There are many scams these days that try to swindle job seekers out of money. CV formatting services are an example of such a scam.
There is absolutely nothing such a service can offer that will improve one’s chances at employment. The format of a CV is of minuscule importance, if any.
I can’t speak to CVs but many career counselors at college job offices have no idea WTF they’re talking about.
I went into one recently and they thought objectives on the resume were still a thing and that medical assistants were the same as office assistants. They are not.
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Oh yes! Those are SO useless. I constantly have to counsel students after they get counseled by these people.
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Well I think it’s important to an extent. I’ve been on hiring committees (for tenure track hires) and you know, it’s competitive so the committee is looking at a large number of applications.
So when I’m sifting through 80+ application and come across a CV that’s so poorly formatted that it makes it hard to read (and I have), those CVs go to the bottom of the pile. For instance, I have come across 10 + page CVs that bury their publications on fifth page and pile on useless information– like awards they won in high school!– and are submitted in a teeny, almost impossible to read, font. That type of CV makes a candidate seem unprofessional– if not a bit unstable.
So in that sense, I think formatting can make a difference. But I agree: it’s not the most important thing at all. People just need a clean, legible CV that’s easy to follow.
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All true. But charging people money to tell them “People just need a clean, legible CV that’s easy to follow” (which is really all anybody needs to remember about CVS) is kind of despicable, in my opinion.
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But charging people money to tell them “People just need a clean, legible CV that’s easy to follow” (which is really all anybody needs to remember about CVS) is kind of despicable, in my opinion
I agree. But for some inexplicable reason, some people seem to need the advice! But then I suspect that the people who submitted the crazily formatted CVs wouldn’t have made good colleagues. So maybe it’s a “survival of the fittest” thing. 😉
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Possibly. Formatting a CV seems like it would be relatively simple compared to the citation work and maintenance that professors who write papers and do research have to to do all the time.
starts formatting like a cross between e.e. cummings & a tumblr comments section exploded into ASCII & emojis 🙂
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Exactly! There are ways to make a profit that are just distasteful.
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The format of a CV is of minuscule importance, if any.
I am not sure this is true. For example, someone who is looking for a job as a literature professor, but recognizes that she may have to settle for a job as an advertising copywriter, would do well to format her CV differently and emphasize different experiences and skills, when applying for these two different kinds of jobs.
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But if she needs to pay somebody to tell her this, she’s not intellectually equipped to do either job. 🙂
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I could have used some tips when I moved to the UK such as emphasise individual achievement over team’s (preferred in Spain), take off the photograph, use only one surname, put a valid postcode even if you haven’t landed yet, be verbose in your job descriptions ( I had been previously successful with succinct cvs and elaborating on the interview)
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Not that I would have trusted anyone who offered this as a paid service but the need I believe exists
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A conservative literary critic and college professor
Clarissa's Blog 
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