Writing a resume can be a challenge. So much is ridding on it afterall. Your future, where you’ll be in five years, all could be determined by what’s on a solitary sheet of paper handed over to a potential employer.
Ok, so maybe its not that dramatic. Not having the best resume wont make you homeless. But, maybe you don’t have the time to compile your resume, or you have trouble laying it out. Well, there are services online that can do that for you.
Now before we continue, here’s the caveat. Most highly praised resume writers charge an arm and a leg for their services. While some may rightly deserve their bounty, for the majority of us, dropping over $500 on a resume isn’t in the monthly budget.
While these sites will go on and on about how spending anything less will result in inferior results, there are other options.
Just because something is cheap, doesn’t mean it isn’t good. Likewise, carrying a high price doesn’t always equate to quality.
Like all services you intend to use, it’s best to do your own research beforehand. Take a look at their reviews and writing samples if available. Sometimes you can find a diamond in the rough.
Now lets get back to the price. Even on the more affordable side of the resume writing spectrum, $100 would be considered cheap. But, I think we can do one better. I’ve battled through a myriad of broken links, outdated SSL certificates and downright dreadful attempts at keyword stuffing to bring you a list of resume writers that charge $50 or under for their services.
I haven’t personally tried any of these services so, do your research first and as the saying goes, “Buyer beware”. If you do try one of these services let me know in the comments how it went!
cheapfastresumes.com
Our first contender comes in at $49. I introduce to you, Cheap Fast Resumes.
Now, before you get click happy on the link, let me warn you. Their website looks a little “90’s” to put it mildly. However, they seem to have a good number of reviews with most of them being positive.
Oh and if you’re profession happens to me web design, maybe you could barter services with them and give their website a makeover. Just an idea…
5DollarResumeToday
Unlike their website name, I wasn’t able to find a $5 resume package on their website.
However, they do offer resumes for $5.99 to high school students. This could come in handy when trying to get the kids out of the house when they are older.
For everyone else, they offer a $40 resume writing service. I couldn’t find more than a handful of reviews but they do show sample resumes on their website.
ETSY
If you already guessed that I’d have to get a little inventive to fill out this list, your not wrong. But, I love Etsy! Just doing a simple search for resume writing yields results ranging from $40 and up.
I can’t really rate ETSY as a whole, because it’s an online marketplace. So, you will have to do some legwork sifting through the shops sprinkled about the search results.
FIVERR
Like etsy, fiverr is an online marketplace for the “gig culture”. Instead of shops, people list various “gigs” they’re willing to do. It took one search to find a few gigs offering resume writing services within our price range.
One thing I really like about fiverr is that they do a good job of getting people to give honest feedback. So, have a look and check out the samples, and message the gig owner first to get a feel for what to expect.
This one might seem like it came from left field, but believe it or not, reddit has a lot of writing subreddits. While most explicitly forbid self promotion, a few of them act as job boards for those seeking work. You can either scroll through the listing searching for a writer or post a request yourself.
I spotted more than one instance where the price was under our $50 range. A downside to this approach is that it might be harder to vet the writer, and of course the payment issue. When dealing directly with an individual you no longer have a safety net to recoup your losses if something goes wrong.
There are undoubtedly more subreddits like this, but these seem to be the most popular. Be sure to read the rules first before posting or contacting someone.
https://www.reddit.com/r/writerforhire/
https://www.reddit.com/r/HireaWriter/
Final Thoughts
There you have it! You now have some options when writing a resume on a budget. But hey, when money’s tight and your feasting on ramen noodles, who can complain?
The downside to services on the low side of cheap is that you might run into a number of people selling resume templates, where they just input your data and send it back your way. This makes it even more important to vet the writer first.
