Roast My Resume
Feedback on your resume from a community of experts
As mentioned in my previous post about acquiring the domain RoasyMyResume.com, I wasn't sure that that was the best brand for the product.
I thought about a number of names and zeroed in on Resume Forum. Not the most imaginative name in the world, and I wouldn't build a whole brand around it, but for the a single-product website, it's memorable and to the point.
There's also strong precedent that it can serve perfectly well over the long term, with tons of successful niche forums simply called XYZforum.com.
I bought it from the existing owner yesterday.
Closed on this transaction, acquiring the name from a developer who had started building the very same idea.
I'm not 100% that I'll end up using the name. "Roasting" is negative, aggressive, and reddit-y. Also, there are a lot of people who don't even know what the word means.
But it's good to have the option to use it, and it will serve as a working title for the time being.
After noticing in /r/resumes that people often use the subject line Roast My Resume, I was intrigued by the possibility of this phrase as the name of the site.
So I google "roast my resume", and lo and behold, not one but two developers have independently started building similar sites and with exactly the same name.
I couldn't have asked for a better signal that there is value to this idea than to discover two independent developers who not only a) had the same idea, but b) thought it good enough to start building, and c) chose the very same name that had intrigued me. Unbelievable.
So I reached out to both of them, and neither was intending to pursue the concept seriously.
One had already purchased the domain name, and was happy to sell it to me.
Say hello to the new owner of roastmyresume.com.
I've been diving deep into the world of resumes this year, and one thing that comes up over and over is that people want feedback on their resume.
AKA, resume reviews.
It's one of the core services that college career centers provide to students. It's the lead magnet that resume writers entice clients with. Job fairs and industry meetups regularly offer resume reviews. There's a thriving subreddit with 100k members helping job seekers with their resumes. And on and on.
I want to build a community for resume reviews, the authoritative destination on the internet providing this service that every job seeker needs.
Like a forum, but single purpose. You upload your resume, you get feedback from the community.
Make the UX really good, and set a strong culture of quality, and this could be an immensely popular and valuable resource for job seekers in North America and around the world.
And not only job seekers. There is a wide variety of people who could be interested in providing the resume reviews: resume writers, recruiters, career counselors, and good samaritans.
I've provided resume reviews myself, and been on the receiving end of gratitude from job seekers whose resumes I helped improve. It doesn't take very long, but adds tons of value to someone's life.
This site should exist, and I'm going to build it.
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