Thread regarding CDW layoffs

Update:

I decided to use the service because CDW is paying for it. My coach has been great so far. Informative, communicative, and has been a good sounding board for strategies I've read about.

The resume service, on the other hand, is absolutely terrible. My resume was okay, but needed a little bit of reshaping. I mostly just wanted help condensing it - nothing crazy.

I spent hours filling out all of their forms, sent in previous resumes, summaries, and my LinkedIn profile for reference. About a week later I received the first draft. 90% of the resume was my current resume copied and pasted word-for-word. The 10% they added were:

• A summary where they hallucinated skills and experiences.
• They changed my name from my professional name to my legal name.
• They removed one of my majors from the education section (the most relevant major to my targeted role)
• Made the skills section much harder to parse for seemingly no reason at all
• Made my resume 1.25 pages long

I asked for a rework. They sent the final version two weeks later, and it is still below average. I hate to say it, but ChatGPT did a better job given the exact same information.

My opinion - I tried this "RIF benefit" a few years ago and had to ask for a new counselor, but the new one wasn't helpful either. Both were old and out of touch, with cookie cutter ideas. You're better off just networking.

I enjoyed meeting with my coach. Though enough of the information provided I was aware of, there were some really helpful tips provided.

Even if you know 99% of the information shared, receiving 1% of an useful unknown adds to ones overall future success.

I would do it - walk thru editing your LinkedIn profile with them - they started giving me some good suggestions and I edited mine's. This is your key branding of yourself so spruce up your LinkedIn profile.

I doesn't eat up a lot of your time and you get to chat with someone weekly about your progress or even let out your frustrations about how awful your former employer is for letting you go.

I used them for my layoff and it was decent - someone to talk to on a weekly basis for a few weeks. Look don't rely on them for your resume write-up - they will do a revision touch-up - thank them for it but use your own. They will take a while to get it done, so in the meantime - just modify/polish your own version. When they're done, thank them for it and you could incorporate a bit of the changes if you find it helpful.

They gave me some good basic pointers - we walked thru editing my LinkedIn profile, background picture, etc....adding some keywords to highlight in my profile header.

I got some good pointers about tailoring the top portion of my resume depending on the role/industry I'm applying for. Look, they're not going to provide a huge assistance in landing you a job - but some minor suggestions about LinkedIn, Resume, Interviewing were at least somewhat helpful including links to keywords to use in Resumes. My Coach emphasized practicing and nailing the interview answers and we went over some of that and it was helpful to steer me in the right direction/focus.

Again, it was a free resource to chat with weekly for 30 mins to 1 hr (whatever it was) to discuss my job search - she gave me ideas of how she would answer certain interview questions, etc. So I got something out of it - and it was good to have a 'buddy' to converse with to check up on how you're doing. It can be mentally hurtful and lonely after a layoff sitting at your desk at home all day searching for a job. So it helped me in a certain way --- but at the same use/rely on other resources to further enhance your Resume and polishing your Interview answers. It took a bit of time and practice to really nail down my interview answers that I was happy with.

I didn't find them helpful. They wanted to start over from scratch and I wanted to find a job, not spend weeks spinning my wheels with them. I found a job without them. My take is that if you're more of an entry level worker they could be very helpful.

Honestly, you get what you put into the effort. It can be a waste, but if you aren’t willing to put in the effort to tease out what you need, then it will be useless.

There are several different coaches and resource sessions you have at your fingertips. The tools they provide and coaching through your search are beneficial. The portal is useful.

If you drop off early, your services are cancelled and CDW doesn’t continue to pay for it. I recommend you keep your sessions going until the end of the contract term. You aren’t paying for it, it’s a benefit from CDW…. So use it!

I felt the LinkedIn in and resume help was a good start, but the coaching was pretty pointless.
Got a free lunch out of it.
It feels like a benefit in the same way that unlimited PTO does

They were absolute worthless in my case. A bunch of offshored writers who lack the ability to tailor resumes and profiles to applicant tracking system and search engine optimization.

Someone posted here that they had been laid off in January and found them to be useless lol which I appreciated the honesty cuz my appointment with them is tomorrow. And since I haven't looked at my resume in a decade and never used my LinkedIn accept for trainings, I'll take whatever useless help they can offer.