$2,000 For A Professional Resume Writer? Are You F***ing Kidding?

OK, I have been sitting on this for a few days now not sure what do about it and i wanted to cool down a bit before posting.

I met a dude who after 4.5 months of being out of work decided his resume needed some professional help.

He was right. He showed the original to me and it sucked. Sucked bad. Format, font, symbols, wording, it was awful. He tried. He meant well. Thankfully he realized it was an issue and wanted to do something about it.

So he went “shopping” for a professional resume writer. The guy makes $90K or so and spending some money on a resume was not a bad idea. I know some really good resume writers and they do a good job.

However, this dude found a “Resume Writing Guru”. Yep, that’s what it says on the “professional’s” “web site”. Professional is in quotes because as you will read that title is questionable. Web site is in quotes because his site looks like a 1st grader with color blindness built it.

$2,000 for the two page resume was the quote. WTF?!?!?!?!?!

I saw the end product. Much better than what he had, no doubt. Looked better. Read better.

The problem I have is the “professional” spent 30 minutes on the phone with the dude on the phone and had him fill out a 2 page form. That’s it. Nothing about past work experience. Nothing about what the dude was looking for.

Basically the “professional” cut and paste from the form into what looks like to me a template.

I get that this is not the norm. I get that resumes are one of the keys to getting the interview. I get that if a resume is holding back a dude from a $90K a year job investing in some help is a good thing.

But $2,000?

This wreaks of a “professional” taking advantage of someone in a difficult situation in a difficult time.

Comments

[Kim-free information exchange]

This guru is definitely annoying taking advantage of those who can't make one.For sure he will lose clients.

[Jane Kurtin]

Come on, why do we have to waste money on a "professional" resume writer? The internet has loads to offer and advice regarding writing your own resumes. Like this blog that I stumbled into http://www.integritycareertransitions.com/blog/ I mean, I never thought that we should skip out the References section of the resume till I read that blog!

[Erich Hanson]

Hmmm. This reminds me of a story where a MN Headhunter took $1500 from my company for recruiting services. Never followed through. When challenged, he promised to refund the money, but now avoids all of our calls and e-mails.

[Steve]

I had a similar experience with ladders. They wanted $700 to write my resume. Let's assume it takes them two hours. That's $350 an hour. As if that's not bad enough, when I pushed back on the price, the "resume specialist" insulted me and said I was "putting a price on my career success". How rude can you be?

[Make A Resume]

$2,000 is pretty much an overpriced service. Although investing in a professional resume writer will give a job seeker a significant edge, there are still factors to consider.

You'll have to take into consideration the scope of service they do, the price range, and the amount of satisfaction that their previous customers have.