Should You Pay To Have a Resume Written?

This is a question that a lot of people will ask; if it is worth the cost to pay for having your resume written by someone other than you; i.e. a professional. When there are so many free resume formats and resume samples available on the internet for no charge, should you? Well this is a question you can answer taking into consideration the following points:

Cost : The first point to consider is of course the cost of having a resume written. A professional may charge as much as $ 100 to $ 300 for a professionally written resume. This will of course do the job of setting you apart from other applicants with a professionally designed and drafted resume. But consider the fact that your own efforts will also do the same.

You could get a cheaper quote from a person who will write your resume professionally, but then you may want to consider that what you get for $ 25 may not be as good as what you get for the pricier ones.

Finding the right person: There are a lot of people who will promise you the moon; basically guarantee that you will pretty much land the job by virtue of having you resume written professionally. However it would be fairly difficult to find someone who is sufficiently experienced in the recruiting and human resources segment who does this for a living. Also a really experienced professional will demand quite a bit of your own input into the process of writing the resume. You can expect a half to one hour consultation with the writer asking questions about your skills and experience etc.

Will he or she be able to add value to your resume? Find out if the writer has the requisite skills and experience to add value to your resume and whether you can find the same value addition from one of the free resume formats available online. Is the person particularly aware of or knowledgeable about your particular profession or industry? For instance does the writer know what the keywords he would be highlighting in order to make sure that your resume is finding the correct employer are? This is of particular importance when you are submitting your resume to online job recruitment sites.

Do you really need help with what most people will agree should be a one page document? After all you know yourself best; you know your abilities, skill and qualifications best. Do you really need someone to find that out and say it for you? With a bit of imagination, some attention to design and layout and a bit of proof reading, can you really not do the job better by yourself?

So once you have considered all of these points you can conclude whether it is worth your while to spend what may well be hundreds of dollars finding a person to write a resume for you. So what would make more sense is to find appropriate free resume samples from the internet and have a go at doing the job yourself. If you feel that your own efforts leave a lot to be desired, then perhaps you need professional help.