Are CV Writing Services Worth It?

Top 5 Benefits of Using CV Writing Services

Are CV writing services worth the investment? In short, yes! The best CV writers add value to your job search by saving you time and stress, optimising your CV for your target roles and delivering a powerful document – all while preparing you for interviews and increasing your confidence as a jobseeker.

In this article, we outline the top 5 reasons why working with a CV writer may be the right decision for you.

1) Save you time and eliminate stress

Hiring a CV writer to find the optimal way to convey your skills and accomplishments allows you to focus on more strategic aspects of the job search: attending networking events, leveraging LinkedIn, contacting recruiters and identifying which roles you would like to pursue.

CV writing is a significant time commitment, and if you're like most people, you may find it a bit awkward to write about your accomplishments.

For many clients, it makes more sense to invest less than 1% of their annual salary to outsource the CV writing process – often resulting in much more effective documents than they would otherwise be able to prepare on their own.

2) Optimise your CV for target roles

CV writers tailor your documents to best position you for the roles you are seeking in two ways: by optimising them for applicant tracking systems and by surfacing key information that recruiters are looking for.

• Optimising your CV for applicant tracking systems

Simply put, the recruiting environment has changed with the rise of online job search tools such as LinkedIn, Monster, Indeed and Glassdoor. Because hiring managers are increasingly overwhelmed by the volume of applications they receive, use often utilise applicant tracking systems to help them screen hundreds of applications.

As such, it is especially important to ensure your CV is keyword optimised so that you don’t risk being bypassed for roles that you are otherwise qualified for – especially if you are applying for entry-level or middle management roles.

If you are a senior executive and working directly with an executive recruiter, for example, keyword optimisation will not be as much of a concern, as the goal of keyword optimisation is ultimately to get your CV into the hands of a human.

However, even in such cases, CV writers will still optimise your CV by highlighting the most important information up front.

• Surfacing key information that recruiters are looking for

As executive CV writers, we partner with recruiters to understand exactly how they like to see information presented. We make it a priority to stay up to date with what hiring managers are looking for - and what prompts them to move on to the next candidate.

When writing your CV, you may have a hard time determining how to structure your document. As a third party, CV writers are more emotionally distanced from the day-to-day realities of your role.

By reviewing your target roles and leveraging their understanding of the recruitment environment, they can quickly pinpoint the information that will immediately position you as a strong fit for a given role. They’ll also present these details in a professional summary or career highlights section, as you can see on our CV samples.

3) Help you identify what’s essential

As CV writers, we are experts in deciphering what aspects of your role need to be explicitly explained on your document, how much detail you should go into and what elements you can safely leave off (you can always speak to non-essentials during the interview process).

Most clients are good at explaining what they do on a day-to-day basis. However, because recruiters typically receive applications from multiple qualified candidates, highlighting your impact and key accomplishments will significantly help to differentiate you.

4) Prepare you for interviews

Clients regularly tell us that working with a CV writer doubled as excellent interview preparation.

As part of the CV writing process, the best CV writers conduct a phone consultation to learn about your experience and help you brainstorm additional achievements that should be highlighted.

This consultation requires clients to reflect on their careers and articulate how they added value to each organisation. As a result, they are left with plenty of specific examples to speak to during the interview process, improving their performance.

5) Increase your confidence

A comprehensive CV writing process will leave you feeling confident in your ability to succeed in your target roles, which is especially valuable if you are seeking an upward move or looking to make a career transition.

Even some of the most senior clients we work with often doubt their abilities or deal with a little bit of imposter syndrome, and that’s perfectly normal!

Our goal as CV writers is to ensure that you are able to back up any statements you make – either on your CV or during an interview – using specific evidence.

In Summary

Top CV writers have your best interests at heart and are here to help take off some of the pressure - while maximising your odds of landing interviews.

By finding a writer you trust, you can rest assured that you put your best foot forward.

To find out more, visit our website www.cvpilots.co.uk If you have any further questions, you can either book a consultation call with one of our team, or get in touch via email on team@cvpilots.co.uk