We all delay expenditures to fit our budget. Sometimes we are saving up for something special like a vacation or sometimes unexpected things happen that make us rearrange our monthly budget plans. Unfortunately, sometimes when we delay investing in something, the final expenditure is higher than the original cost.
For example, a friend of mine recently purchased a used car (I think they are now called pre-owned). He had the opportunity to purchase a bumper-to-bumper, three-year warranty on the vehicle for $500 and have it meshed into the total payment but he opted not to do so. Three months later, the fuel pump bit the dust and the repair cost him $725. That $500 warranty looked pretty good in hindsight.
Occasionally, we will have a job seeker who views a professionally developed resume in the same light. Shelling out several hundred dollars for a resume may not compute in his mind. These individuals have a very short-sighted view and often come back to us several months after we first discussed a resume with them to go ahead and have the resume developed. What they didn't compute at the beginning was the loss they risked by NOT investing in their career.
Let's look at some numbers. Let's say a person is making $100,000 a year. That computes roughly to a gross of $50/hour. In one 40-hour week, gross salary would be approximately $2000. Now, let's say this person is targeting a job at the $125,000 mark. That computes to about $62.50 an hour or $2500 a week. If this person's job search takes 12 weeks instead of four, he has lost $4000 in potential earnings. That's $4K that could have gone in his pocket simply by using a more effective resume that won interviews more quickly and more effectively than a poor, self-written resume.
Keep in mind that we are only talking base salary in this scenario and not benefits, commissions, or stock options. We also are not considering cash flow issues that occur when a downsizing has occurred. What was $4K in potential lost earnings for the job seeker looking to make a step up the career ladder skyrockets to $30,000 when there is zero income for someone who has been laid off. Of course, being out of work is the worst time to have to invest in a professional resume so we always recommend having a resume ready and up-to-date. Think of it as a will for your career - you don't want to be caught without one.
Makes that few hundred dollars spent on the resume look rather paltry, doesn't it.