Arizona Resume

Barbara is a nice, sweet, older lady and I hate to give her such a bad review, but this is my life and my money. So here goes:

I lost my job on a Friday about noon and spent the afternoon looking online at Phoenix area resume writing websites. I found AAA Resume Service. I thought the website looked professional, liked the FOX news clip, and saw her pricing. I honestly rationalized the price by thinking "If she can get away with those prices, she must be good." I felt desperate about my life circumstance, and figured that for the first time in my life, it would be worth paying a serious professional. I had very little time to find a job and needed one very quick, so I called Barbara. We spoke on the phone, and despite having a very well-written chronological resume, she said it would still cost $350. I went for it. She said "rush delivery" was not an option for her because she was so busy. She said it would take about a week. I told her I would email her my resume. I emailed her my thoughts and my chronological resume after we hung up the phone Friday evening. I wanted a pared down version of my chronological resume, but she told me I should choose a field and focus. So, I chose administrative support since those jobs' deadlines were closing in on us.

She called me on that Monday and started asking me questions that were already answered on my over detailed, chronological resume. I told her about this and she said that she hadn't checked her email yet. So, she looked at the email and the resume while we were on the phone, and, thankfully, said we didn't need to do an interview. Meanwhile, another line was ringing in the background and she had trouble understanding what I was saying. I called her on Wednesday to see how my resume was coming along because I'd just found a job that I wanted to apply to and the deadline was that night. She looked at my file and said that she had told me it would be ready on Thursday (tomorrow) but that she hadn't started on it. This was Wednesday afternoon. She said it would get done.

Thursday afternoon, she sent me the resume. Visually, it looked nice and was something that I wouldn't have been able to do myself. She also included testimonials from my letters of rec.

However, I was mystified as to why she left out all my leadership experience and used the job title of "Intern" for all 4 well-paying State and Federal internships. I had real job titles because they were real jobs with wages, taxes, and hiring letters. I got paid more at those internships than I did with my most previous ASU job that I'd just lost. Finally, she included nanny experience for this administrative support resume but left out my supervisory experience at resort/hotel restaurant. This didn't make common sense. These were red flags to me. When I asked her to add the (outdoor) leadership experience, the final product (bullet points) didn't even make sense to someone who has worked in the outdoors (me) or to someone who hadn't ever worked in the outdoors (my friend). WTH?

But I decided not to jump to conclusions and to wait and see how I felt about the resume. I combed over it for 8 days, and decided that I could have written it exactly the same or even better if I had just had the time to do it. Even though I had just lost my job, my "regular" life didn't end and I had other deadlines, commitments, and a non-elective surgery scheduled. Hence, paying $350 for a professional resume writer seemed worth it to me.

So, I finally called another Phoenix area company that employs former head hunters. From the get-go, I knew I was speaking with a professional. I emailed the new resume service-- that already had 8 positive Yelp reviews-- to share my thoughts, concerns, questions; my chronological resume that detailed years of seasonal work and a great undergraduate education; and a job description for a job that I'm dying to get.

After only a couple of hours, the agent had read all my material 4 free and then suggested we do a resume revamp $145 since I had already documented in detail my professional and educational experience. Even though I suggested purchasing 3 different field-specific resumes, she stated that she could write a focused resume about my skills and what I can bring to the position since documenting every seasonal or temp job I've ever had would only make me look bad. She said the skill-focused resume she could write could be used for many other jobs in related fields, too. I asked her about a cover letter and moved forward with that for only $99 more.

She said that Barbara's format wouldn't work for some automated HR resume readers & didn't have much industry language. The new agent told me that Barbara simply regurgitated my chronological resume sans my leader. & super. experience. Now, I feel like I have a bull dog in my corner, and have moved forward with this new company. I'm shelling out $250 more for 2 doc's, which is $100 less than I paid Barbara for 1 outdated doc.