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CV Writing Services

The title may well remind you of a certain catchy song from the 1970s, but D.I.Y.C.V. actually has a very contemporary message.

Whilst browsing the classifieds have you noticed the growing legion of companies who will put together a state-of-the-art CV on your behalf for a sizeable wad of cash?

On the face of it, you might think this is an attractive offer. After all, very few of us are professional writers (I suspect my editor will be nodding meaningfully at this point). And even those of us with a decent turn of phrase might not be au fait with what's in and out of fashion in the world of CVs. You might therefore think there's some sense in handing responsibility over to a professional CV writer who is familiar with the latest tricks and techniques and who can ensure that your CV looks contemporary and is jam-packed with the latest jargon and buzz phrases.

Tempting though these services might seem, I'd keep my money in my pocket if I were you and use it for something else. Here are four reasons why it's important for you to write your CV yourself:

A professional CV writer won't necessarily understand the terminology specific to your particular line of work and therefore there's a danger that they might misrepresent your experience.
Getting somebody else to write your CV will still require a decent amount of effort on your part. Typically, you'll still need to provide a written outline of your career to date and spend some time talking through your career history.
CVs produced by third parties can all too often read like a production line job, rather than the product of your own efforts. I have an HR chum who swears that she can spot not only whether somebody has had help with putting their CV together but also in many cases which particular company or agency provided the assistance.
Most critically, imagine securing an interview using a CV that was written by somebody else. There you are sat opposite an interviewer who has those two sides of A4 on the table in front of them. How confident are you that you could respond positively and confidently to an interviewer who could pick up on any phrase in the CV and probe you about it? All of a sudden, that rather natty piece of management speak which you never fully understood in the first place can come back to haunt you. A confident interview performance depends on you feeling comfortable talking through your CV and so it's vital for you to understand it in depth. In this case, depth of understanding comes from being the creator of the CV not the commissioner.

These reasons aside, remember that a CV is a one-to-one marketing document. Are you prepared to have your CV professionally redrafted ever time you want to apply for a job? Moreover, could you afford it?

Look, I don't want to suggest that there's absolutely no value in these CV-writing services. There may be some merit in getting a first draft of your CV produced by a professional agency, particularly if you're prone to suffer from CV writer's block or if you just don't find it easy to express yourself in writing. However, you must bear in mind that you'll still need to tweak - or perhaps even substantially change - the CV every time it goes out to make sure that you emphasise the key attributes you have relative to the position you're going after.


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