It's that time again for me to revise my resume and I thought I had done a pretty good job of it myself, until I went home for Christmas and my brother-in-law basically told me it was worthless. Under normal circumstances, I probably would have told him to shove it and his assessment would not have had any impact on me whatsoever, but the fact is that it has been four months and I have yet to land one interview. Something is obviously not working, so once again I am on the quest to find a legitimate professional resume writing service and once again, it is an enormous project. The last time I did this, I ended up getting completely disgusted with the majority of resume writing websites and decided not to use a service and try it myself. Since I knew what I was getting into this time around, I started from legitimate websites like the NY Public Library and used the links/resources they provided. After I narrowed it down to a handful of legitimate professional resume writing services, I did a general google search for each one to find any complaints, reviews and comments from real people who had used their services. I found a lot of the same type of fake reviews and fake review websites that I had the first time around, but I also found some real reviewers and real customers and I was sure to read all the fine print on the websites carefully. (I will let you know which service I ended up going with and I will give you an honest review of their services and my level of satisfaction in another post after I get my resume and have had time to evaluate their services.)
In the mean time, I want to mention the fake review sites that are either paid to write positive reviews about the company or are an affiliate of the company or are part of a combined agreement between several companies to create a fake review website in order to provide a facade of legitimacy and make it seem as though the review site is in no way affiliated with the companies being reviewed. I know this sounds confusing if you don't know what I'm talking about so let me put it this way. Company XYZ provides a resume writing service and they have a website companyXYZ.com where you can purchase resume writing services from them, BUT they also create a website called resume-writing-services-reviews.com. They create and pay for this fake review site and the reviews are not real because they are either written by the company or by someone who has been paid by the company to write a great review. Sometimes multiple companies will team up and pay to create a fake review site together. Here is an example:
Compare Resume Services
This is what they state as the purpose/description of their website:
"To assist you in your search, we have compiled not only a list of the
top 10 resume writing services,
but an in-depth analysis of their guarantees, credentials, turnaround
time, service fees, and much more! If you are looking for an unbiased,
third-party
comparison
of the best resume companies in business today, simply visit our Resume Service Reviews page to learn more."
I added the emphasis to show you that is a blatantly FALSE statement. It is most certainly NOT a third-party nor is it unbiased. For one needs only scroll down the page to find the contradiction and proof of an affiliation at the very bottom in small print:
"Disclosure: The owner of this website is an affiliate for providers of services mentioned on this website and may be compensated when you purchase from a provider."
It is almost laughable to take companies like this seriously. Almost. It's not laughable because they actually succeed in tricking many people to hand over a lot of money for something that most likely will not be up to par. That is not to say that all the companies are horrible or should not be used, but any company that participates in false advertising or pays money in order to deceive people is not a company I want to do any business with- especially for something as important as a resume. I should note that it is not just resume writing services who do this. Virtually any product or company does it. If you are looking for a TV or a smartphone and google "TV reviews" or "best smartphone" you will find all kinds of sites like "best-tvs-reviewed.com" or "compare-smartphones.com" etc.
When it comes to reading reviews online, the bottom line is: don't believe everything you read. While I suppose a large number of reviews for any company or service are legitimate, there is also rampant abuse of the reviewing system no matter what the site. Desperate companies or individuals will spam sites with false reviews or pay someone else to do it or even have something along the lines of a spam-bot do it. Always use common sense and check to see if the reviewers have other reviews about other services/companies. Are there multiple reviews that all seem to be posted around the same date/time? Are there several reviews that seem to be using the same wording or wording that sounds like it came from a commercial or just sounds inauthentic? If it's an interactive message board or forum, reply to a reviewer and see if they reply back. If they do, ask for specifics. If they start to fall apart or seem way too invested in defending the company, then it's very likely that person is affiliated with the company and not an actual customer.
As far as customer satisfaction and professionalism are concerned, if you really want to check up on a company or service, go to the BBB website. Even companies that are not accredited by the BBB can have a rating and helpful information. For example, Careers Plus Resumes is NOT accredited by the BBB and has a rating of C-. It also has more information on legitimate complaints made against the company and the company's responses to those complaints. Any information on the BBB website cannot be faked, so this is a good way to go if you are getting contradictory information online. Here is the link to the BBBs rating and information for Careers Plus Resumes, which is just one example of a company I would never use:
http://www.bbb.org/nashville/business-reviews/resume-service/careers-plus-resumes-in-gallatin-tn-37018432
