Professional CV writers....where to start to look for one..

[bizzey]

There are so many when I google !

Any pointers on what to look for when choosing one ?

What would give off warning bells or big no. No s?

Thanks.

Are there any that focus on the kind of industry you work in/ want to work in? Would that help narrow the field?

Generic CV advice would be incredibly unhelpful for anyone wanting to work in my industry - TV production - and I would guess that that might be the case for other industries too.

@PinkArt thank you for replying.

CV is not for me .
Trying to point DS into the right direction.
He has just got his degree .
He sent me his draft CV .

I am no expert ...but ...his CV didn't sing out anything to me !

He has loads to offer ...just can't word it right!

Rules of thumb:

• reverse chronological order
• clear headings
• bullet points starting with verbs about responsibilities or achievements

He needs to tailor it to every company he applies for. What industry is he going for?

I was at a career network event for my specialism yesterday and they had a slot for three recruitment specialists to do a Q&A, and someone asked this exact question. All said they’d do it for free for people they thought they could place. They said to use a Word template to get the info all together and they’d edit it until it looked right.

Honestly I don’t think professional CV writers provide any value. If your son is looking at graduate schemes they will all have their own application forms. I think your son’s time will be better spent using Google for advice on specific companies he wants to apply for and using free templates online.

I honestly wouldn't waste your time. I'd go online and get a good template and use that.

They don't add value, your son will be able to access free support via his uni careers service as a graduate!

This is also a very good point!!

With CVs it’s what’s in them rather than how they’re presented that counts surely?

Goodness me, people pay other people to write their CVs? I really can't see how someone you don't know is going to do a better job than you (or I should say: your son).

What sort of job is he going for? A graduate CV should be no more than 2 sides. Half of the first side is name, address, education history (I would include university, A-levels and GCSEs together with grades). If he speaks any other languages, also put those. Then any work history/work experience to date. This is where to highlight the "work skills" he has developed, such as if he had a retail Saturday job "I developed strong customer-facing skills in this role".

At the end he could put any interests/hobbies if he has any (don't bother with reading, cooking, or other general activities, but if say he loves kite surfing or plays a sport to a high level, put that).

Thank you everyone.
This has really helped.

If you were reading a CV ...what would stand out more ...

Willingness to continue developing skills and learning ...

Or a very reduced working skills environment .....which equals zero .

Job wise ...he would like to go in his field ...but not necessarily a graduate job.

What is his field OP? Some people here may be able to advise more specifically

a very reduced working skills environment

Not sure what you mean, here?

With graduate CVs, keep it clear and simple and concise. No waffling!

Does his university careers department offer 1:1 appointments? That would be first place I’d check. If so get him to do his best following any online guidance they give, then take his CV along with the job description of his target role.

I used to do a lot of recruitment and interviewing - what I've told my own DC is to make a HUGE, master CV with everything you've ever done in it, from leading a scout troop to cave diving as well as your academic qualifications. List everything in chronological order, make sure you have times and dates. It's a mammoth task. Add to it as you do new things (and remember old ones). Make sure you have a skills section with WHAT you can do and a real life example of you doing it. So "leadership" might be demonstrated by leading the scouts or being captain of your uni soccer team.

THIS IS NOT FOR SENDING TO ANYONE

You then use this to tailor the CVs and applications you make for jobs. Not all jobs ask for a CV, if they don't ask for it then they will ignore it. We had detailed job specs ("candidate MUST have X,Y,Z, etc) and your application would have the best chance of succeeding if you went through that job spec showing EXACTLY how you fitted each of the criteria required with EXAMPLES. So many people would put things like "I have good leadership skills" ........ but no examples to back it up.

Because of equalities legislation an employer has to show their recruitment is fair, so a candidate must show they fulfil all the required criteria. We had to score the applications and then only those above a certain score got to interview. At interview everyone had to be asked the same questions.

So the CV is for YOU to keep track of what you have done and when. Each job will require you to pick and choose the relevant items from it for that post. There is no 'one size fits all' - if you send a load of stuff that is irrelevant then it will do you no favours as it shows a lack of ability to prioritise.

'Willingness to continue to develop skills'

Don't say this, it's silly - he's a grad, so it's assumed on a grad scheme he's there to learn.

'Willingness to continue to develop skills'
I would think this was written by someone who thought they could do far better than an entry level role but they were 'willing' to pretend they were keen on it. Like they though they already had all the skills. Of course he will continue to develop skills, he's not even on the first ring of the ladder yet! It's a bit like putting 'willing to work hard', it's just a given that you would, surely?
To be honest now you've said this is for your son, kindly, the best advice I can give is to back away and tell him that as an adult, looking for adult work, that he needs to be doing this himself. I absolutely get wanting to support him as he's still your kid to you, but to potential employers he is a grown up who needs to be behaving like one and taking responsibility for this kind of research is a part of that.

Try prospects.ac.uk for example cvs for graduates. And yes to approaching uni careers. He can also access local uni careers under reciprocal agreement.

Sounds like more than
a CV is needed. (20+ years in the field)

this isn’t me, but someone
like this could offer more
support: www.christineware.co.uk

Thank you everyone for your helpful input .

My actual Op was how to find a reputable CV company/organisation to help .
(Thank you @Rummikub )

@PinkArt No I will not back off in supporting my child.

Everybody needs help/advice/guidance in their paths in life.
They are not age definitive.

As shown by many posts on Mumsnet.

Not everyone can sell themselves in written words ...
Some people need help writing those written words.

Sorry OP but @PinkArt is right. My MIL is very well meaning and did all the things it sounds like you are trying to do. She spent a lot of time and money on things my husband just didn’t want help with. He was best left to get on with it.

I stress she is a lovely woman and we get on very well but she isn’t always good at seeing the point she needs to step back and recognise we are adults even though we are now parents ourselves. I know it comes from a place of love but at 21 your son should be capable at using Google, looking for template CVs, accessing career guidance, talking to recruiters. He needs to learn these basic skills for work where he won’t have you over his shoulder helping him. Showing independence will help him much more than a CV writer etc.

I think that paying for a CV writer is a waste of money. The CV writers will persuade you that you need them but you really don’t. Employers look for substance over style. Your basic background and info plus your qualifications and/or experience relevant to the job is all they want.

Ok, don't then! 🤷🏻‍♀️ I didn't say don't support but as an adult, in my opinion, he should be taking the lead now. So if he asks if you know where he can find CV advice, ask what he's tried so far, suggest where he might look next but make him steer it. In the same way it doesn't help a little kid if you do their homework, it doesn't help an adult kid to be taking the lead now.
As I said my industry is different to a lot of others. It's mostly freelance and massively over subscribed, which is why the tangible CV advice for our industry can be quite different. But I help run a jobs/advice group for new entrants with over 80,000 members and the first thing we say if we get a parent asking for advice for a 'kid' is that the kid needs to join themselves and ask. It might not be such important advice in less competitive industries, but you can tell very quickly who the ones who really want it are, even from a glance at a CV l, and if someone's parent is doing the leg work for them it always suggests to me that they aren't massively invested themselves.

I would NOT recommend a CV writing agency called TopCV.

It's a paid-for service which I got free as part of a conference I attended. Their website is quite convincing, but the end result was pretty bad.

Although they claim to be professional CV writers who "know your industry" they clearly had no clue about my particular industry and its norms for job applications (which are non-standard applications).

The grammar and syntax were poor in parts, and some phrases were contradictory. Their keyword optimisation for my CV was almost the same as for a colleague of mine, even though he works in a different field.

They clearly work to a copy-and-paste template. There is some discussion on Trustpilot about whether they are even based in the UK (Vietnam?) Many of the positive reviews on Trustpilot are clearly fake.

Don't waste your money!