What to Write in a Resume: The Pros and Cons of Online Resume Builders

There are many ways of having your resume completed for you these days, with the internet and globalization you can write it yourself, pay a service professional to write for you or use a software package such as an online resume builder that will collate your information into a resume.

However as a person looking for work and applying for positions you need to ensure if you chose to use a resume builder that you choose wisely. Therefore it’s important that you understand what the ability of the online software or application is and what it will and won’t do for you.

Below we have listed some pros and cons for your to digest and make your own decision.

Pros
- There are many resume builders available that seem to be affordable
- You don’t need to be an expert or have any experience in writing resumes or formatting documents as they are usually pre formatted
- They provide a quick and easy outcome
- They are quick and easy to access
- Most of them are very basic to use and step you through the process

Cons
- You still have to input your information onto the page or software for the resume builder to be able to complete your resume
- Often you are restricted to use the builders fonts and formats
- Some builders are purely 100% online and don’t have the functionality to allow the user to save their resume to other word processing software such as Microsoft word, and often you can only print out what you have completed on line. This makes it hard for individuals if they are applying for several different positions or if they want to adjust the resume for the different positions that they are applying for.
- Some of the resume builders only provide you with a PDF copy of your resume which again restricts you for further adaption or updating.
- Often you are restricted to using American spelling and grammar, and if you applying for a position say in Australia or New Zealand, this would come across to the potential employer as a poor attempt.
- Often the license is for one person and sometimes one resume, meaning if you have paid good money to use the resume builder you may not be able to use it for someone else in your family or more than once or twice for yourself.
- Free is not always free, with free turning into fee when it’s time to print or save your resume, sometimes free means it’s a 14 or 21 day trial.
- You may attract spam due to many resume builders requires you to provide your email address before you can access their software, therefore you are then bombarded with spam from them.
- You won’t learn how to write a resume from the experience of using a resume builder and when you lose your current one you will need to use another resume builder.

Personally I feel that there are too many cons and restrictions to resume builders to be able to provide you with a high quality resume. However if you still choose to use them I fully respect your decision. Just ensure you do your research and ensure you know what it will actually do for you before you start inputting information into it.

My suggestion would be that you should learn about what to write in a resume for yourself, and then you will have more control on the content, its security and any further adaptions. There are many quality templates and resources out there that help you understand the concepts of resume writing and how to write a resume.

You can still have someone spell check it for you, and if you ever do lose it or the dog eats it you will the skills you gained previously will be able to be used again.