More than 40 million US workers filed for unemployment in the last two months, as the coronavirus pandemic brought the country to a standstill. Whether you lost your job, are a recent graduate or are looking to make a career change, you don’t have to go it alone. Lots of solid online resources offer everything from templates to professional writers who can help strengthen your resume as you search for a new job — and figure out what exactly you should include to put your best foot forward and make it through HR candidate filtering software. (If you’re unemployed, we have a list of resources for you on health insurance, student loans and housing as well, as well as information regarding government stimulus packages and ongoing benefits.)
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The following eight resume-building services can help you create a resume that will catch the attention of employers. All of the professional resume writing services listed here have an A or A-plus rating from the Better Business Bureau.
Read more: Best resume builder of 2020
Professional resume writing services
If you want to find a professional writer to edit your resume or create a brand-new one for you from scratch, check out one of these services.
Resume Spice
If you’re totally lost and have some money to spend, ResumeSpice is a service created by recruiters that connects you with a “resume expert” to build your CV from scratch.
Once you choose, you’ll fill out a short questionnaire and schedule a phone consultation with a resume expert. The expert will take that information and turn around a personalized resume draft within two business days. You can review the draft and request any changes, and you’ll get the final version in PDF and Word formats.
An entry-level resume costs $249, a professional resume costs $359, and an executive resume costs $479. You can also add a cover letter, LinkedIn profile, interview prep or other services on.
ResumeWriters.com
ResumeWriters.com offers a guarantee: If you don’t get a job interview within two months of getting your resume, they’ll rewrite it for free. The service claims that in the 10 years and tens of thousands of resumes completed under this guarantee, it averages fewer than five requests for rewrites per year.
To use the service, submit your current resume or career information on the site, and a writer will contact you to assess your materials and plan out what you need. You’ll get a first draft back within 72 hours, and can work with the writer on revisions until you’re satisfied with the result.
ResumeWriters offers student, professional, executive and career-change resume services, as well as those specific to the military, IT and those in fields like research who need a CV. The professional resume service costs $200, or you can buy a resume and cover letter package of $270, or both of those plus a post-interview follow-up letter for $290.
Zipjob
Zipjob offers professional resume writers who optimize your resume to get through the applicant tracking system software used by the majority of employers to automatically scan and sort resumes. An expert writes your resume and scans it through the ATS to ensure it will make it through to the hiring manager’s desk.
To use the service, upload your resume or fill out a form to start from scratch. You’ll be matched with a professional resume writer who will work with you to improve it, and will then scan the final product to make sure it passes through the screening algorithms. Depending on which package you choose, your resume will be ready in three to seven days.
Choose from three packages: Launch (resume writing and unlimited revisions for $139), Fast Track (adds a cover letter and a 60-day interview guarantee for $189) or Premium (adds a top resume writer, LinkedIn profile optimization, future resume updates and expedited delivery for $299).
Find My Profession
Find My Profession offers professional resume writing services as well as career coaching. Every resume gets reviewed by two different consultants.
You’ll find resume writing packages for entry-level, professional, executive and C-level, as well as IT/engineering and federal/government. In each, you can choose a base, premium or VIP level package depending on your needs. For example, the professional resume package starts at $595 for a resume that is ATS-compatible and goes up to $695 to add a cover letter and $895 to add a LinkedIn profile.
You’ll get the first draft of your resume within three to five business days after your consultation with a writer. Or, upgrade to a priority service for another $149 to get it within 48 hours.
Build-it-yourself resume options
If you need some guidance on creating or updating a resume but aren’t ready to spring for professional service, check out these online resume-building tools to help you find templates and guides for doing it yourself.
Resume.com
More than 6 million resumes have been created on Resume.com, a completely free platform that offers 24 different templates for creating your resume. You have the option to upload and edit an existing resume, create a new one, or to edit one of the sample resumes offered on the site. It’s intuitive and easy to use and creates a professional-looking final product.
When starting from scratch, you can either go through question prompts to build one (e.g. “Are you in school?”) or go section by section, entering your education, employment history, hobbies and interests, professional skills, languages and references. You can also choose to forgo any of these sections or add custom ones depending on what you need. As you update and save each section, you can see how it will appear on the page on your resume preview to the right. You can also change the template, font style or size, and spacing any time and see it update in real-time in the preview.
Once you’re done, download your new resume in PDF, DocX, RTF or TXT format, create a custom URL or print it out. You also have the option to upload it to Indeed, a job-search site from Resume.com. If you’re looking for something free and easy to use, Resume.com is a good tool to start with.
Resume Genius
The website Resume Genius claims you can “create your professional resume in 15 minutes.” (I tested it out, and indeed had a solid first draft of an easy resume completed in about 10 minutes.) First, select one of 17 different template options, and then move through a series of questions (i.e. “Do you have work experience?” and “What’s your highest level of education?”), which lead you to then fill out boxes of additional information. It’s easy to move through, though you do have to do it in order, and fill in every text field before continuing.
Where Resume Genius is particularly helpful is when filling in sections like “work responsibilities,” you can search for a position, and see prewritten options that you can add or edit — or just fill in your own. When finished, you can easily toggle between different templates to see what looks best for the final product. You also have the option to directly share your resume with Indeed or Resume Library.
You can download the resume you create for $1.95 (which starts a 14-day trial), or $7.95 (which kicks off a monthly subscription plan). However, if you fail to cancel your trial before the 14 days are up, it will auto-renew to $40 per month.
Jobscan
Jobscan is a do-it-yourself resume service that automates the resume-building process using tools to help you get through applicant tracking systems before you apply.
It stands out because of its free Learning Center, which offers guides for writing resumes, cover letters and LinkedIn profiles, as well as in-depth information about applicant tracking systems and how they work — even if you don’t sign up for the service. You can also quickly copy and paste or upload your resume and a job description to the site to scan it and see how much of a match you may be, and where you can improve.
Jobscan offers some of its resume scanning help for free. You can also sign up for a three-month plan (plus one more month free) for $90 or an ongoing monthly plan for $50, both of which includes more templates and resume editing resources, as well as cover letter and LinkedIn optimization.
Enhancv
Enhancv offers assisted resume editing, offering advice depending on the industry as well as suggestions and content editing. The service has resume templates for different industries, all of which are customizable and downloadable in PDF or TXT format. Resumes created through the service are designed for human recruiters, not applicant tracking systems, according to the site — but you can go with cleaner templates to improve your chances of making it through.
Get started with one of five templates free, or choose from three plans to get more options: Pro Semi-Annual ($66 billed every six months), Pro Quarterly ($45 billed every three months) or Pro Monthly ($20 billed once a month). Try the service free for seven days.