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Resume services and job mining

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A fellow peer wants to know if resume services are worth the money and if anyone has an effective tip about job mining, as featured in the Sept. 4 CIO Focus e-newsletter. Join career professional Bob Weinstein in offering some solid advice.

14 replies

by pauleugene

I once used a resume service and what they produced was terrible. Maybe it would have been better if it had specialised in IT.
Get books and read articles to get advice but produce the resume yourself.

by damnit

Resume service is waste of money. I used several in past and they produced junk. Than I contacted one of my recruiter friend and asked for some IT executive resumes from his database. Studying other executives resume is the best way to learn how to create an executive resume.

I found that cover latter service is somewhat helpfull. But generic cover letter does not work with every job postings.

by db3031

The resume services do not know your experience. So you have to provide them all the information to create your resume. If you have the information in front of you put it into a resume. Use an example from a book or from the internet. I've not used a service myself however, someone I know tried it, spent way too much money for her to do all the leg work, then she was not satified with it, when they finally finished it. In fact, she ended up changing most of it.
In my humble opinion, DoIt Yourself!

by crm expert

I spent a bundle of money (xx,xxx.xx) and recieved some very nice responses such as "yor skills are quite impressive but at this time...". You get the drift. And I could have done the same thing throught the identification of the types of compnaies (SIC codes) I was targeting, creating a mail merge, and posting the multi-thousand letters.

I have to admit that I did recieve a few calls from HR because the CEO passed it on to see what it was all about. HR is not who I wanted to talk to. HRhas little knowledge of what I do and the value that I bring to the organization.

Save the money and spent the effort focusing yourself on the job and company that you want.

by maryw

You are right-- just sending "direct mail resume's" may not do the trick. What it really takes to get a job in this market is connections. Go to technical and trade events, hand out your business card, and always follow up with the people you talk to. Write or call them to thank them for talking to you when you get even a glimmer of a lead. Find people who will refer you to someone who knows someone. Eventually, that will pay off with some connections. What will get you a job is gentle persistence and good follow-up. As you have discovered, it ain't easy. You need to turn on the charm to get noticed. But it will pay off.

by mus_tang_u

The biggest way to get yourself noticed is WHO YOU KNOW and WHO THEY KNOW. In this industry its always best to never burn the bridges of past friends and coleges in the field.

by jdseigel

You want help in polishing up your resume and probably also improving your networking (people, not computers) skills. There is help available out there, and it isn't with the resume firms. They will give you a cookie-cutter resume that looks and feels like a service created it. What you want to do is joing one of the many groups in every city dedicated to helping people in job transition. These groups typically have a one time charge somewhere between $10 and $100 dollars. They have weeklymeetings and will help you with resumes, job searchs, network contacts, and general advice. You will end up have dozens of people help you with your resume and it will turn out significantly better than if you had gone to a service.

by pydss

What groups are these? I've never heard of them. Wish I had, since I've gone through 3 big moves with the attendant difficulties in making contacts and establishing a professional network.

Thanks!

by barb

There are many groups out there that do as the person previously posted. Our local group is comprised of business people from all walks of life to give a rounded view (get it past the HR office into the hands of who needs it)This group helps with contacts, resumes, decisions for going on own etc. Some of the best contacts are the national members of a trade affiliation group. IEEE, NAFE, Tech republic etc.

by supportmanager

Don't use a resume service, but do get help. What you really need is someone in H.R., public relations, or jouralism to "interview" you. You need an objective friend to ask you probing questions about what you contribute to an organization, what skills you possess, and where you want to go. Have that interviewer write down your answers--that is the information you need to highlight in your resume.

Then, use another friend or associate (preferably a teacher or secretary) to edit and spell-check your resume--do NOT rely on a computer for the spell checking. I see hundreds of resumes a year, and if I find a typo or spelling error, the resume goes straight into the trash--it won't get past most recruiters or H.R. professionals, either.

Finally, meet some people who do the job you want (or supervise that position). Don't ask them for a job, just ask them what they feel is important about their job, what they look for in a competent associate, etc. That is what you stress in your cover letter. Good luck.

by hendry_betts

This job market is a tough time to be looking for anything IT since everything that is wrong with a company seems to either blamed on accounting or IT (or a combination thereof).

If you use a service, you will only get what they know-- which whenit comes to IT is usually NILL. The suggestions posted here about DIY and support groups are RIGHT ON TARGET.

Re: Cover Letters-- you will have to do 99% of the research for the companies in your small community by networking. Find out what you can about the company, it's infrastructure, its needs- by asking one or two pointed questions to get the ball rolling and then just listening. Most people are willing to talk about their needs if you start a conversation with "What kind of computers does your company use at work?". If that dead-ends, I usually follow up with "Does your company/business use a lot of computerized processes." Either one or both of those questions will illicit more information than you can digest in one sittingand give you the ammunition you need to write the killer cover letter. From there, it's a crap shoot.

Best of Luck!!

by jennyred

You want someone in your field who has an eye for detail to go over your resume and make suggestions. Resume services are usually run by non-technical people, and they generally charge a lot and put out cookie-cutter resumes that people can spot a mile away.

The main things about your resume are things any person with good English and technical knowledge will be able to help you with: there should be no spelling, punctuation, or grammatical errors, no typos, and the buzzwords should be sufficient but not excessive.

As for job mining, I'd go to local organizations that cater to technical people, and see who is there. Networking is always the way to go. Services can't get you that warm fuzzy feeling that talking to people can.

by weinsteinrv

You said job opportunities to meet your skills are limited. Are they really? Companies are still hiring CIOs, it's just that jobs are harder to caputure. It means a more creative and aggressive job-hunting approach. It makes perfect sense to take another position to meet your obligatins. The rest of the time should be spent job-searching. It means job mining and every other technique you can think of. As for using resume-writing services? I don't recommend them for a few reasons. It's an easyout. It's also a lazy person's out. A geat resume must have your unique stamp. That means doing it yourself. It will take time and effort, but it's worth it. Resume servies, by the way, can be very expensive.

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