Professional CV Service?

[dtpowis]

Hey guys. I have a CV that I've built and maintained since I was a freshman. Now that I'm getting into grad school, I'm considering going to a professional service to have it refined and reformatted. I'm told that it's worth the $100 and that typically one can get a "full" and "short" version out of the deal. So...my next question is: Where do I go? Are there any services or companies online that you know of? Better yet, do anyone of you have experience with this? Thanks!

[novacancy]

Since no one has responded yet, I'll chime in!

 

Someone on another academic forum posted his CV after he had a professional service work on it. It. Was. Awful. The company changed a lot of language that didn't make sense in an academic context. That is, this company was clearly more geared toward making people appealing to hiring managers and the like. They even crafted an incredibly bland and unnecessary objective statement. The formatting was pretty tacky to boot.

 

Personally, I think you can put together a fantastic CV by modeling it after others in your field. Just hop onto academia.edu, find some people you admire, and construct a similar flow and formatting. I also had a CV going for years and completely reconstructed it prior to application season.

 

Also, once upon a time, I was a design student, so I have a lot of graphic design work under my belt. If you (or anyone else out there) wants any help with formatting, font selection, spacing, etc., let me know!

[anthroflea]

I had a professional CV done years ago. It was my first academic CV and I had no idea where to start. Unfortunately I cannot remember which service I used, but in restrospect the CV was absolutely horrible.

 

First of all, it takes a long time because they need all the information from you and check back with you a lot. The forms I had to fill out were pretty much as involved as an online graduate school application. I remember choosing the service because they advertised they have experience writing academic CVs. That didn't really seem to be the case. I sent in a miniature statement of purpose which they turned into a tacky mission statement which seemed very out of place. I ended up changing it around a lot because I didn't feel comfortable with it and then delted it. 

 

The worst part was the rest of the CV though. You could tell somebody put a lot of time into it but they wasted time on the wrong things. For instance, they used adjectives to describe everything. They would write things like, "I carefully excavated ...". So there was a ton of text on my CV which was absolutely unnecessary. The CV was horribly crowded and there was just too much writing for anybody to quickly skim through it.  You could also tell that the person who had written it didn't know anyhing about anthropology. 

 

The CV I have now looks nothing like the CV I had done professionally. I modeled my first "own" CV after several other CVs but have since changed it so much that it is entirely my own. 

 

So, it takes as long to have it done professionally as it does to write it on your own, it is written by somebody who knows nothing about anthropology and your work and it is a waste of money. 

[dtpowis]

WOW. Great feedback. Thanks guys (which I mean in the least gendered way possible)!

So I'm just going to have to do this myself, huh?

[strudelle]

I went to a CV workshop at my university that was the most helpful thing I ever did. I would recommend trying to get involved in something like that where you can get feedback from others who are actually in your field. They will have a better understanding of the proper language and what's important than a CV service will.

[NoSleepTilBreuckelen]

Ditto to what strudelle said. A lot of universities and college either have CV/Resume workshops, or they have a career advising center that has staff that could look over your CV and give you feedback. If you go one of those routes, it's still you writing it, so you have full control over and are comfortable with what is in there, but you'll have the chance to get input and constructive feedback on yours and look at other example CVs.

[NoSleepTilBreuckelen]

Oh, and a lot of school's career advising centers will still help you out even if your an alumni. I'm 6 years out of college and I contacted my college's career advising center about a question I had about something this application cycle.

[NOWAYNOHOW]

I might be weird, but I'm soooo into making resumes.  I think it's fun!  Maybe because I have a PR background, but I think it's easy to spin your experience in a way that can support pretty much any end-goal.  Let me know if you want me to take a look--I help most of my friends with resumes, CVs and cover letters.

[dtpowis]

Awesome. I will definitely send it to you. I really think I just need a new format and font. (I'm pretty happy with the content.)