Resume writing services gain traction

Professional resume writing firms have seen a growth of 50-60% in the last 2 years

Paramveer Chauhan, a senior sales manager at a firm in Dubai always thought that writing a CV was a simple task. Though he took the assistance of CV Writing India as he did not have the time due to extensive travelling. However, he was surprised when he received the new CV, and he realised that it was a good decision to purchase their services after comparing it with his old CV.

Chauhan is not alone. Several Indians are availing professional resume writing services to hit the perfect mark and get their dream job. To cater to this market, there have been several professional resume writing firms including CV Writing India, Perfect Resume and Vibranturre. Though these firms have been in existence for the last few years, they have noticed an increased traction in the last few quarters. The firms have seen a growth of 50-60% in the last two years.

 

Take CV Writing India for example. The company caters to both individuals and corporate clients. These corporate clients are professional resume writing firms from abroad who have outsourced the work to India. Moreover, they also have tie-ups with business schools wherein they go and teach the techniques of CV writing to students. Says Amit Pandey, founder and CEO of the company, "Our volumes have been gradually increasing year-on-year. This is what has prompted us to expand to broader markets. We are going live in US, and looking to expand to UK too."

Pandey believes that their pricing point would be an advantage as compared to their peers. The firm offers a host of services including standard resume writing, express resume (delivery within 24 hours), Linkedin profile update and KSA writing services (for advertised US Federal Government jobs). The charges range from Rs 1499 (for standard CV) to Rs 3999 (for immigration CV). The firm which has offices in Mumbai and Chennai is looking to set up offices in New Delhi and Bangalore.

Chennai-based Perfect Resume is also on a similar track. Girish Raj, primary resume consultant at the firm is of the view that maximum requests come from people at the middle and senior management level. Since it is a web-based service, they also have clients in London and Sri Lanka. They offer resume writing services for starters, middle management and senior management at Rs 1500, 3000 and 4000 respectively.

"There is atleast a 20% growth every year because these are very niche services. Placement companies usually do not have adequate staff to provide such services," he says. The company is planning to launch Linkedin profile update services soon.

Vibranturre on the other hand, has serviced clients in USA, Afghanistan, UK, France, India and many other countries - though the majority of their clients are senior managers based in India. Even though the offline version was founded in Chennai , they get less than 5% of the clientele from that city today.

Prince Peter, CEO, Vibranturre explains, "What differentiates Vibranturre is that it is a boutique service where every client interaction is conducted and each resume developed personally by me. Unlike most other resume services the interaction and the work is not passed on to junior employees. We are executive resume creation specialists - so we are mainly involved in creating fully customized resumes for executive level managers,"

The firm charges Rs 25,000 for managers with 10 years experience or less, Rs 35,000 for managers with 10 plus years experience and all senior management aspirants. Their clientele includes presidential staff (Indian), CEOs, varied CXOs, VPs, Country Heads, MD, CMD, international sports-persons, movie/theater artists, politicians, senior surgeons and several others.

Though their typical customer profile is male, they see female percent age increasing. "Since 2005 the online business has grown by almost 500%, this growth trend is what had prompted us to push for an online-only service in the first place. However, we believe that we have barely tapped the market - and expect a 30-50% year-on-year growth in the next 2-3 years," Peter says.

Professionals using the services of these firms are all in praise. Mehak Chaddha, a 30 year-old IT professional based in Gurgaon used resume writing services to target the multinational corporation jobs. "Though I had the necessary degrees, I was not able to present the same on my resume. After getting my resume modified, I got several calls from these firms. That is when I understood that there was something seriously wrong with my earlier CV," said Chaddha. Areeb Hussain, a Bangalore-based engineer also opines that he got offers of higher profiles merely based on his CV prepared by a professional firm, as opposed to what he got earlier.

HR consultants are also of the view that there is a big market that is yet to be tapped in terms of resume writing services. Sunil Goel, Director of human resource firm GlobalHunt says that there is a 15% to 20% growth every year in terms of demand for these services. "Junior management employees use these services most often. Also, middle and senior management officials have been seen availing these services lately, as they are passive job-seekers who look for jobs after five years on an average. At that juncture, they may not be well-versed with the current trends in the market, so it is safer to take expert opinion," says Goel. GlobalHunt also offers such services.

The service providers, on the other hand, believe that this is just the beginning of growth for them in India. "India is still a nascent market. There is a huge potential to grow," says Pandey. As more individuals enter the job market every year, industry players believe that the demand for resume writing firms will only see an upward trend.