Dropped $500 on a resume writer and got zero interviews for 2 months

Wesley Smith · 2026-04-26T07:30:02.87933+00:00

Figured paying a professional to rewrite my resume would open doors but it turned out generic and full of buzzwords that got filtered out by every HR system. Made a new one myself using a free template online and landed 3 interviews in the first week. Anybody else waste cash on fancy resume services that flopped?

the_river5mo ago

Right! It's like paying extra for the fancy brand name of something when the generic works better half the time.

6

abbyl495mo ago

500 bucks is just throwing money at a problem without actually fixing it. Those resume services use the same formula for everyone so it all looks copy pasted. A simple clear resume that actually matches the job beats a fancy buzzword filled one every time.

4

jamesrivera4mo ago

Read somewhere that ATS bots actually score simpler resumes higher because they can read them better. Seems like those pros are just designing for people, not for the machines that actually do the sifting.

3