Frequently Asked Questions

 

Intro

What is Sam Reads Resumes?
Sam Reads Resumes is a résumé review service. Our mission is to provide high quality, clear, and comprehensive résumé advice and maximize opportunities for each client.

What is the résumé review package?
The résumé review package includes a several-page document detailing our advice (to make it clear to you why we recommended this here and that there) and a revised résumé that illustrates our suggestions.

How do I sign up?
Follow the instructions on our sign-up page. First we ask you to send us your résumé and a little information about yourself. Then, we ask for your payment through Google Checkout. We'll send your package to you by email within 72 hours after receiving your payment.

How much does a résumé review cost?
The service costs $115 and includes one résumé review package.

 

The Case for Résumé Help

How many typos gets a résumé rejected?
We've read that 47% of executives will reject a resume that has just one typo, and 84% reject resumes with one or two small errors (source: OfficeTeam study).

In our own hiring experience, a superstar candidate can overcome a typo if their experience is sufficiently stellar, but it's undoubtedly a strike against them. The employer's logic goes: if someone isn't good at writing their very own résumé, they probably make lots of mistakes in other areas, too.

We recommend not risking it. Getting professional résumé help is a simple, painless way to polish your resume. While some of our competitors may *only* look for typos, our reviewer also offers advice on your content, word choice, formatting, style, and more.

Are there tax advantages to ordering résumé help?
We aren't tax experts, so please do your own research before filing your taxes. But according to our understanding of the U.S. tax law, expenses related to improving your resume are tax-deductible in many cases (specifically, where you have itemized deductions that account for more than 2% of your income, and you are looking for work in the same industry where you're currently working). See for yourself: we found this information under the "Job Search expenses" section (about a quarter of the way down the long page) of IRS Publication 529.

 

Why Sam Reads Resumes is Special

Who will review my résumé?
Sam is the reviewer at Sam Reads Resumes. Before founding Sam Reads Resumes, Sam evaluated hundreds of applicants' résumés and made hiring decisions for product management positions at Google. She holds a B.A. from Stanford University.

Read Sam's résumé and her greeting.

What does Sam look for in a résumé?
We'll check your résumé for errors like typos and grammatical mistakes, but we do much more than that. Sam spends most of her review time thinking about how your résumé is organized, how it looks, how long it ought to be, how you describe your experiences, what specific verbs and nouns you use, how clearly your experiences are portrayed, and the reader's overall experience.

She might suggest things like: correct this grammatical error, expand on this section, replace that mundane verb with this more impressive one, capitalize this, move that part to the top, reorganize page two like this, or something else altogether. Every review is unique.

Do 10% of your profits go to charity?
We donate 10% of our profits -- that's our revenue after expenses and taxes -- to charity. We believe in taking responsibility for each other, globally. We aren't hungry or homeless, and we know that not everyone has had the opportunities we have. We believe most businesses should take responsibility for the world around them. We'd love to live in a world where every business did the same. For now, we sleep well knowing we're doing our part.

Which charity does the 10% go to, and when?
The donation will go to some combination of non-profits focused on environmental issues, sustainable development, social entrepreneurship, health, education, and/or global poverty. The money is distributed at the end of each year, at Sam's discretion.

 

How We Review

Will you review several of my résumés?
We do recommend you write several résumés -- one tailored for each position you apply for. Just one résumé review is included in the résumé review package, but we can review additional versions of you résumé. Email us at contact@samreadsresumes.com for more information.

Once you have my email, will you use it to send me spam?
No. We promise never to sell or share your email. That would be an awful thing for us to do.

On your website, why do you only sometimes use the accent marks on "résumé"?
First of all, good catch! If you noticed this on your own, you must be quite a proofreader. This is actually quite a pet peeve of ours.

We use the accent marks on the generic word "résumé" but not on our business name "Sam Reads Resumes." This is because our URL is www.samreadsresumes.com, the accents are impractical on the URL, and our business name should match our URL. This does create some ugly inconsistency on our website, but we'd like to point out that the dictionary accepts both spellings as correct. Still, it's awkward, and we sincerely apologize to all you perfectionists who are annoyed by this.

 

Contact

How can I contact Sam Reads Resumes?
Send us an email: contact@samreadsresumes.com