How much should a CV writing service cost?
It depends how good you want it to be.
Of course basic advice and ‘tips and tricks’ should be free (I provide free advice to lots of people when this is all they need and in order to demonstrate that I know what I’m talking about).
But if you want someone to re-write your CV from scratch, and this necessitates an in depth consultation with you about your abilities, your past and your future and the writing and editing of a high quality piece of work then this should surely have a sensible price attached to it.
If what you want is hard to find expertise that someone has spent years developing and then spends every day of their working life honing and delivering, then you should expect to pay a fair price.
How is a fair price calculated? Well, for me, it’s a combination of payment for time spent on the work, plus a contribution to overheads and Intellectual Property (IP) development. A shorter way of saying this is ‘a sensible day rate’.
Remember you should only need to buy this once, or a small number of times spread across your entire career though; so saving a few pounds on your choice of provider may well not be prudent.
In all of these respects of course, CV writing is not much different from any other form of consultancy or advisory service.
Consider the time required
You don’t want a CV that someone has spent less than a day working on, surely? How well is that going to represent you? How much different is it going to be from what you already have? And you have to include at least an hour (maybe two) for the consultation.
I’ve written hundreds of CVs for clients in every sector you can imagine. Even with a wealth of experience and even when working in an industry that I know well, a CV cannot be done in under a day’s work. Not one that fully represents you as an individual, fully presents your value and actually differentiates you from others.
So how much should a day of work from a qualified and experienced expert cost?
If someone offers to write your CV for £30 or £50 or even £100; how much of their time are you going to get?
Consider the expertise required
There are a wide range of people willing to help you write your CV. Creative writers. Administrators. HR professionals, careers advisors and business people generally. All could do a good job if they are the right people, but none of these things alone qualifies someone to be a CV writer. For me it’s a combination of being a former recruitment consultant, a team manager in a different company where I recruited and developed my own high performing team, a consultant – keeping up to date with current business at a strategic level and a professional marketer.
Your CV is not a creative piece; it is a marketing document for a very specific purpose unique to you. It will be assessed according to a single set of criteria that you cannot influence.
Consider the value that it will bring you
Maybe you have decided that you need a CV writer to help you get interviews so that the effort you go to in applying for jobs is properly rewarded. Think about the time commitment necessary from the CV writer. Also consider what the suitable approach should be.
See my approach to CV writing.
