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In-Depth Review | Pongo Resume.com

PongoResume.com

$14.95 monthly subscription

From the website: "Our templates consider your level of experience. Whether you're a student, experienced professional, returning to the workforce, or a job seeker with a range of skills and experience, we'll format the best resume
for you
."

Views and Opinions
by David Alan Carter

A premier, full-service online resource with over 4.6 million registered users, Pongo offers everything you could want in a resume builder (and some things you didn't even know you wanted). Pongo's Resume Builder is packed with features, intuitive, and easy to master. You can create one resume or a hundred, making it relatively to fine-tune a resume to better match a particular job opening. And their Cover Letter Builder works side-by-side at no extra charge.

There's More

Because your resumes and cover letters reside on the company's server, Pongo is able to offer a wide variety of options for delivering those documents to your intended target. Download them to your computer where you can print hard copies at will. Or email a resume and cover letter directly from Pongo Visit... Pongo Resume.comin PDF or plain text format to a job board or in response to an online classified ad. Or fax it straight from Pongo's site to an employer -- no fax machine needed.

Need more options? With Pongo, you can set up a resume Web page, a professional HTML web page with a unique URL; send a link to a prospective employer, and they can see your resume online.

All of this, of course, isn't free. But a subscription-based business model helps keep this resume builder reasonably affordable. Fifteen bucks buys you full access to all the features on the site for a month. Create and download your finished resume and cover letters onto your hard drive, and cancel the service anytime after than. Or, keep the service going to enjoy the emailing and the faxing, the activity tracking, the personalized HTML Web page, and the ability to access and tweak your resume at a moment's notice from any computer in the world, 24/7.

Here's How It Works

You decide whether you want the monthly subscription plan ($14.95), or the annual subscription plan ($59.95). Better yet, you can simply choose the FREE trial, which lets you create a resume at no cost and pay only when and if you decide to do something with your finished resume (like download it to your computer or fax it to a job listing). Tip: When in doubt, go with FREE. That way, you can see how things work, and whether the finished product is to your liking before spending any money.

Once you set up a password and fill in some basic information, the program evaluates your unique occupational status and creates an individualized template specific to you. That said, the template remains fully customizable; add and manipulate a variety of headings, adjust page margins, and select different fonts, graphical layouts and formats.

Step-by-step, the system prompts you for information needed to fill out each section. Your unique profile determines what information you're prompted for next. An experienced professional, for example, will be prompted for different information than a student. And by the way, if you've got employment gaps, if you're light on experience, if your skills come from a variety of sources, you don't need to worry which format (chronological, functional or hybrid) will best present your credentials. Pongo's software figures that out for you.

As we mentioned, the resume and cover letter you create remain on the company's servers, accessible to you from any computer anywhere in the world, night or day. Subscribers can download and print hard copies, or email and fax their resumes directly from the company's online application.  

Pongo Resume Review | TemplatesHere's What We Liked

  • Each resume created is a unique template--though fully customizable by you.
  • Formatting is automatic. Pongo's software decides if you are best served with a chronological format, a functional format, or a hybrid of the two.
  • Create as many resumes -- or variations of your resume -- as you need. And keep track of them easily.  
  • Subscription includes Cover Letter Builder. And the sample cover letter template contains pre-written text to help you get started.
  • Employers receive both text-only and formatted versions of your resume (Word, HTML or PDF) when you email directly from the application.
  • Fax directly from Pongo's website. All subscriptions include 20 free faxes per month. Try to do that from a Kinko's, and you could be out $80.00 or more each month.
  • Tracker feature keeps track of all the "who, what, when and where" of resume submissions.
  • Excellent customer service: telephone and get a real person.
  • It's free to try. If you're happy with the resume you create, and want to be able to print, email, fax, download and track your documents, simply upgrade to a monthly or annual subscription anytime. 
  • The BBB (Better Business Bureau) gives the company an A+ rating. Read the BBB review.  

Pongo Resume - A Tip

If you think you can wrap this job search up in two or three months, subscribe by the month. You can cancel at any time. Then again, consider paying the annual subscription of $59.95 if you believe your job search may take more than 6 months. That breaks down to about $5 bucks per month for the 12 months--one third the price of paying monthly. And BTW, that $59.95? That's about one-half to one-third what a professional writer would charge -- for a single resume.

Pongo Resume Review - The Wrap Up

In summary, PongoResume.com an excellent resume builder that offers a remarkable list of benefits beyond just the construction of your resume. You can get by on the cheap for just $14.95 -- build a few resumes and cover letters, print all you need, and cancel the subscription within thirty days. Or stick around a few months and take full advantage of Pongo's emailing, faxing and Web page services. Pongo Resume is easily our Top Pick for resume builders.

With no charge to create a resume, you can look at the finished product before you buy. We like that, and it makes Pongo an easy call. Note: As with all of our reviews, this is our opinion--we always advise readers to do their own due diligence.

Go To PongoResume.com

NOTE: This website is monetized through the use of Affiliate Programs with the online resume service providers we review. Read our Disclosure Statement for more information on our reviewer, and our Affiliate Relationships.

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