CV writing services - worth it?

illusionek

I am in early 30s so doubt very much it is because of my age. I will have another go on my CV then but I have been updating it so many times so not sure what else I can change there.

Many thanks all for your advise!

ceegee

I have been told that frequently CVs are initially scanned by machine, rather than by a person, and that if the CV does not contain words relevant to the position applied for then they are automatically "binned" and won't make it to human hands/eyes. Great, isn't........to be judged by a machine instead of a person. What a way to treat people, it's totally dehumanising and so wrong,IMO. I wish you all the best in your job search.

Nathaniel_Essex

My friend paid £hundreds for his CV and I took his format. Happy to share it with you.

I noticed a difference but only when I changed it. I had to spend a lot of time tweaking it and the less I had on the page the better the responses were. It's more about the format first more than the content I find.

I am a middle manager in professional services and noticed that most of my job opportunities don't come from applying directly but through recruiters. I don't feel internal recruitment teams do a good enough job scanning through CV's. For example, I applied to work for an accountancy firm directly and got a generic reply a few weeks later saying my application was not successful. A recruiter got in touch with me regarding the same position and not only did they interview me straight away, they were practically begging for me to join.

[Deleted User]

illusionek wrote: »

Many thanks for all your comments. I am at a loss why I am not getting any interviews. I know for fact I am not aiming out of my league and salary wise I am within reason for my skills and experience.

I dont really believe in value CV writing services bring but have no better ideas. Clearly the issue must be with CV if I dont get calls for interview?

Absolutely hate job hunting!!

It's the mass amount of people applying for work.

I've been for an interview today in my home county and they remarked when they last looked 4 months ago they had a really disappointing turn out and this time it is different. Job has only been up 24 hours and apparently they have had so many applications already. And ironically this is with the employer I submit my CV at 10pm at night who then gets back to me 10am next day offering interview - can you see how mad it is out there!! Anyway that took away the misery of last week's straight three rejections, even though I feel realistically today is a no, it's pretty good to know what I'm up against and nice to feel wanted is way I look at it.

A lot of it is also employers wanting immediate starts so I'd try not to take the knock backs so hard.

TyreLever

Has anyone here actually paid for a CV writing service? If so send that CV to a couple of other CV writing services and see if they say "your CV is outstanding, there is little we could do to improve it".

Ja7188

ceegee wrote: »

I have been told that frequently CVs are initially scanned by machine, rather than by a person, and that if the CV does not contain words relevant to the position applied for then they are automatically "binned" and won't make it to human hands/eyes. Great, isn't........to be judged by a machine instead of a person. What a way to treat people, it's totally dehumanising and so wrong,IMO. I wish you all the best in your job search.

Yes - I believe most companies, especially larger ones, use this type of system to sift through the volume of applications they receive, most of which are probably completely unsuited to the roles. Apparently these systems are available for free...!

Has anyone who has had their CV written professionally seen an increase in interview invites afterwards?

illusionek

I have been doing some research following my post and all your comments. I did not appreciate before impact of AST screening on my chances of getting interview. I have completely reformatted my CV as previously I had some tables to improve formatting which apparently dont work well with AST.

I thought I share it in case it was useful for anyone else.

macman

illusionek wrote: »

I am in early 30s so doubt very much it is because of my age. I will have another go on my CV then but I have been updating it so many times so not sure what else I can change there.

Many thanks all for your advise!

I would simply get your CV professionally proof read and laid out, no need to spend hundreds on a so-called CV writing service. Is English perhaps not your first language? I make that comment because there are a number of spelling mistakes and grammatical quirks in your posts, albeit small ones.
If an employer has many CV's to process, they need an initial way to thin them down, and may reject yours out of hand for this reason.

Smodlet

macman wrote: »

Is English perhaps not your first language? I make that comment because there are a number of spelling mistakes and grammatical quirks in your posts, albeit small ones.
If an employer has many CV's to process, they need an initial way to thin them down, and may reject yours out of hand for this reason.

I noticed that too, macman. OP, you might benefit from learning how we use articles in English as you frequently omit them. This signals that English is not your first language and that you are probably Eastern European; am I correct?

If you can stand it, I strongly recommend you read some English classics; whatever you think of Jane Austen, her use of language is beautiful. Avoid Shakespeare; his English is not English most employers can understand.

TyreLever

Smodlet wrote: »

I noticed that too, macman. OP, you might benefit from learning how we use articles in English as you frequently omit them. This signals that English is not your first language and that you are probably Eastern European; am I correct?

If you can stand it, I strongly recommend you read some English classics; whatever you think of Jane Austen, her use of language is beautiful. Avoid Shakespeare; his English is not English most employers can understand.

That's because his English is irritating gibberish. Apparently they still teach his work in schools (I rarely went to school), which is absolutely ridiculous considering there is no relevance for it today. If I could go back in time, I would probably trip over Hitler and shoot Shakespeare. The man was a knob.