Critiquing the TheLadders’ Resume Critique

For those of you who are taking TheLadders up on their offer to critique your resume for free, here’s some perspective.  I’ve had two free resume critiques from TheLadders forwarded to me and – while some of the comments in the critiques were perfectly solid and valid – overall, I was pretty taken aback at how dire the critiques were and at how much it was going to cost to have TheLadders rewrite the resumes. 

First, know that they are using a form letter when responding to you.  The critiques were written by different people – and I understand that there needs to be a standard format because typing up an individual response to everybody would be very time consuming.  But, here are the word-for-word exact matches in both letters:

“Thank you for your resume submission! My name is (name) and I will be providing your resume critique.

“Please note that I am NOT critiquing your background, experience, or potential for success. I am commenting on how you are MARKETING those assets to potential employers and how you are competing against others with similar goals. Your resume needs to be assertive in showing prospective employers how you would be of value to them, because no matter how good you are at your job, the resume is what really lands the interview.

“Before I begin the critique, I do need to warn you about my style, because my comments can seem blunt. But the reality is that the job market is very competitive now, so I find it beneficial to tell it as it is rather than “yes” people to death. (I hate it when people do it to me!)

“That being said, here are the major issues I see on your resume.”

“To be honest, your resume is not jumping out at me, saying that I just picked up the resume of a high caliber Professional. It is certainly not showcasing your experience level or skill-set”

“We really need to work on elevating the language throughout the document!”

“Its ‘average’ – not what you want when you are trying to sell your abilities and position yourself above the competition.”

“Go back and reread your resume, and you will see that this document is selling you short. The bottom line: Your resume simply does not reflect your professional caliber at all. You have an excellent background…you have the qualifications…but you are just not making that first impression count. Frankly, the resume positions you for a lower-level job and salary than you desire—or deserve.”

“Please understand, all of this is not to say that you are not a good candidate, merely that the way your resume presents your career is not yet very effective or exciting to the reader (who typically has read 100+ resumes just before getting to yours). In this market, your resume really needs to serve as your personal branding document.”

Those are just the exact matches in text.  I did see some other very similar statements.  And, both critiques are laced with exclamation points and capitalized text all emphasizing how terrible the resumes are.  Here are some quotes: 

“I can tell you right off the bat that there is a MONUMENTAL mistake”

“So, right now, you don’t stand out as an achiever; you just blend in with the crowd (and it’s a huge crowd, as you are well aware).”

“As you can imagine, I see a TON of resumes on a daily basis. I can spot a resume that gives an amateur appearance versus a professional appearance right from the get go. Recruiters and hiring managers can too. Yours, unfortunately, is not on par with other excellent resumes I see.”

“Your overall lacks the polish and appearance of a professional resume.”

“On paper, your wording and presentation leave much to be desired. Your resume does NOT generate enough excitement and professionalism to be considered a top candidate.”

“The wording of the job descriptions is too weak and does not project a strong message about your expertise.”

“In your current document, nothing jumps out at the reader”

“Overall, the content of the experience section is a little bland and not written in an easy to read format.”

“The document’s verbiage is too low-level to support your goals.”

“To be honest, nothing in your document is jumping out at me”

“Unfortunately, your resume isn’t effectively communicating for you.”

“Unfortunately, your resume is missing key strategies and using others that are outdated and ineffective.”

“This really needs to be rewritten!”

“the resume does little to convince the reader of your value or that you can make a difference. You must generate excitement and interest in a resume but this document is not accomplishing that. The resume positions you for a lower level job and lower salary than you desire. The document is difficult to read through, and to top that, it is definitely missing the WOW factor.”

“you need to sell yourself to potential employers and if this is what you are offering, they’re not going to buy!”

I think it is important to note that between these and the form letter statements, the reviewers did reference specific sections and text in the resumes.  They clearly had read the resumes.  And, they made some strong and valid points.  However, it seems as if the approach is to write what, to the job seeker, appears to be a very individualized letter in a very strong “your resume sucks” voice and form letter.  And, after you’ve read three pages of “you’re going to get a lower level job at a lower pay, if you get a job at all,” they hit you with the quote to rewrite your resume.

The first resume I received definitely needed some work.  On a scale of 1 to 5, it was a 3.  It was fine, but primarily needed some reformatting.  I did the work that was required in two hours.  TheLadders quoted $900.

The second resume is really strong.  TheLadders made some good points, but nothing critical.  This candidate has been using this resume for a couple of months and is getting a lot of interviews – so much so that he feels confident walking away from jobs that are not of interest to him.  Work required for this resume – maybe an hour? But, any work would have been superfluous.  TheLadders quoted $650. 

Looking for a job, writing a resume, interviewing – it is all very stressful and can have a huge impact on your confidence, self-esteem, stress level, etc.  You don’t know what’s going on half the time, you don’t get a response from companies, they won’t tell you why you didn’t get the next interview or the job.  When you think about it, job seekers are in a very vulnerable position.  I’m not saying that TheLadders is taking advantage of this.  But, I would say that they are not being sensitive to it.

And, when it comes right down to it, these resumes did not need the amount of work that was quoted.

Every resume needs work – even a really strong resume could be improved.  Resumes are like studying for a test – you can never study enough.  And, you can never stop rewriting a resume.  But, at some point, you start to lose site of the goal.  The point of the resume.  The objective.  Which is to get the interview.  Tweaking details in the third bullet point on the second page is not helping you attain that goal.

So, the point of this blog post is to encourage people to get more than one critique and quote on a rewrite of their resume.  And, look for resume writers who will work with what you have (rather than starting from scratch) and will work on an hourly basis. 

I’m sure if either of these job seekers had used TheLadders’ resume writing service, they would have received excellent results (I haven’t seen any resumes written by TheLadders).  But, I do think the critiques and the quotes were over the top.