Why would you NOT pay for a professional resume review from the WSO Resume Review Service?

Why would you NOT pay for a professional resume review from the WSO Resume Review Service?

Too expensive
52% (215 votes)
My resume already is perfect / I know best
21% (85 votes)
I am not applying to jobs right now and don't expect to any time soon
10% (40 votes)
I don't comprehend ROI and figure $199 to help land an interview is not worth it when I spend $1,000s on my education :)
8% (35 votes)
Already used an inferior service and don't want to pay twice
3% (11 votes)
Other (please comment)
5% (19 votes)
N/A, already have purchased
2% (8 votes)
Total votes: 413
 

Even though the price is quite expensive, I think the main problem is (if your question is in fact: "Why isn't so many people using our resume review service?") that many people actually get their resume reviewed in the "resume forum" section.

Why would somebody who's interested in getting his resume reviewed pay $200 if he could get a less professional service (but by people who work in the industry) for free at the same place?

Secondly, many people here are self aware and have already worked a lot on their resume so they probably don't want to spend $200 to get minor corrections. (Offering an "adjustment resume review" could be an answer i.e.: 2-5 minor corrections).

These are my thoughts and my assumptions could be completely wrong since I have no idea of how many people use this service.

 
MEvolutionToday:
Secondly, many people here are self aware and have already worked a lot on their resume so they probably don't want to spend $200 to get minor corrections. (Offering an "adjustment resume review" could be an answer i.e.: 2-5 minor corrections).

I think this is spot on. The service might be more appealing for someone who has only just started working on their resume, but this is not the typical situation for most job-seekers. Many people probably feel that they have already spent much time bringing up their resume to a good level.

 
MEvolutionToday:
Why would somebody who's interested in getting his resume reviewed pay $200 if he could get a less professional service (but by people who work in the industry) for free at the same place?

Secondly, many people here are self aware and have already worked a lot on their resume so they probably don't want to spend $200 to get minor corrections. (Offering an "adjustment resume review" could be an answer i.e.: 2-5 minor corrections).

Good points...I'd say for

1 The advice they get from the free resume review forum is usually not nearly as in qualified (often from college students) and usually does not go into nearly the depth that a review does to change bullet wording, delve further into the background of the candidate, reorder, quanitfying responsibilities and results, etc.

2. I can see students thinking that they have already worked a lot on their resume, but more often than not, the hours they have spent (and with a career center counselor) still leaves the resume in a pretty average state. The range of clients is huge... from very impressive target students who have spent countless hours "perfecting" their resume and have great experience, to those that need a lot more help. In all cases, almost every single time we do much more than 4-5 "minor" revisions...that's the tough part. I think there have been only a handful of resume that we have sent back and said "you are all good", you won't get enough out of this revision to make it worth your $. Usually there is at least 1 major improvement (layout, wording, order, leaving out something critical, removing something stupid, etc) that can make a difference.

...but I guess I'm biased because I can see first hand the before and after results. Either way, thanks for the feedback!

 
WallStreetOasis.com:
...but I guess I'm biased

Yes!

WallStreetOasis.com:
because I can see first hand the before and after results.

Nope, that's not the reason... ;)

The main reason I've never used a service like this was already stated - if you've made it as far as WSO and M&I template, then the feeling is kind of "I can take it from here". Rightly so, in most cases.

To reel in this crowd of semi-advanced people, perhaps offer a "free quick glance"? Just look at the CV for 5 secs, and you should already be able to tell the person "on a scale from 1 to 10, the optimization potential for this CV is ___". Just to give them idea where they stand. Obviously, this would mean you'd have to build an "honest" reputation over time by leaving money on the table occasionally by basically telling people "there's potential, but probably not 200$ potential".

 

How does the service work? Do I send in a resume, and then you guys send me back a corrected version? If that's the case, then I feel like I am in the same boat as those who feel they've already worked on their resume enough.

What would help me more is if I could send you a list of everything I did at each of my internships, and then you guys would select the best bits out of that to put in my resume. In fact, if I could just give you all my info, and then you guys would make a resume out of it, I would definitely pay for the service.

 
stackerquad:
How does the service work? Do I send in a resume, and then you guys send me back a corrected version? If that's the case, then I feel like I am in the same boat as those who feel they've already worked on their resume enough.

What would help me more is if I could send you a list of everything I did at each of my internships, and then you guys would select the best bits out of that to put in my resume. In fact, if I could just give you all my info, and then you guys would make a resume out of it, I would definitely pay for the service.

Agreed. My problem isn't formatting, but I would definitely pay for someone to e.g. make my middle office experience sound good. A resume service can't do that by using the material I already have in my resume, but would be able to do so if I sent a word document with all the stuff I did in plain English and you pick the best stuff and put it into bullet format.

 
Boreed:
stackerquad:
How does the service work? Do I send in a resume, and then you guys send me back a corrected version? If that's the case, then I feel like I am in the same boat as those who feel they've already worked on their resume enough.

What would help me more is if I could send you a list of everything I did at each of my internships, and then you guys would select the best bits out of that to put in my resume. In fact, if I could just give you all my info, and then you guys would make a resume out of it, I would definitely pay for the service.

Agreed. My problem isn't formatting, but I would definitely pay for someone to e.g. make my middle office experience sound good. A resume service can't do that by using the material I already have in my resume, but would be able to do so if I sent a word document with all the stuff I did in plain English and you pick the best stuff and put it into bullet format.

see above.

 
stackerquad:
How does the service work? Do I send in a resume, and then you guys send me back a corrected version? If that's the case, then I feel like I am in the same boat as those who feel they've already worked on their resume enough.

What would help me more is if I could send you a list of everything I did at each of my internships, and then you guys would select the best bits out of that to put in my resume. In fact, if I could just give you all my info, and then you guys would make a resume out of it, I would definitely pay for the service.

We essentially do this with an extensive questionnaire and follow up questions to make sure we are getting all of your best experience highlighted in the best possible manner for whatever industry you are targeting.

We request a current resume as well to work off of since it's a good way to see what you think is most important and gives us a baseline to build on. sometimes we get extremely sparse resume that can barely fill a page, sometimes we get 2-3 page resumes that tell a life story and need to be paired down. We work with both to get them to 1 solid page.

 
chi312:
You are missing the following option: "This is all information that can be had for free from the alumni I need to network with in the first place."

That would imply that your resume is up to par = the "my resume is perfect / I know best" option...ie you've either taken the time to have it reviewed by several alumni and/or you know best.

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