think there is a LOT of butt hurt over this service and I cannot for the life of me figure out why.

What on earth has all these skirts blown up?


I usually lurk due to run ins with management over football coaches in the past, so you may disregard what I say since I have R next to my name. But, as a Human Resources professional, I do not trust the man. He is a writer, judging from his website. He does not list his experience, only his services and what they cost. I do not believe he was ever working in a HR office or as a recruiter/head hunter. I am curious to send him my resume and see what changes he would make.

My resume has been edited by professors, recruiters, and head hunters. I gave it to the career center at A&M and they told me not to make any changes, it was one of the best they had seen. So I would very much like to hire him just to see what he does, but I would rather spend that money on booze instead of texags blue stars for exposing this guy and revealing my identity to the internet.

I have two "pet causes": Lou Gehrig's disease research and helping the long-term unemployed who are skilled and educated. People like this guy are vultures, they swoop down and promise world-shattering edits to your resumes that will land you interviews. Then when you say "hey, I'm not noticing a change" they always say "it's not me it's you, interview better". Then when you say "no, I'm not getting any more interviews than I was getting" they say "you're applying for the wrong jobs".

There's always an excuse and you never get your money back.

If you are educated, do not pay some random guy trolling your school's sports fan forums to edit your resume. Call up the career center and talk to them. A&M has an advisor for former students. A&M has an advisor for former students with advanced degrees. A&M has career advisors for pretty much everyone.

Or used to.

Edit: typo/word choice

Edit 2: he also does letters of intent, I see. So you pay this guy and he will write a letter for you to send to grad schools you apply to, even medical schools!

So you're gonna pay a guy to write your resume as a chemical engineer while he also spends time writing medical school admissions letters. This guy is for ESL types. If you're ESL or not fluent in English you may want to use this guy. If you're a mechanical engineer or accountant or something else, stay away.
Eliminatus
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AG
Ok
AgEngr16
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I think your assessment is off base and based on poor intel from people who haven't had the success they expected. As you very well know, the resume is first impression a potential employee will make.

My personal experience with James' service has been more than positive. He does not take the prototypical approach to resume building (the approach the career center uses). The career center places far to much emphasis on creating "college" resumes. James has experience working with experienced professionals who may be transitioning fields, moving into management, or looking for better opportunities as experienced professionals. The career center is focused and primarily focuses on students or recent graduates. Their services are quality, but do not provide much for a major part of the job market.

After working with James I had a much higher call back rate (received a great job offer) because my resume was tailored for the professional market and not as recent graduate (which I am). I was not going to receive the quality of service from the career center that I was able to with him. You don't have to agree with his methods but many people on this site have had great results from his services.

As a recruiter, you see resumes all day and I assume most of these are for recent graduates. I would expect you to understand "college" resumes are drastically different than professional resumes. The career center and James' services should not be compared in a basic manner as their approaches are targeting two different audiences.

James offers high quality, lifelong service for a great price. Those who have not had success are wrongly accusing James of their job hunting shortcomings. If they haven't have they success they would like, he does not charge more to keep working with you. It's a flat fee that comes with free updates/additions as long as he is able.

Coming from a recruiter, it is extremely unprofessional for you to personally attack services that you have zero experience using. It is neither an honest or unbiased assembly of what he offers.
Dark Helmet
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You've basically said "lol works for me". Your post is the equivalent of a guy going on a tech support forum and posting in response to a thread about a glitch or bug and saying "it works on my machine".

You aren't looking at the nation-wide epidemic of "resume gurus" who prey on desperate people. I would also like to know your field, you said it worked for you as a recent grad. I said nothing about helping recent grads. A recent grad looking for an entry level position would benefit from a professional writer inserting 50-cent words and key words that they are too lazy or inept to research.

Judging from this guy's website and other posts, he would be unable to help a petroleum engineer with 5 years of work experience get back into a job in their field after being laid off during a downturn.

"It worked for me" is not helpful. It's disingenuous because you haven't told us jack crap about who you are, what your field is, or your experience level besides "recent grad" which implies you are a poor writer. A professional "writer" of course would spruce up a new grad's resume who can't write to save their life.

If that is the case, then this guy should target recent grads. I wouldn't have had an issue with that.

Edit: I judge all resumes equally. A recent grad's resume should be of the same quality of someone with 20 years of experience. I think that was a point you made, your resume was "too good" for a recent grad? That's just silly.
Woods Ag
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Agreed. Headhunters are who perfected my resume a few years back and they did it for free. Since then I get a response one the majority of jobs I have applied for.
Dark Helmet
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Woods Ag said:

Agreed. Headhunters are who perfected my resume a few years back and they did it for free. Since then I get a response one the majority of jobs I have applied for.

If headhunters know what their clients are looking for and are willing to help you for free, why pay this guy?


Head hunters are not helping you for free. They make big bucks placing people and it is in their best interest to spruce up a resume of someone who they think can land the position in an interview. The hour or two they spend on someone's resume is well worth the commission they make on filling the position.
Woods Ag
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I understand that. But it's free for me and they get me leads on the best jobs in my industry.
zooguy96
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Some of our industries don't have headhunters, so we have to use what we can. Again, his resume service work very well for my wife. No one stuck a gun to my head and made me pay him. For me, it was well worth it.
I know a lot about a little, and a little about a lot.
AgEngr16
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Dark Helmet said:

You've basically said "lol works for me". Your post is the equivalent of a guy going on a tech support forum and posting in response to a thread about a glitch or bug and saying "it works on my machine".

You aren't looking at the nation-wide epidemic of "resume gurus" who prey on desperate people. I would also like to know your field, you said it worked for you as a recent grad. I said nothing about helping recent grads. A recent grad looking for an entry level position would benefit from a professional writer inserting 50-cent words and key words that they are too lazy or inept to research.

Judging from this guy's website and other posts, he would be unable to help a petroleum engineer with 5 years of work experience get back into a job in their field after being laid off during a downturn.

"It worked for me" is not helpful. It's disingenuous because you haven't told us jack crap about who you are, what your field is, or your experience level besides "recent grad" which implies you are a poor writer. A professional "writer" of course would spruce up a new grad's resume who can't write to save their life.

If that is the case, then this guy should target recent grads. I wouldn't have had an issue with that.

Edit: I judge all resumes equally. A recent grad's resume should be of the same quality of someone with 20 years of experience. I think that was a point you made, your resume was "too good" for a recent grad? That's just silly.


Nowhere did I argue there are not "resume gurus" preying on the desperate. James' service isn't one that is trying to prey on the desperate. He continually works with his clients until they are satisfied or land a job, and provides continuous updates as long as he is able (included in the one-time flat rate). I would guess the Career Center works with current students or new grads 95% of the time. Not that there quality for experienced professionals is poor, but it is not their primary audience.

I am in the engineering field and can assure you my writing is not "poor". Evidence of that would be the near completion of my MS degree. That is ignorant to say recent graduates are poor writers. If that is your perspective of new grads you proved my point that new grads resumes are not the same quality as experienced professionals (grammatically speaking). I have spent days at a time refining my resume to better articulate my abilities so I was not looking to add cliches or SAT words to my resume.

You should know that a resume isn't about keywords. It is about how you convey your abilities/worth in a manner that intrigues the recruiter/employer. If you do look at resumes all day, you of all people should know that new grad and experienced resumes are definitely not equal. I agree resumes should be judged equally regardless of experience. My resume was not "too good" for a new grad after working with James, but it was definitely higher quality than 99% of new grads who haven't received professional help.

My point is you are not justified to critique James' work, abilities, or audience without first using his services.
fire09
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AG
You have had what, 1 entry level job out of school? You have very limited perspective of the job market. James' services may have helped you personally but you had other free resources to accomplish your goals that you chose not to use. Anecdotal referrals and vague credentials is what was being questioned. That wouldn't turn me off to his service but it should be met with extra scrutiny before spending the money, as I believe other posters were trying to point out.
JoeOlson
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How in the world did this thread get so derailed?

Reasons to use this guy:
  • You are transitioning from a career in education/military/etc and you need help creating a resume that appeals to other industries
  • You are extremely busy and would rather pay $500+ to have someone else put your resume together
  • You want to post on Texags bashing the service and you want to use your own examples
  • You want someone who can sit down and spend time talking through your accomplishments and make sure that you're emphasizing the right things

Reasons to not use this guy:
  • Very technically specific industry where he will not know the nomenclature
  • Too rich to ever need another job (no more hookers & blow in the world)
  • Too poor to pay for it (try a street corner w/ your resume)
  • You can do it for free w/ help from the career center
BrazosDog02
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AHAHAHAHA.....

Having used recruiters and headhunters for over 2 years to find work in O&G, the LAST THING ON EARTH I WANT IS INPUT FROM A SO-CALLED RECRUITER OR HEADHUNTER.

Thanks, but no thanks. I am not personally sure if many of them posses the competence to make coffee. I watched friends waffle around with these guys for a long time. People with Master's degrees, garden variety males who were experts in their fields with over a decade of experience and the recruiters couldn't get the job done.

So, you will have to pardon me for not taking that seriously.

I have used Shelley's service, he doesn't just make your resume full of fancy words. He takes your impotent resume and makes it into a piece of useful information. Most people write resumes like they talk to people....

"So what do you do for a living?"
"I do stuff with oil and gas. I've been doing stuff for like 15 years"

Edited to add that this thread is NOT directed at anyone here so much as gen pop in job placement fields.
The Milkman
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Not everyone who is good at their job is good at getting jobs. If you need help and want a new job it makes sense to reach out for help.

Frequently your own abilities and merit are not enough. Theres a ton of people who have that
MookieBlaylock
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Where is your Aggie ring James P Shelley?

You have a nice boat glad I filled up a tank on your bs
JamesPShelley
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MookieBlaylock said:

You have a nice boat glad I filled up a tank on your bs

That would be the sailboat I sold ~7 years ago.

Have a great day, Mookie.
Dark Helmet
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Resumes are, sadly, about keywords in many instances. The sheer number of applicants for a position make it to where people screening the applicants only glance through a resume and they are looking for keywords.

So I don't know why you would say a resume isn't about keywords when keywords are what get you through the initial phases of screening.

Edit: also...being an engineer doesn't mean your writing is "good". There are a ton of jokes I've heard from engineers who said they were told to take English as a second language in college and there are many more engineers who have said literature courses and comp courses in college are worthless.

Good writing skills aren't automatic just because you're an engineer. If anything, it makes me automatically question your writing ability because every engineer I have known doesn't give a damn about how well they write unless they're doing tech writing which is something entirely different.
MookieBlaylock
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JamesPShelley said:

MookieBlaylock said:

You have a nice boat glad I filled up a tank on your bs

That would be the sailboat I sold ~7 years ago.

Have a great day, Mookie.


Check and mate you tinker

JamesPShelley
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MookieBlaylock said:

JamesPShelley said:

MookieBlaylock said:

You have a nice boat glad I filled up a tank on your bs

That would be the sailboat I sold ~7 years ago.

Have a great day, Mookie.


Check and mate you tinker


I'll assume you meant "stinker".

Lets reconnect. Please.

Have a great day.
JamesPShelley
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It's amazing just how quickly time flies!

Today marks just over two years since I began serving A&M students and alumni, and I wanted to say thank you to everyone for permitting me to serve you. In all honesty, and with great sincerity, I will say that the A&M crowd have been the most delightful group of clients ever I've had the privilege of serving. I look forward to continuing to serve such an outstanding group of people.

Thank you,

Jim
IrishTxAggie
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Buy an ad...
K05
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I feel compelled to share my experiences with James services.

I am an academic, have a phd in epidemiology. At the time I reached out to James I was exploring some opportunities in industry (i.e., consulting), and was finding it difficult to convert my lengthy CV to a 1-2 page resume.

These are important points because I feel that James may do good work for certain industries, but in my experience, specifically in aiming to take a very detailed and dry CV from a specific field to a succinct, translatable resume my crappy self-written resume to a professionally written resume, he failed did not meet my expectations. My evaluation of his work deemed his writing to be too superfluous. He inserted obscure adjectives to describe my work that overstated things and made it difficult to read. In my line of work, I spend a great deal of time writing and reviewing others writing. I found his writing to be poor, yet (and I pointed this fact out to him), this could be a product of my training to write to scientific audiences.

The take away is this - if you are in a situation similar to mine, I would be careful in utilizing his services.

I will also note - James was a professional and easy to work with. He was timely and easy to reach. When I expressed my feedback on his writing style, he promptly refunded me in full, but did seem relatively annoyed. This took me by surprise, but I am very familiar with receiving strong criticism on my writing and I suppose not everyone is told something they wrote is garbage on a weekly basis.

If you would like, I'd be happy to share (privately via email) my CV and the converted resume along with my feedback to James.

Updates (edits): 1) Jim emailed me in response to this posting and made a generous offer to revisit my resume and work on it until we are both satisfied, free of charge. I found this to be very professional and honorable, and should be acknowledged. I have no need for a resume right now (staying in academia for the foreseeable future), and therefore don't want to waste his/my time by taking him up on his offer.
2) In reviewing my correspondence with Jim, I misstated the facts - I sent Jim a previously edited resume that I was working with and asked him to edit, rather than a CV as I had stated.
MookieBlaylock
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AG
Congrats on the refund

Shelley you will get an email from rtr in the coming days


BrazosDog02
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K05 said:

My evaluation of his work deemed his writing to be too superfluous. He inserted obscure adjectives to describe my work that overstated things and made it difficult to read. In my line of work, I spend a great deal of time writing and reviewing others writing. I found his writing to be poor, yet (and I pointed this fact out to him), this could be a product of my training to write to scientific audiences.

I have not made a career out of academia, but I have spent a fair amount of time in it and have made a career in a hard science dealing with the real world and professional scientists of varying disciplines. I have written technical papers and a dreaded thesis. I believe your point above is valid and also highlights the need for his services. I honestly believe the issue some are having is that the resume is not written for YOU. It is not geared towards you hiring yourself. It is geared towards Jane and John in HR who are rifling through a hundred resumes and need information quickly. They are not scientists. They usually have no clue what they are hiring for. They are regular HR people who, hopefully, have an average grasp of the English language and hopefully enough 'give a damn' to scan a document or two before their lunch break or 4:25pm comes around. The goal is to get those people to grab your resume and put it in front of the person that DOES know the position and the requirements for it. The resume is ONLY for getting you IN. If I was sending a resume to my colleagues, I wouldn't have Jim write it.

I have written my own resume, it sounds like a horrible technical paper.

I have used Jim for my resume, I have had him make many edits. I have had him modify it for various positions and industries I am not completely up to snuff in. He has always made every effort to help and done so in a timely fashion.

I have no idea what went wrong with some posters here, but I am starting to believe that they are like 'that one client' who is just never happy. I know them. I have them. I will have them again. I could deliver a perfect product and save 10 million dollars while highlighting a 500 million bbl oil field that they were unable to image, and they would still ***** about the coffee in the break room being cold.
JamesPShelley
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BrazosDog02 said:

K05 said:

My evaluation of his work deemed his writing to be too superfluous. He inserted obscure adjectives to describe my work that overstated things and made it difficult to read. In my line of work, I spend a great deal of time writing and reviewing others writing. I found his writing to be poor, yet (and I pointed this fact out to him), this could be a product of my training to write to scientific audiences.

I have not made a career out of academia, but I have spent a fair amount of time in it and have made a career in a hard science dealing with the real world and professional scientists of varying disciplines. I have written technical papers and a dreaded thesis. I believe your point above is valid and also highlights the need for his services. I honestly believe the issue some are having is that the resume is not written for YOU. It is not geared towards you hiring yourself. It is geared towards Jane and John in HR who are rifling through a hundred resumes and need information quickly. They are not scientists. They usually have no clue what they are hiring for. They are regular HR people who, hopefully, have an average grasp of the English language and hopefully enough 'give a damn' to scan a document or two before their lunch break or 4:25pm comes around. The goal is to get those people to grab your resume and put it in front of the person that DOES know the position and the requirements for it. The resume is ONLY for getting you IN. If I was sending a resume to my colleagues, I wouldn't have Jim write it.

I have written my own resume, it sounds like a horrible technical paper.

I have used Jim for my resume, I have had him make many edits. I have had him modify it for various positions and industries I am not completely up to snuff in. He has always made every effort to help and done so in a timely fashion.

I have no idea what went wrong with some posters here, but I am starting to believe that they are like 'that one client' who is just never happy. I know them. I have them. I will have them again. I could deliver a perfect product and save 10 million dollars while highlighting a 500 million bbl oil field that they were unable to image, and they would still ***** about the coffee in the break room being cold.




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Thank you for the kind words. If ever you're in my neck of the woods... coffee is on me. I promise it'll be hot.
JamesPShelley
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It has been nearly three (3) years since first I began serving A&M students, alumni, and their associates, and I'd like to encourage those clients to connect with me for their complimentary updates.

I was inspired to author this notice because last week a client from '09 connected with me for his updates. He has remained with the same employer, the update wasn't terribly taxing, and the turnaround was fairly expedient.

New tasks/functions/results/accomplishments... new academic pursuits and conclusions... new license/registration/certification... new jobs... lets get it onto paper. A current and updated resume ensures you'll be among the first applicants for that next job.

Thank you.

Have a great weekend.

tomtomdrumdrum
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AG
Cool ad.
JamesPShelley
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tomtomdrumdrum said:

Cool ad.
There is a difference between an advertisement and an announcement. Have a nice day.
dsvogel05
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Based on feedback from this board, I sent Jim an email to see if he could help me. Jim and I traded a few emails and I decided to use his services. What a difference he made for my resume! It helped me land a new position, and now that I'm in a position to hire people, I review a lot of resumes. Every time I see a resume come across my desk I compare it to mine and realize how bad the majority of resumes are. If your resume is in need of a refresh, reach out to Jim and see if he can help you.
 
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