Asking this question for my brother. Are there any resume services out there that you guys could recommend? He maybe in the market soon for new opportunities, and just wants to have his resume looked over to see if anything needs to be spiffed up.


In addition, are any of these resume service companies industry dependent? My brother is a Licensed Professional Counselor/Behavior Analyst.


Thanks in advance!

I used resume genius. You really dont need a professional to look at it honestly. Resume genius was like $30/mo has a variety of templates and other tools

I used James P Shelley and I have an awesome resume.

Thanks Jim!

I used James for my wife's resume. He did a great job.

James is the man. My go to.

I totally disagree. But suit yourself. Many people on TexAgs have used him, three on this thread alone, that have been thrilled with his product.

I don't know if Jim would even take an entry level client. You would have to ask him.

MookieBlaylock said:

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JamesPShelley said:

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crane said:

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I used resume genius. You really dont need a professional to look at it honestly. Resume genius was like $30/mo has a variety of templates and other tools

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Terrible advice.

I used resume genius. You really dont need a professional to look at it, honestly. Resume genius was, like, $30/mo., and has a variety of templates and other tools.

FIFY

A licensed professional using templates? Terrible.

OP: Send your brother my way. I'll give his resume a once over review, complimentary.

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Terrible advice - have your brother send me an email and I will tell him why not to use James P Shelley

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Are you going to post your email?

JD Shellnut said:

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Asking this question for my brother. Are there any resume services out there that you guys could recommend? He maybe in the market soon for new opportunities, and just wants to have his resume looked over to see if anything needs to be spiffed up.


In addition, are any of these resume service companies industry dependent? My brother is a Licensed Professional Counselor/Behavior Analyst.


Thanks in advance!

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Back to the OP..

Resume services in general, stink! If your brother is tied to a university, send him to their career center. It's the first best step.

To JPS who jumped in on this thread... I'm sure he may help some but to most, his services are worthless.

Note: I used JPS's services many years ago (because of Texags) and was thoroughly underwhelmed. I'm a senior executive and had money to burn (hey what could a review of my resume hurt), and it was a worthless process.

Stymied said:

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JD Shellnut said:

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Asking this question for my brother. Are there any resume services out there that you guys could recommend? He maybe in the market soon for new opportunities, and just wants to have his resume looked over to see if anything needs to be spiffed up.


In addition, are any of these resume service companies industry dependent? My brother is a Licensed Professional Counselor/Behavior Analyst.


Thanks in advance!

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Back to the OP..

Resume services in general, stink! If your brother is tied to a university, send him to their career center. It's the first best step.

To JPS who jumped in on this thread... I'm sure he may help some but to most, his services are worthless.

Note: I used JPS's services many years ago (because of Texags) and was thoroughly underwhelmed. I'm a senior executive and had money to burn (hey what could a review of my resume hurt), and it was a worthless process.

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500+ of your peers, since 2017, think otherwise. Clearly you were a customer who couldn't be objective. You may have been one the few clients to whom I returned my fee. They were no executives.

"To JPS who jumped in on this thread... I'm sure he may help some but to most, his services are worthless." Did you author that yourself? One of your kids helped?

Stymied said:

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JamesPShelley said:

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Stymied said:

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Back to the OP..

Resume services in general, stink! If your brother is tied to a university, send him to their career center. It's the first best step.

To JPS who jumped in on this thread... I'm sure he may help some but to most, his services are worthless.

Note: I used JPS's services many years ago (because of Texags) and was thoroughly underwhelmed. I'm a senior executive and had money to burn (hey what could a review of my resume hurt), and it was a worthless process.

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500+ of your peers, since 2017, think otherwise. Clearly you were a customer who couldn't be objective. You may have been one the few clients to whom I returned my fee. They were no executives.

"To JPS who jumped in on this thread... I'm sure he may help some but to most, his services are worthless." Did you author that yourself? One of your kids helped?

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I gave my point of view as a prior customer. That's equal to the point of view of the other random comments on threads going back 6+ years. I'm glad some of your customers are happy. I was lukewarm at the time and your behavior on this forum over the years has soured me further.

I never asked for a refund. I figured it would be a hassle and not worth my time. Your resume services basically took my resume, added a bunch superfluous adjectives, changed some language from active to passive voice, and called it done.

Caveat emptor

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Hmm.

Stymied said:

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JamesPShelley said:

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Stymied said:

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your behavior on this forum over the years has soured me further.

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Bingo.

OP, I have tried a few different services and a lot now just put stuff in AI and then paste it and sell it for $100+.

I recently signed up for the WorkItDaily 7 day trial and took a few pointers from thier cover letter and resume videos at no cost. Made some corrections and formatting and it has made a difference in recruiter response. I have had a lot better luck with those few pointers. Just a thought and a 7 day free one at that.

Hoyt Ag said:

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OP, I have tried a few different services and a lot now just put stuff in AI and then paste it and sell it for $100+.

I recently signed up for the WorkItDaily 7 day trial and took a few pointers from thier cover letter and resume videos at no cost. Made some corrections and formatting and it has made a difference in recruiter response. I have had a lot better luck with those few pointers. Just a thought and a 7 day free one at that.

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I've had a couple of friends/associates try to steer me to, I believe, ChatGTP (something like that). "Plug in some keywords,,, etc... let it go to town". I just say no. While my website reveals my process... behind the scenes the effort isn't so easy. While I've 3,000+ resumes in client files... since 2006 never have I referrred to one to bump another. My files are in client name order. When I look at my files names I have no idea what is the field/profession/industry of the client. No two resumes are the same and never have I cut and pasted content.

Each and every one of the resumes I engineer are one-offs.

Every once in a while I am reminded that Mom was correct.

Thank you for your input.

JamesPShelley said:

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crane said:

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I used resume genius. You really dont need a professional to look at it honestly. Resume genius was like $30/mo has a variety of templates and other tools

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Terrible advice.

I used resume genius. You really dont need a professional to look at it, honestly. Resume genius was, like, $30/mo., and has a variety of templates and other tools.

FIFY

A licensed professional using templates? Terrible.

OP: Send your brother my way. I'll give his resume a once over review, complimentary.

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If you want to do this for me I'd love it!

BeatHellOutOfTU said:

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JamesPShelley said:

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crane said:

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I used resume genius. You really dont need a professional to look at it honestly. Resume genius was like $30/mo has a variety of templates and other tools

---

Terrible advice.

I used resume genius. You really dont need a professional to look at it, honestly. Resume genius was, like, $30/mo., and has a variety of templates and other tools.

FIFY

A licensed professional using templates? Terrible.

OP: Send your brother my way. I'll give his resume a once over review, complimentary.

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If you want to do this for me I'd love it!

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Same. I am game for a review.

txaggie_08 said:

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Stymied said:

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Your resume services basically took my resume, added a bunch superfluous adjectives, changed some language from active to passive voice, and called it done.

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I'm going to agree with Stymied. I used Shelley a couple years ago, and not sure it was worth the money. He did help "pretty" the resume up a little with fonts and whatnot, but overall I could tell he didn't know my industry/profession (O&G) and I had to rewrite a lot of his work.

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I'm sorry to hear oof your dissatisfaction. Pretty? I've employed the same design/layout/format for the last 17 years. I'm not a designer, and it's not about how pretty is a resume. It's the content that counts and, occasionally, I remind my clients I was commissioned for my objectivity. Subjective clients always are a challenge, for they can't get out of their own head.

Cheers!

For me, the toughest thing about having a resume written is having lived the resume. After 11 years of stuff, day in and day out, and being quite proud of it all, I want everything on it and am perfectly fine with a 3 page resume.

The problem is that there is a 100% chance the idiot first reading it has no clue about the job he's sifting resumes for. Ironically, the first one looking at these isn't qualified for the hiring of the position except in extremely rare cases. The fact is, my job was vitally important…but everything I did for 11 years wasnt. The trick is to have it present and be dumbed down to a level that someone in HR can quickly make a decision about to get it to the next level. The problem with my resume is that it was jammed with technical things I deemed important that probably glazed the eyes of the HR person…..if they can't figure out what I did, that resume is going in the junk pile.

It would be like me sorting resumes of heart surgeons.

I believe this is the goal.

tomtomdrumdrum said:

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JamesPShelley said:

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txaggie_08 said:

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Stymied said:

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Your resume services basically took my resume, added a bunch superfluous adjectives, changed some language from active to passive voice, and called it done.

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I'm going to agree with Stymied. I used Shelley a couple years ago, and not sure it was worth the money. He did help "pretty" the resume up a little with fonts and whatnot, but overall I could tell he didn't know my industry/profession (O&G) and I had to rewrite a lot of his work.

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I'm sorry to hear oof your dissatisfaction. Pretty? I've employed the same design/layout/format for the last 17 years. I'm not a designer, and it's not about how pretty is a resume. It's the content that counts and, occasionally, I remind my clients I was commissioned for my objectivity. Subjective clients always are a challenge, for they can't get out of their own head.

Cheers!

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oof

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Misspelled words means I need to clip my finger nails. Thanks for the heads up. Will hit the toes, too.

Pronouns

Pronouns

Pronouns

PRONOUNS!

BrazosDog02 said:

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For me, the toughest thing about having a resume written is having lived the resume. After 11 years of stuff, day in and day out, and being quite proud of it all, I want everything on it and am perfectly fine with a 3 page resume.

The problem is that there is a 100% chance the idiot first reading it has no clue about the job he's sifting resumes for. Ironically, the first one looking at these isn't qualified for the hiring of the position except in extremely rare cases. The fact is, my job was vitally important…but everything I did for 11 years wasnt. The trick is to have it present and be dumbed down to a level that someone in HR can quickly make a decision about to get it to the next level. The problem with my resume is that it was jammed with technical things I deemed important that probably glazed the eyes of the HR person…..if they can't figure out what I did, that resume is going in the junk pile.

It would be like me sorting resumes of heart surgeons.

I believe this is the goal.

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If I'm looking for a heart surgeon, I'm look to see if someone is an MD.
Then I look to see if they have done heart surgery on the resume.

When sifting through resumes, you're not looking to see if someone is good enough to be a heart surgeon, you're looking for someone that has done what you're looking for.

It's up to a heart surgeon to determine if that person is any good.

If you understand the process, you'll have better success and won't be too jaded.

Bingo!

In a small company, the "process" can work. The problem is that most companies are bloated and the process is inefficient and further burdened by the emplacement of derelicts to do important parts of the hiring process.

In your example, searching for MD means you've provided your decision maker with a bunch of junk that's largely all the same. MD are a dime a dozen, just like MS and PhD.

Here is how the "process" works for our company. Some yahoo pre screens resumes from wherever they come from. I end up with 15 resumes to filter through. I'm the one that needs a hire so I know what I'm looking for. But, I'm busy already. So, I skim the stack for names in industry I recognize from my career, then for names I have heard before. If I'm lucky, I'll find one and pull those for interviews. By the time I do that over the week, I've already pinged my colleagues and then I usually have 2-3 candidates from direct referrals. I request those resumes. I pick one of them and push the original stack into the trash.

It's harsh, but I've also had three jobs in my career where I called in to my old pal Thursday and walked into work Monday. I'm pretty average, but still beat a stack of more qualified people.

My point is, candidates need to seek a way to bypass the "process". Make your resume more of a formality than an integral part of the hiring process.

The resume, if you are going to traditional means, needs to stand out and be EASY to decide on in a flash.

BrazosDog02 said:

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Bingo!

In a small company, the "process" can work. The problem is that most companies are bloated and the process is inefficient and further burdened by the emplacement of derelicts to do important parts of the hiring process.

In your example, searching for MD means you've provided your decision maker with a bunch of junk that's largely all the same. MD are a dime a dozen, just like MS and PhD.

Here is how the "process" works for our company. Some yahoo pre screens resumes from wherever they come from. I end up with 15 resumes to filter through. I'm the one that needs a hire so I know what I'm looking for. But, I'm busy already. So, I skim the stack for names in industry I recognize from my career, then for names I have heard before. If I'm lucky, I'll find one and pull those for interviews. By the time I do that over the week, I've already pinged my colleagues and then I usually have 2-3 candidates from direct referrals. I request those resumes. I pick one of them and push the original stack into the trash.

It's harsh, but I've also had three jobs in my career where I called in to my old pal Thursday and walked into work Monday. I'm pretty average, but still beat a stack of more qualified people.

My point is, candidates need to seek a way to bypass the "process". Make your resume more of a formality than an integral part of the hiring process.

The resume, if you are going to traditional means, needs to stand out and be EASY to decide on in a flash.

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That's absolutely true. Direct networking is still the best way to find a job and to hire.

But as someone that has been recruiting for almost every field for over 25 years, I can find and determine the best candidates without knowing how to engineer or operate.