Need Recommendation for Professional CV Writing

azngamer on 14/02/2025 - 11:24
Last edited 14/02/2025 - 16:45 by 1 other user

Hi OzBargain,

I have been working for 5+ years at my current job and want to start searching for a new job.

I know for a fact that I'm terrible with my resume/CV. I spend days making edits and writing cover letter for a job posting and never hear back.

I dread needing to do it all over again.

Can anyone recommend any person/company that are professional CV/resume writers that you have had good experience with?

I don't want it written by AI, I can ChatGPT myself. I need someone who has experience getting people through to an interview.

Would love to also hear about what the engagement is like, do you send a draft, they review it, then ask you questions to clarify a few points then produce amazing CVs?

Since this is OzBargain, how much am I expecting to spend?

Final note, I work in technical field, engineering.

Thanks,

• 

  boomramada on 14/02/2025 - 11:44

  Zero, you could ask your colleague or pimp (a person in a job agency) to check it for you.

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  Hybroid on 14/02/2025 - 12:02

  -1

  An Engineer that isn't capable of writing a CV outlining their knowledge and experience?

  It's worth noting the current Engineering market is on a downhill at the moment. Many large-scale projects are coming to an end, with govt not approving/funding new ones and private clients still tentative on spending big money too.

  • 

    azngamer on 14/02/2025 - 13:13

    +1

    Outlining knowledge and experience is not difficult. It's the what other parts like getting it through ATS screening, what to include, what to omit.

    Also, I cannot compliment myself for my achievements even if my life depended on it.

    Looking through online resources, I see a lot of mixed messages on what you should and should not include.

    That's why I am after a professional that can go through my resume, know what needs fixing and fixing it.

  • 

    Jolakot on 14/02/2025 - 13:14

    +6

    You're not paying someone to write your CV, you're paying someone to grease it up so that it slides straight through ATS systems onto the top of the stack. And more recently, so that when the lazy hiring manager pastes it into chatgpt because they can't be arsed reading it, you get a glowing recommendation.

    It's like SEO, 90% of it is cargo-cult nonsense that hasn't worked for years, but the fraction that is accurate pushes you above everyone else against a black-box system.

    I worked for a large contracting agency that had one of these guys on staff, whose entire job was to reverse-engineer the hiring systems of their clients to win contracts. When I first joined he went through my CV and picked it apart, I thought he was being weirdly pedantic until he showed me the absolute mess of an automated profile his demo system created from it.

    Stuff like how my resume was being downgraded because I had my contact details in the header, which the system didn't recognize in whatever format it converted the document to. And how it downgraded my education because I put "XYZ University", which didn't match its white-list of recognized institutions as it was expecting either "XYZ University of Technology" or just "XYZ". And because I put my skills in a table, which it somehow mangled into a single line without spacing. And because I wrote "NodeJS" when it was looking for either "Node" or "Node.js". And because I didn't explicitly add 'fluff' like CSS and HTML as skills.

    No idea if all systems are that stupid, but it sure lowered my expectations of that whole industry.

    • 

      azngamer on 14/02/2025 - 13:34

      +1

      That's exactly what I am after Jolakot.

      I don't need friends and work colleagues to look through and give tips on what they think will give me a better chance at the next application.

      I need someone who understands the meta of the recruitment process

    • 

      Dollar General on 14/02/2025 - 13:35

      There will be many posts that say use ChatGPT etc with these people not understanding how the system works. Your description is spot on

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  Downvoter on 14/02/2025 - 13:31

  +2

  Spend 5 minutes on ChatGPT and canva and all sorted.

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  beltdrive on 14/02/2025 - 15:37

  +1

  If you use LinkedIn and keep it updated, it's a good place to start, as you can download a resume based on your profile

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  BewareOfThe Dog on 14/02/2025 - 23:42

  +1

  Worse thing, is some sites don't preload, and you have to put itagain manually. Argh.