ASME Resume writing service

[Gorpomon]

Hi,

Has anyone used this service available through the ASME career section website?

Currently they charge $500 to do a resume, and $600 to do a resume + cover letter. I spoke with them, and they seemed very nice and informed, but I'm just wondering if anyone's had any problems through them.

Consequently, if anyone can recommend a good service, I'd love that.

In regards to what may be the inevitable "do it yourself!" comments, I'll just say that I've tried, many different ways, and never seem to get interviews, so I figured I'd give this a go. However, comments as to the efficacy, or lack thereof of these services will be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[ctopher]

I have not used them, but the cost seems high to me.
I think there are agencies somewhere that will do as good a job, if not better, for a lower cost.
A Google search may show them.

Chris
SolidWorks 10 SP4.0
ctopher's home
SolidWorks Legion

 

[MiketheEngineer]

A Google search may even find you sample resumes... Word comes with a few..

 

[jpankask]

My alma mater offers resume services to alumni, maybe yours does as well? Or perhaps a local university if you are not near your old university. That seems like quite a high price to do a resume with no guarantee of a job.

 

[IRstuff]

Seems to me that unless they guarantee getting an interview, it's awfully expensive, particularly the cover letter @ $100. If you applied to 30 companies, which wouldn't be unusual, that would be $3000 without any expectation of a payback.

TTFN

FAQ731-376
Chinese prisoner wins Nobel Peace Prize

 

[MikeHalloran]

A friend who is a Certified Professional Resume Writer (there is such a thing) gave my resume a tune-up, for free. At the time I did not realize how big a favor it was.

Bottom line: The few simple changes she made, mostly in the resume's structure, not its content, had a significant impact on the measured response rate. The modified version, IOW, worked way better, despite using the same words.

Thereafter, I used that format as a basis for evolution of successive versions.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[tygerdawg]

You CAN roll your own, but it takes time & effort to research good formats and examples. If you don't have good research skills or the time you burn doing it is painful, then $500 could be justified as a job hunting expense.

It's all voodoo out there though, IMHO. Every person who looks at a resume will bring their own subjective criteria to the party. Recruiters I've used have reformatted my resume to suit their personality and lost me interviews. Many online resume submittal forms only allow one to put in the most basic of facts and a lot of context is lost. It's such a screwed up system that I don't see anybody can find a job, or how an employer can find the right employee.

This has been discussed ad infinitum here, search and learn. A couple bits of advice: one resume format doesn't suit all purposes. Customize it to the company or the person as much as possible. But keep track of to whom you sent what version as it serves two purposes: (1) avoid embarrassment and (2) see which recruiter is bootlegging your resume by tracking the format. I still get the odd call 10 years later over resumes I submitted way back when, and I know who is maintaining my ancient history in their database. Also, my contention is that companies receive an tsunami of resumes when they post an opening. The hiring manager allots 12.7 milliseconds to scanning each resume to separate good / bad. Your format must catch their eye in that 12.7 milliseconds, make sure that it does. Heavy detail can be discussed at a later time.

TygerDawg
Blue Technik LLC
Virtuoso Robotics Engineering

http://www.bluetechnik.com

 

[MikeHalloran]

One other reason for tracking who gets what resume:

You can evolve the format and/or the content by changing one thing at a time and looking for a change in the response rate.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[PeterStock]

If you do end up paying for a resume service, I think it is tax deductable.

Peter Stockhausen
Senior Design Analyst (Checker)
Infotech Aerospace Services

http://www.infotechpr.net

http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=30064526&trk=tab_pro

 

[KENAT]

Well, your local employment office may do it for free, however, my understanding is there's a big difference between technical resumes & not technical.

Plus, some large organizations (such as US fed govt) have their own preferred format which flagrantly breach much of the advice you see on here or various websites about such things.

This, combined with the fact that every potential resume reader will have their own preferences etc., and the fact that as mentioned by Tygerdawg many places require you to apply online through their own resume mangler system, makes resume writing real trick in my opinion.

I had my sister in law who's prepared resumes before professionally go over mine a few years back. Much of what she did was formatting stuff in Word, which I'd intentionally left out because most places I'd applied wanted simpler formats - it did look a lot nicer once she was finished though. She also rephrased some areas and actually took out one phrase which happened to be what caught the eye of guy that hired me for my current job. She basically admitted that she didn't know a lot of the technical jargon etc. which limited what she could do. So I appreciate the help she gave me, but it didn't seem to make much improvement in how much interest I saw.

I've heard similar complaints from others that went to resume writing seminars after getting laid off from here, that basically the 'experts' didn't seem familiar with technical resumes.

$500 sounds a lot, though hopefully they'd at least have some idea on the peculiar requirements for Engineering Resumes.

Also, with online submittable etc. the cover letter seems less & less significant, instead you end up having to customize your resume significantly each time.

Of course though, if you actually know someone to give a hard copy resume/cover letter to (or even email), then that's another matter.

Posting guidelines faq731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

(probably not aimed specifically at you)
What is Engineering anyway: faq1088-1484​

 

[photoengineer]

I think the absolute best way of writing better resumes is to read other people's resumes.

You can join a committee that issues awards through a professional society, get on a scholarship committee through a college or university. I suppose you could run an ad on Craigslist advertising an engineering position, but that'd be unethical....

Some of the professional societies let me look at others resumes, and at work I can view resumes that coworkers have posted.

When you've had a chance to read other people's resumes, you'll have an idea of what pops and what doesn't pop.

Reading other's resumes is far better than a $600 resume writing service.

Cedar Bluff Engineering

http://cedarbluffengineering.webs.com

 

[swertel]

I was using my own resume since college. I finally decided to pay for a resume writing service to tune it up. It made a HUGE difference in getting my foot into the door for interviews. Granted, it didn't win me the jobs, just the interviews, but without it I wasn't even getting that far.

I only paid for it once and just copy the style any time I need to make changes. I haven't paid for another re-write since that first one. But, I will attest to the value of having it done professionally at least once. I wish I could remember how much I paid for it. It was a few hundred bucks, and worth every penny.

--Scott

http://wertel.eng.pro

 

[SiliconeAurora]

I can't imagine paying that much money for this. If I was ever really worried about my resume, it seems like it couldn't be too hard to do some quick google-based research, find some that look real professional, and make my own look about that good by playing around in word for a little bit. I'd rather spend a few hours in an evening than a few hundred bucks.