I know there are companies out there that help with resume writing but have never had to use one myself. I'm looking for a friend who has been in the same job since graduating from A&M and could probably use this type of service as he's looking to change jobs and has never had to update his resume since graduation. Any recommendations?
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Resume Writing Assistance
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Last: 2 yr ago by AggieArchitect04
If you want to spend $ I recommend James Shelly. The thread below will give you an idea. Some people have used him with success (my resume turned out leaps and bounds better and it was honestly worth every penny), others have not had the same luck. Such is life.
https://texags.com/forums/18/topics/2781409/1
https://texags.com/forums/18/topics/2781409/1
Ditto on this. I haven't used him, although we traded some emails. He's quick to respond, and there's hundreds of comments on this board from people who say he transformed their resumes. As soon as I have the extra cash I'm gonna have him do mine.FancyKetchup14 said:
If you want to spend $ I recommend James Shelly. The thread below will give you an idea. Some people have used him with success (my resume turned out leaps and bounds better and it was honestly worth every penny), others have not had the same luck. Such is life.
https://texags.com/forums/18/topics/2781409/1
surveillancevantexags at gmail
Thanks FancyKetchup14!!!
please consider Former Student Career Services. We not only help you develop a better resume, but show you how to use resources available to you to find and compete for the advertised and non advertised opportunities. These resources were originally started by volunteers in the Reveille Club and Houston A&M Club. ppausky78@aggienetwork.com
Paul Pausky BC3 '78
I do NOT recommend James Shelley, and the former student thing leads to dead ends as well.
Share your story. Thank you.GigEm04 said:
I do NOT recommend James Shelley, and the former student thing leads to dead ends as well.
I have a 20 year recruiting career. Contingency search, retained search, corporate, you name it. I've seen more resumes than all of you combined, including James Shelley.
I would be very careful paying anyone to write you resume. Not a knock on James, but I've seen a resume he wrote and wasn't impressed.
There's a website some of you may have heard of, called Linked in. Find someone who is doing the job you want and look to see if you can find their resumes. Don't copy it, but model it after.
Sale roles: I look for accomplishments, not buzz words or duties.
Technical roles; I look for similar experience. Doesn't have to be exact, has to be similar.
Entry Level: I look for internships, co-ops, activities. Leadership. This applies to very few of you, but student athletes go to the top of the list
If you're looking for a career change, your resume ain't gonna do it for you. What's going to do it for you is networking.
I'd be more than happy to answer any questions.
I would be very careful paying anyone to write you resume. Not a knock on James, but I've seen a resume he wrote and wasn't impressed.
There's a website some of you may have heard of, called Linked in. Find someone who is doing the job you want and look to see if you can find their resumes. Don't copy it, but model it after.
Sale roles: I look for accomplishments, not buzz words or duties.
Technical roles; I look for similar experience. Doesn't have to be exact, has to be similar.
Entry Level: I look for internships, co-ops, activities. Leadership. This applies to very few of you, but student athletes go to the top of the list
If you're looking for a career change, your resume ain't gonna do it for you. What's going to do it for you is networking.
I'd be more than happy to answer any questions.
John Lydgate best said it.
James didn't "write" anything. Just sent nonsense "suggestions" and how to pay him
James P Shelley is awful. I can't recommend him for anything.
Definitely mixed messages for OP. James P Shelley did an amazing job on my resume and cover letter. This coming from a guy that takes great pride in my writing ability. However (from my perspective), there was value in hiring someone that worked with resumes often.
I think if you are going to have someone write your resume, you need to be sure they are an expert for your industry. We used Shelley for my husband's resume and did not get a great return. He told us that he hadn't done many resumes for the field and we went forward anyway. Lesson learned.
What was/is your husband's field?aggiespartan said:
I think if you are going to have someone write your resume, you need to be sure they are an expert for your industry. We used Shelley for my husband's resume and did not get a great return. He told us that he hadn't done many resumes for the field and we went forward anyway. Lesson learned.
With all due respect, if someone is an expert in their industry I doubt they're pounding out resumes for a living. My doctor isn't writing any. Nor my mechanic. Nor my plumber, etc.
Would you mind defining for me what you believe is a "great return"? Was your husband invited for interviews? Is currently he employed?
I welcome the opportunity to revisit your husband's resume in an effort to bring you satisfaction. You have my email address. Thank you.
If you had a mechanic that couldn't fix your car, would you continue to bring it back to that mechanic?
I'm really not looking to get into any argument here, but I meant an expert in resumes for that field, not necessarily a person working in the top of that field. Legal field, no interviews with the resume, and he had a couple of attorneys that he sent it to give him corrections (which is a bit embarrassing). Currently employed (always was) and not looking for any additional assistance with it.
This is udder nonsense. Someone that is an expert in an industry has likely reviewed plenty of resumes. You are claiming that you know what employers want more than they do. Bold strategy.
I hired Shelley to help me with my resume a while ago. His process and his probing questions were helpful and productive. However I found the final resume he generated to be too long and wordy, and subjectively I did not like the overall formatting.
I reformatted back to a similar font and layout I had already been using, and I worked to reduced the length while preserving the impact of the messaging.
In the end, although I did scrap Shelley's format and much of his text to reduce the length, my resume is more impactful because he helped tell a better story with more specifics.
I had to work to get down to the length I wanted and toss a lot of subjective language while preserving the quantifiable facts and figures. My resume is better after working with him since he helped make it more clear and direct, but I think his formatting and his verbose style might do more harm than good in some cases. That may depend on the field and nature of the specific job.
I think he's willing to work with you on styling and length, but I already had a format I liked so I just condensed down what he generated into my own existing template.
For what I got out of it his services were worth it. He is charging for his time and talent and in my opinion he does not charge an excessive price.
I reformatted back to a similar font and layout I had already been using, and I worked to reduced the length while preserving the impact of the messaging.
In the end, although I did scrap Shelley's format and much of his text to reduce the length, my resume is more impactful because he helped tell a better story with more specifics.
I had to work to get down to the length I wanted and toss a lot of subjective language while preserving the quantifiable facts and figures. My resume is better after working with him since he helped make it more clear and direct, but I think his formatting and his verbose style might do more harm than good in some cases. That may depend on the field and nature of the specific job.
I think he's willing to work with you on styling and length, but I already had a format I liked so I just condensed down what he generated into my own existing template.
For what I got out of it his services were worth it. He is charging for his time and talent and in my opinion he does not charge an excessive price.
Likewise, I'm not looking for an argument. I respect your position.aggiespartan said:
I'm really not looking to get into any argument here, but I meant an expert in resumes for that field, not necessarily a person working in the top of that field. Legal field, no interviews with the resume, and he had a couple of attorneys that he sent it to give him corrections (which is a bit embarrassing). Currently employed (always was) and not looking for any additional assistance with it.
I do welcome criticism as that helps me further refine my methods. Thank you.
Have a wonderful weekend!
D206 said:
This is udder nonsense. Someone that is an expert in an industry has likely reviewed plenty of resumes. You are claiming that you know what employers want more than they do. Bold strategy.
To be fair, while looking for work many years ago, nearly all employers were no better at knowing what they needed than the folks they were trying to hire. I can tell you that in my old corporate environment, the ones who actually knew the job, did the job, and had been doing the job with hundreds of people for decades, were NOT in charge of hiring people for the job. Just because one is An expert in the industry,
Does not mean they are an expert at hiring qualified people for the industry. At 25 years old with 6 months of experience, I could have hired better employees than the hiring managers who'd been doing it their entire careers.
I am currently actively hiring for my own team doing what I do. I don't need a resume with buzzwords. I need a phone conversation and a face to face meeting with a high level overview of your current and past experience.
https://linqapp.com/jason_duke --- JasonDuke@InfinityRoofer.com --- https://infinityrooferjason.blogspot.com/
You said you "could have". They are still the ones that make the decisions. I had a retired SVP at Anararko and a hiring partner of a pretty large law firm review his work. The feedback I got was that I needed to quit being lazy and write my own resume because I had bought the snake oil. If you want a good resume find 3 or 4 different people that have good attention to detail and send them your resume and tell them to highlight anything that doesn't completely make sense to them. If its something industry specific or technical you can ignore their suggestions, but just keep scrubbing that thing till it comes out clean.
I agree with that as well. In a large organization, it's not practical to have your producers doing the hiring. I had done a lot of scrubbing on my resume before hiring it out. I, at one point, and resorted to taking my entire resume and formatting it as a billeted list with each bullet having no more than 5-7 words. I put my name at the top then went to bullets. I had several iterations of pay resumes for fun. Fortunately for me, none produced results and I exited Oil and Gas for my current role, which, as alluded to earlier in this thread, was directly due to knowing the owner because our kids played sports together. No resume was involved.
As an aside I had several oil and gas contract gigs as well, again, direct hire, no resume involved.
As an aside I had several oil and gas contract gigs as well, again, direct hire, no resume involved.
https://linqapp.com/jason_duke --- JasonDuke@InfinityRoofer.com --- https://infinityrooferjason.blogspot.com/
James Shelley ripped me off for $500
he never made good on any of his offers to review my resume or refund any money
How he is allowed to advertise his business without paying is baffling
he never made good on any of his offers to review my resume or refund any money
How he is allowed to advertise his business without paying is baffling
A review of historical posts that go back years, YEARS, will reveal I've asked you to reach out to me so together we may resolve your dissatisfaction. You've been complaining, crying, *****ing, moaning, and groaning about my service for years. The nature of your posts, maligning me and my service, reveal you to be a sad personality. I'm sorry that you've been enduring so much pain.MookieBlaylock said:
James Shelley ripped me off for $500
he never made good on any of his offers to review my resume or refund any money
How he is allowed to advertise his business without paying is baffling
Lets put a stop to it, Mookie. Lets get you on the road to recovery so once again you can emerge a happy personality.
You should stop ripping people off and also pay for an ad.
JamesPShelley said:A review of historical posts that go back years, YEARS, will reveal I've asked you to reach out to me so together we may resolve your dissatisfaction. You've been complaining, crying, *****ing, moaning, and groaning about my service for years. The nature of your posts, maligning me and my service, reveal you to be a sad personality. I'm sorry that you've been enduring so much pain.MookieBlaylock said:
James Shelley ripped me off for $500
he never made good on any of his offers to review my resume or refund any money
How he is allowed to advertise his business without paying is baffling
Lets put a stop to it, Mookie. Lets get you on the road to recovery so once again you can emerge a happy personality.
And your true colours show once again
You ripped me off
You have ripped off other Aggies
You dont pay
Why would you bring your car to a mechanic who won't fix it?JamesPShelley said:A review of historical posts that go back years, YEARS, will reveal I've asked you to reach out to me so together we may resolve your dissatisfaction. You've been complaining, crying, *****ing, moaning, and groaning about my service for years. The nature of your posts, maligning me and my service, reveal you to be a sad personality. I'm sorry that you've been enduring so much pain.MookieBlaylock said:
James Shelley ripped me off for $500
he never made good on any of his offers to review my resume or refund any money
How he is allowed to advertise his business without paying is baffling
Lets put a stop to it, Mookie. Lets get you on the road to recovery so once again you can emerge a happy personality.
Look guys... said:Why would you bring your car to a mechanic who won't fix it?JamesPShelley said:A review of historical posts that go back years, YEARS, will reveal I've asked you to reach out to me so together we may resolve your dissatisfaction. You've been complaining, crying, *****ing, moaning, and groaning about my service for years. The nature of your posts, maligning me and my service, reveal you to be a sad personality. I'm sorry that you've been enduring so much pain.MookieBlaylock said:
James Shelley ripped me off for $500
he never made good on any of his offers to review my resume or refund any money
How he is allowed to advertise his business without paying is baffling
Lets put a stop to it, Mookie. Lets get you on the road to recovery so once again you can emerge a happy personality.
Dont forget childish insults included in his service at no additional fee
MookieBlaylock said:Look guys... said:Why would you bring your car to a mechanic who won't fix it?JamesPShelley said:A review of historical posts that go back years, YEARS, will reveal I've asked you to reach out to me so together we may resolve your dissatisfaction. You've been complaining, crying, *****ing, moaning, and groaning about my service for years. The nature of your posts, maligning me and my service, reveal you to be a sad personality. I'm sorry that you've been enduring so much pain.MookieBlaylock said:
James Shelley ripped me off for $500
he never made good on any of his offers to review my resume or refund any money
How he is allowed to advertise his business without paying is baffling
Lets put a stop to it, Mookie. Lets get you on the road to recovery so once again you can emerge a happy personality.
Dont forget childish insults included in his service at no additional fee
Man, what a steal. Jump on this deal while you can.
This escalated quickly.
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