How much would you pay somebody to proof read your job application?

[Bobwibble]

This is something that I do quite regularly for family and friends, and the feedback I receive is that I am rather good at it!

I ask people what sort of input they want before I start. I can proof-read for language and grammar, help them to be more concise and to improve the structure of personal statements.

I can also cross reference with job advert and person spec criteria and suggest ways to strengthen their application (eg addressing requirements more explicitly or giving examples) Obviously I can’t give job-specific advice, as I am not a careers advisor.

Anyway, I have two questions.

1. If I started this as a sideline, what would be reasonable to charge? £10 per application?
2. Is it ethical? Helping out friends and family seems harmless and I imagine most people ask somebody to read through their applications and I know that university careers departments offer this service, but is charging for it crossing a line? At what point would it run the risk of becoming dishonest, i.e. not a true reflection or the candidate’s own work? Or does that not matter, so long as everything is factually correct?

Qualifiactions-wise, I am a qualified teacher, have a 1st class English degree, a masters and PhD in Education.

P.S. No snarky comments about my grammar and punctuation please, although I know it must be tempting 😂😉

£10 feels far to cheap... I've had my CV professionally done before, but not used the service for applications ( I work in the NHS so application are a pita online...

Can't imagine there's much call for it tbh at least not in a way that would generate income when you factor in the time it takes you per application. You do your friends and family, but the people you don't do will (most of the time) have a you they ask instead. I am the proof reader in my world and if I told them I was now charging £10 a go, they'd find a new me.

I wouldn't personally pay for this, but then I'm probably not your target market. Also beware that within a few years, AI tools such as Chat GPT will likely have made your services completely redundant. It can already do a pretty good job of taking a job spec and pulling the salient points into a cover letter/personal statement. Less so the spelling/grammar.

Difficult one. Not a service I would pay for, but I can see people might.
Problem with charging is there is then an expectation of an interview / job offer as they have paid for a professional service. If I were to pay I’d also expect more than spelling, grammar etc and i WOULD expect knowledge about the industry requirements etc.

I'd have some concerns about this as a business idea, to be honest. I think offering it to friends and family works because they know you, so can evaluate for themselves how reliable you are.

Someone who will be a client can't. I think it's too superficial a service - so if you were a careers advisor for example, then this could be part of the package you offer.

On its own, it's too slim an offering.

I think as a viable business plan £10 is too slight a fee for it to be worth your while.

I think that if someone who didn't know you wanted to use this service, they would need some evidence of your skillset and how you will add value, and do so in a relevant fashion. Because you don't have industry expertise, that may impact on how useful you can be.

If you think you have a skillset in this area, can you expand the idea, and set it up as a wider business, training yourself / getting qualifications as needed?

Personally, I wouldn't pay just for proof-reading and structural edits, I can do those myself. I'd perhaps pay for this plus content-based advice; i.e. what to include/emphasise and what to omit; also formatting as I'm not great at that.

I'd possibly pay £30?

Nothing, I can do that myself.
Most people would just ask family or friends surely? I don't think it's a service many people would pay for, unless as part of wider recruitment coaching.

Thanks all!
Very good point about A.I.
Also about £10 being cheap… I think I set it that low because I do recognise it’s a ‘slim’ service and also I wouldn’t want to raise expectations too high / be held accountable for not getting interviews, as PP suggested.
Hmm, plenty to think about.
Maybe I should limit it to my own professional area of expertise.

I have also thought about doing that as a side job as I am quite good at that sort of thing. £10 per application is quite low, you could probably go higher if you specialised.

Many people think they can manage these things themselves and that their applications are good (maybe some are). But the number of job applications I've screened (from people with really high levels of education) that have been dire, and led to them not being shortlisted is quite mind boggling. It is shocking how many people don't follow the basics. Like making sure the application shows how you meet the job spec! Making sure the application content is all directly relevant to the job is probably a bit beyond a friend giving it a quick glance for any obvious typos, which is where paying someone to go that extra mile could be very beneficial.

what is your job?

tbf though…. would be quite relevant if you litter your posts with typos and poor grammar given the crux of the Op

How long does it take you?
Including agreeing to do it, getting the files, working out what the person wants, sending it back, then maybe they will have comments, you can't open their new file, and any other admin.
I would think of charging for my time - so, say, £30 an hour, with a minimum time of half an hour.
You could then offer people what they want, you could do some extra research and you could (try to) promise a unique experience.

I like the idea but people generally think they can do these things themselves as soon as they are asked for part with some cash.

Too cheap, I think. I think many people could do with help but they’re often the same people who aren’t aware they’re in need of it or who say they have a friend who is good at that sort of thing.

the friends and family you have done

what kind of job are we taking? unskilled? skilled? professional?

£10/hour for any sort of editorial/proofing work is so low that I'd assume you weren't any good, tbh. Charging so little just devalues the work and makes it seem that you're not offering anything serious.

Given that the absolute minimum proofing rate is around £15/hour (and good, experienced proofreaders charge up to £30), I'd be assuming that you were going to spend no more than 20 minutes on it and really, how good a job would you be doing in that time? A quick skim-read for typos?

If you have something to offer, then offer it as a proper professional service and charge appropriately for your time and expertise. There is no shame in that and it's never a good idea to set the bar low just to try and get clients.

Depends on your education and experience. Ex. HR Director with Masters Degree & Chartered CIPD - £60+. General HR experience with Degree & CIPD, £40. Anything less, well AI is free.

School improvement

I think ‘litter’ is a bit unkind! 😂

£50 if it was sector specific, eg I'm an accountant and so are you. If not sector specific I think I would be ok on my own. Application forms are very rate these days, it's LinkedIn profiles and recommendations mostly

A mixture really. Civil service, teaching, T.A, Comms, charity sector, applications for Masters study.

Thanks all. I think if I go ahead I will charge more, but make it specific to education.

so your own cv (which i’d want to see before employing you to look over my cv) will show lots of fairly junior jobs (teacher aside) ? i only say that because unlikely to have got very senior if jumping around so much

what masters do you have? or did you apply but not pursue?

oh i see these are the ones you’ve helped with

but what about your CV?!

huh? i’m not saying you have littered it with typos

i am saying it would be relevant if you had littered with typos, which you haven’t 😐