Friends taking advantage of your professional skills...

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EirePetal
EirePetal Posts: 54 Member
in Chit-Chat
In full disclosure, if I had a friend who was a massage therapist, it would be a total struggle to not take advantage of his/her skills.

I have helped a lot of friends with their resumes (in all honesty, the majority of resumes that I see need to be burned, come on people, at least spell check your resume before you turn it in). I helped one friend fix up her resume and talked to her a bit about interview and resume etiquette and I just got an email from her today with her classmate's resume. She preceded to tell me that her classmate has an interview on Friday and gave me a short list of how I can make changes to the document before I send it back to her. In all fairness, she did say please take a look, however, it was in a statement, not a polite question.

I like helping people out but I also feel like she is taking advantage of me. I kinda want some kind-of reciprocity from her classmate since he is not a friend of mine. Side note, there were misspellings in this resume as well. I have had someone misspell their own name before.

Anyways, I just wanted to share my little rant and see if any of you go through this too. How do you handle it? Or how would you handle it?
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Replies

  • ladyfingers73
    ladyfingers73 Posts: 80 Member
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    I'm a hairstylist and the answer is YES. But over the years I have learned how to just say NO, sorry. Make an appt! ;)
  • MaryJane_8810002
    MaryJane_8810002 Posts: 2,082 Member
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    I have been taken advantage of when I was running my own Etsy shop. You just gotta put your foot down or demand compensation.
  • dirty_blonde
    dirty_blonde Posts: 71 Member
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    Certified professional photographer here...yes all my friends expect portraits for free. Put a quick stop to it but a few still hint around. Some friends I let go because they kept asking and wouldn't let it drop. I have no problem divorcing friends. Friendship is over rated
  • VelociMama
    VelociMama Posts: 3,119 Member
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    I have been taken advantage of when I was running my own Etsy shop. You just gotta put your foot down or demand compensation.

    This.

    Tell them no more unless they are going to pay you for your time at a reasonable rate.
  • ElizabethRoad
    ElizabethRoad Posts: 5,138 Member
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    Easy, just send her back a quick email with your pricing information.
  • Creativeballance
    Creativeballance Posts: 57
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    I'm a computer tech, and I get asked to help out all of the time from friends. Here's my simple rule:

    If it's for your business, or you are going to get some money out of it, I charge (but usually not my normal rate).

    If you ask me all of the time, you better be giving me favors in return, or I start saying "Oh, I'm too busy to do it."

    BTW, your friends classmate isn't your friend, so I would be charging.
  • slkehl
    slkehl Posts: 3,801 Member
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    That's tough. I would for sure put my foot down when it comes to friends of friends. For your closer friends, you could tell them you could take a quick look over it for any glaring errors, but that it's really quite time consuming so they should make an appointment so you can carve out the time in your schedule to give it a decent look.
  • Sasssy69
    Sasssy69 Posts: 547 Member
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    I'm a writer and an English teacher, and this happens to me. However, none of my friends have ever asked me to do something without offering to pay me. And this is why:

    When they ask, I says, "Sure, I'll take a look at it and make revisions. I do charge $30.00 an hour. Will this be all right? If so, we can meet up and I'll get you your final document/paper/resume` and you can pay me."

    If they "ask" you to look over something, you can reply to their request in a similar way that suits you best. And then hang on to the resume` until they cough up the money. If you're doing it for a friend's class mate, just pass this along as "Make sure you get their okay to pay me before I look at it" etc.

    I also do work in exchange for service. I just wrote a letter to a landlord for my stylist and got a free color. I do a ton of writing for my chiropractor in exchange for adjustments. So if your friends can give you an "exchange of service" then that might benefit you both.
  • sjtreely
    sjtreely Posts: 1,014 Member
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    Tell them, "Sure. I'll look it over and give advice. But you must sign off on your original resume as I will undoubtedly use part of it for the book I'm writing titled, "Incredibly Stupid Things Idiots Write On Their Resumes."
  • stepharega
    stepharega Posts: 211 Member
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    My cousin is the nicest, sweetest girl ever and happens to be a massage therapist.... ive never asked to have a massage although some times I did really need one. My other family members always take advantage of her and its not fair ;(
  • logicman69
    logicman69 Posts: 1,034 Member
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    I worked at a music retail store selling guitars, it was hard not to give them my employee discount.
  • AlicynH
    AlicynH Posts: 201 Member
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    I used to do hair. Sometimes it would get very frustrating when a friend would want a hair cut or perm or color and then not pay me. I finally got to a point where I had to tell them they needed to at least pay half of what I got at the salon. Some were upset about that.
  • 12skipafew99100
    12skipafew99100 Posts: 1,669 Member
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    My husband once made up a resume and had them printed. He did his own proof reading. Only after they came back did he notice he had written pubic instread of public. As in serving the public. lol :embarassed:
  • tlblood
    tlblood Posts: 473 Member
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    But you must sign off on your original resume as I will undoubtedly use part of it for the book I'm writing titled, "Incredibly Stupid Things Idiots Write On Their Resumes."

    That is an awesome idea! I'd read it!
  • HiKaren
    HiKaren Posts: 1,306 Member
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    If you are feeling that way..... you could always do one more little task, and look up a resume service you could refer them to. Email her back the name and phone number, and just say... "You know I do need some additional time to take care of some of my own things I'm behind on. Please give this company a call. As I don't have the free time to do this for you and ALL YOUR FRIENDS. Say it in the sweetest tone you can... If you don't....and you do this other one...I guarantee you, the line will get long of other friends wanting the same thing...

    Unless you want to start your own resume service, in your spare time. You could make extra $ if you start charging. If your too burnt out with everything else clerical that you do, just refer them to a resume service, say you don't really have the extra spare time.
  • linhmaimac
    linhmaimac Posts: 148 Member
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    I'd expect family to feel entitled..but friends like that suck.
  • EirePetal
    EirePetal Posts: 54 Member
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    Tell them, "Sure. I'll look it over and give advice. But you must sign off on your original resume as I will undoubtedly use part of it for the book I'm writing titled, "Incredibly Stupid Things Idiots Write On Their Resumes."

    LOL, that is awesome! My first chapter would be "Email Addresses: Yummybunny69@xxxxxxxxx.com, Really?"
  • kr3851
    kr3851 Posts: 994 Member
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    I would email back with 'I've had a look and it will take me about 15 minutes to fix, at my rate of xx per hour - just let me know if they're prepared to pay before I go ahead and use up my time'
  • FlyByJuly
    FlyByJuly Posts: 564 Member
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    Easy, just send her back a quick email with your pricing information.

    ^ I LOVE this!
  • Bucky83
    Bucky83 Posts: 1,194 Member
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    All the time! I'm a Speech Pathologist and have had both family and friends ask for support. I will often ask a few indicator questions, but then after that, I will either recommend to see a Speechie or say, "they're on target for their age".

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