[doesnt_know]

Programmers shouldn't write their resumes at all.

Get it done by a professional service. It's pretty much one of the most important documents you will ever have created. It's your ticket to employment, which is quite likely determining your quality of life.

Shop around. Find a quality, professional resume writing service with plenty of positive testimonials that will provide a custom service, not some "paste your text into a template" crock job.

[danielweber]

How will the programmer know that the professional service is doing a good job? I've seen recruiters -- supposedly experts in what it takes to get hired, and are motivated because the only way they get compensated if I get the position -- completely butcher my resume.

[doesnt_know]

Recruiting and Resume Writing are completely different services. One gets paid by a company when they fill roles, the other is paid directly by you and are accountable to you. Surely you can see the difference? Also, for the record, not all recruiters are like that, but it's probably pointless trying to convince you otherwise.

Pick the service like you pick any other service. Word of mouth from people you trust, reviews, research into the service, common sense, money-back guarantee etc. How do pick how to use any service? How do you pick an important SAAS or library or API to use?

If you are so convinced you wouldn't be able to tell if a service is doing a good job, how do you know that this recruiter you went to "butchered" your resume and didn't improve it?

Sorry if I'm coming across as overly combative, I just feel that IT professionals in particular are really bad at acknowledging their inexperience in other domains. I think this is especially true when it comes to writing. Perhaps it has something to do with documentation traditionally being an afterthought in the FLOSS world.

[danielweber]

I'm sure they could give me a pretty resume. How can I tell if it actually works? There are dozens of factors at play[1]. While job candidates need to dedicate time to the job hunt (just like employers need to dedicate time to recruiting people) it's hard to imagine having the bandwidth and the sample size to do A/B testing of my resume compared with the "professional" one.

I can tell ugly and bad resumes. When a bunch of sentences on using Microsoft Office have been added to my resume, I can tell it's a bad resume. This doesn't mean I can tell the difference between the 95th percentile and the 98th percentile resume for a particular employer, where the latter will get me in the door and the former won't.

> but it's probably pointless trying to convince you otherwise.

Hey, thanks man!

[1] Say there are two companies and one has a "don't say anything about hobbies" hiring manager and the other has an "always mention hobbies" hiring manager.

[doesnt_know]

You can tell if it actually works, when it actually works. I went from 0 callbacks to around a 30%-40% interview rate. It become 100% when I just let a recruiter do it for me (probably because he didn't "gamble" going for jobs that were outside my experience like I sometimes did).

I'm not really sure what else to tell you. When you use any service, there is always a chance that the result is shit. As an adult and a consumer you just have to do your best to mitigate the risk.

If you are already getting lots of callbacks and interviews then it's probably already fine. But if you are getting none, then it's time to swallow your pride and accept that you need help from a professional.

> Hey, thanks man!

I didn't mean to insult you, but if your personal experience with recruiters is only negative, nothing I say will change that perception.