What if your career (and all of its benefits) suddenly disappeared?

The old industry saying “you get what you pay for” definitely applies to the field of resume writing. When Like every other service, you need to invest wisely to get the best ROI. If your new resume package shaves even one week off of your job search, helps you to advance to a higher professional level (and an increased salary), or supports you in finding more meaningful work, then the investment will be well worth it.

We can easily illustrate resume ROI across two different scenarios using some simple math. The following case studies are based on real Scientech Resumes clients. Their names and personal information have been fictionalized for client confidentiality purposes.

Scenario 1. Getting laid off

Tom is a Mechanical Engineer who was suddenly laid off from his engineering job where he was making an annual salary of $84,000. A couple of stressful and frustrating months went by and Tom had received no interview invites with his current resume.

Using some simple math, we can break down his loss of income on a weekly and daily basis:

$84,000 / 52 (# of weeks in a year) = $1,615 per week in lost wages

$1,615 / 5 (# of work days in a week) = $323 per day in lost wages

Tom was losing over $300/day in income (remember, job searching gets expensive very quickly!). Exactly two and a half months had gone by before Tom decided to invest $800 in a professionally written resume.

By this point, Tom has already lost $17,500 in wages over the 2.5 months that he spent searching for a job with a poorly written resume.

Approximately 3 to 4 weeks after Tom began using his new resume, he landed an interview with a leading engineering consulting agency. One week later, Tom received an offer, with a robust employee benefits compensation package, from that same company for a Mechanical Engineering position making $84,000/year. 

What was Tom’s resume ROI?

To calculate Tom’s resume ROI, we divide his investment by his loss of daily income:

$800 / $323 = 2.5 work days

 Tom recoups his $800 investment within 2.5 work days.

Scenario 2. Career Advancement + Salary Negotiation

Tess is an IT Manager making $135,000 annually. She is looking to advance to a director-level position and increase her salary by 15%. In order to stand out from the competition, she invested in a professional resume service, impressed the interviewers, and received an offer of $158,000 annually—a 17% increase in pay. Her resume investment totaled $1,100.

What was Tess’s resume ROI?

First, let’s calculate her raise by subtracting her current income from her new salary:

$158,000 – $135,000 = $23,000 raise

Now, let’s calculate her increase in weekly wages with the new salary:

$23,000 / 5 day work week = $4,600 weekly

How many days did it take her to recoup her investment?

$4,600 weekly / $1,100 (resume cost) = 4.2 work days

Just through the raise alone, Tess recovered her investment in under 1 work week’s pay.

An Investment in Your Future

It’s easy to find cheap, low-budget resume services that will write you a resume for less than the price of one night at a crappy motel (single occupancy). Or you can do your due diligence and make a solid investment in yourself (and your career) by working with a legitimate and reputable resume writer who will take the time to get to know you professionally, understand your career and/or business goals, and develop a personalized branding strategy that showcases your unique selling points and gets results.

We enlist the help of different professionals every day. Would you hire a mechanic to do your taxes? Or an accountant to manage your healthcare? Why would you leave something as important as your career to chance?

Your resume is the most financially important persuasive marketing document that you will ever own. It can either help you or hurt you. In this digital economy, where competition is fiercer than ever, how you position yourself on paper and LinkedIn makes the difference between whether or not you are invited for an interview.

You are worth every investment you make in yourself. To that end, I leave you to answer the following question:

Does this cost you now or does it cost you (much) more down the road?

Click here to learn just how much money you could be losing on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis while you’re searching for that next job.

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