Putting together a quality CV or finessing it can feel like a lot of effort, especially when you’re in a rush to find a new role.
Which makes it all the more demoralising when recruiters and employers only spend an average of 5-10 seconds glancing at it!
Ouch!
With this in mind, is it a good idea to use a professional CV writing service?
As experts in their field, can they help you increase the average time spent looking at a CV and leave a real “WOW” factor?
Below, I’ve put together a few pros and cons for you to mull over – hopefully, it’ll help you make a more informed decision.
The pros of hiring a CV writing service
Quality content
Providing you are able to find a good CV writer to help you out, you should benefit from quality content.
This includes no typos or grammatical issues – which can often determine an employer’s decision to hire or not.
CV writers can help deliver top results
There’s a common misconception where a lot of people believe that CV writers don’t have a clue about the particulars of each industry and only the applicant themselves can write it.
The reality is, a reputable CV writer will get to know your needs, the ins and outs of the job and your career experience to create a brilliant end product.
Enhancing the content of your CV and having a professional spend an added amount of time on it will give you the very best chance of making a positive impression with the employer.
It will also give you more time to continue with your job search too.
You’ll have a starting point
At the end of the day, hiring a CV writer isn’t necessarily something you need to do every time you apply for a different job.
Not unless money grows on trees in your household!
CV writers will give you a quality basis for you to then tweak yourself.
Nowadays, most of the good ones will send it over in Word format so you can edit it whenever you want.
You can then build on their hard work and create a series of customised ones depending on the specific job opening.
The cons of hiring a CV writing service
It costs money!
According to the CV Store, acquiring the services of a CV writer can range from £49 up to £200 – depending on what package you opt for.
For instance, you can really splash out for a specialist CV with a cover letter too or just ask for a same-day (12-hour) CV revamp.
If you have the money to spare, then go for it.
Otherwise, it might be worth doing it yourself.
Your CV still needs editing
Within days, you might have to tweak your CV yourself.
As I mentioned before, personalisation is key to CV success, so it simply isn’t feasible to get a professional to constantly make different versions for you.
It comes with no guarantees
However much experience you have or how incredible your application is, the reality is that hiring a CV writer won’t guarantee you a job interview.
It’s out of their remit and is your sole responsibility.
Bearing this in mind, can you justify spending between £49 and £200 on a service which doesn’t necessarily generate you instant results?
Well, there are two ways of looking at it.
Ask yourself; do you think that you honestly would have had a better chance of landing an interview if you had written your CV?
If the answer is yes, then you don’t need one.
On the flip side, if you aren’t successful the first time around, at least you’ve got a quality CV that will give you every opportunity to succeed when the next job vacancy crops up.
Pro recruiter top tip
Looking for a slightly different style of CV to make a lasting impression on an employer? Then you may want to consider these ‘6 Creative CV Ideas That Will Wow Recruiters’:
- Infographic CVs
- Video CVs
- Personal websites
- A promotional pack/CV
As a word of warning, you may struggle to find a CV writer who is a trained designer or videographer, so it might be worth coming up with the content yourself and hiring a professional who specialises in these fields.
Final thoughts
At the end of the day, deciding whether it’s worth hiring a CV writer to help you out or not depends on these very variables.
For generic results, there’s no harm in getting a pro to pull together the meaty parts of your CV.
However, if you want something personalised for every single job application, you’ll have to make the changes yourself.
You should also bear in mind that finding the right CV writing service in itself will require some consideration too.
Think of it this way, just because you hire a builder to fix your roof, it doesn’t mean that they’ll be any good at what they do.
Like everything, there are good CV writing services and bad.
If you can spare the research time and money, then go for it.
Otherwise, I’d recommend reading our CV Writing Checklist: 11 Steps to a Brilliant CV.
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