How to choose a CV writer

A professional CV is not mainly a formatting job. The formatting is the easy part, and templates do it well. What you are paying for is judgement: someone who can extract the right information from you, decide what matters to your target reader, turn vague duties into evidenced achievements, and position you at the right level for the right roles. That work depends on the skill and time of the person doing it.

Seen that way, the questions that matter become obvious. Who is doing the thinking? How much time will they actually spend understanding your career? What do they know about the roles, sectors and markets you are targeting? A beautifully designed CV that misunderstands what you do is worse than a plain one that gets it right.

It also helps to decide what problem you are solving before you shop. If your CV is getting interviews but looks dated, you mainly need design and polish. If it is getting no responses at all, you probably need content and targeting, which is a different and more demanding service. If you are changing country or career, you need someone who understands the destination. Knowing which applies tells you which providers are even relevant.

Most poor experiences with CV services could have been predicted from warning signs visible before payment. Be cautious if you see any of the following:

Credentials deserve a sensible weighting too. Some writers hold certifications from professional resume writing associations. These show a commitment to training, but they are not required to practise and do not guarantee quality on their own, so weigh them alongside the writer's process, experience and independent reviews.

A good writer will be glad to answer these clearly. Vague or evasive answers are themselves useful information.

Prices vary widely between markets and providers, so exact figures are less useful than understanding what usually changes as you pay more. Broadly, the market falls into three levels.

At the budget end, you typically get a reformatted version of your existing CV with some wording improvements, often produced quickly and with limited or no back-and-forth. This can be reasonable if your content is already strong and you mainly need a cleaner, more modern layout. It rarely fixes weak content, because nobody is spending time finding the achievements you left out.

In the middle, you should expect a dedicated writer, a structured brief or questionnaire, follow-up questions, a full rewrite focused on achievements and targeting, and at least one round of revisions. For most professionals, this is where the value is: enough time and expertise to change what the CV says, not just how it looks.

At the premium end, you are usually paying for more time, more seniority of the writer, and more depth: longer consultations, executive or board positioning, multiple documents written as a coherent set, and more revision rounds. For senior and executive candidates, that extra time often matters. For an early-career CV, it is rarely necessary. Paying more only makes sense if the extra money buys extra thinking, not just a higher label.

Broadly, CV services are organised in one of two ways. Some are volume operations: a brand, a sales team and a pool of writers, with orders allocated to whoever is available. Others are founder-written or small practices, where the person whose name is on the business writes the documents. Both can produce good work, and both have genuine trade-offs.

Volume operations can offer faster turnaround and more capacity. The risk is inconsistency: quality depends on which writer you get, and the person who answers your questions may not be the person writing. Founder-written services offer consistency and accountability, because the same person who built the reputation does the work and has every reason to protect it. The trade-off is capacity: a single writer can only take on so much, so timelines may be less flexible at busy periods.

Whichever you choose, the underlying question is the same: will a skilled person spend real time understanding your career? The structure of the business matters mainly because it affects the answer.

For transparency, since this guide appears on his site: every CV, cover letter and LinkedIn profile here is written personally by Chanuka Jeewantha, never outsourced. You choose a package and pay, complete a brief and upload your current CV, and Chanuka writes the documents. You receive a draft, have one revision round included, and get final files in editable Word and PDF formats.

CV writing is priced by experience level: $129 for under two years, $189 for three to nine years, and $279 for ten or more years and executive roles. Standard delivery is five to seven days, with faster options available at an additional charge. That is the full model. Use the questions above to compare it fairly with any other option you are considering.

Whoever you hire, the result depends partly on what you give them. Complete the brief thoroughly, even the questions that feel tedious. Dig out figures, project outcomes, performance reviews and old job descriptions before you start. Share two or three job postings that represent what you are targeting, because a writer can only tailor to what they can see.

When the draft arrives, check it carefully for accuracy. You are the only person who knows whether every claim is true, every date correct and every number defensible in an interview. Use the revision round for substantive feedback, and group your comments rather than sending them one at a time. A good writer will explain their choices, but they should also listen when you know something about your field that they do not.