A man called me, asking if he had been ripped off by a company that charged him $800 for a resume. He emailed me the resume and cover letter, and they were amateurish (and I'm being kind). I looked up the company on the Internet. They were an out-of-state firm that had dozens of complaints from people who said they'd been ripped off.

Further, this company had printed hundreds of these letters and resumes for this man to mail to companies. Some of the companies weren't even in his field. Many of the letters weren't personalized, but were addressed to "Dear Sir or Madam." It's a turnoff for anyone to get a letter like that!

He also told me that most of the mailing labels they printed had no person's name, just the company name. Some had the company CEo's name (as if the CEO of a major corporation will spend his time reading unsolicited resumes). The odds that these resumes would find their way to a hiring decision maker were close to zero. In the unlikely event that they did reach their target, these letters and resumes were headed straight for the garbage can, given the very poor quality.

Another company that operates a major career website offers free resume reviews. I've found them to be rather unethical. One client submitted a highly-polished resume he and I developed together, and they tore it apart. In fairness, I think every resume can be improved, and they did have a couple of minor points that I agreed with, but most of their advice seemed formulaic and unrelated to the resume at hand. In another case, a woman said she'd hired this same company to write her resume, then submitted the resume they wrote for a free review. This company trashed their own resume, and recommended that she give them hundreds of dollars to fix it.

Please, please. Beware of the career scam artists. Check to see if there are complaints. Get references. Ask around for who is good. If it sounds too good to be true that you'll get a job just by mailing a bunch of resumes, it probably is.