What even is The Muse? We were slightly confused when we first landed
In short, The Muse promises to go beyond resume writing, giving you more of a unified platform with: job postings, coaches, and career advice.
Whether they achieve this, or are just another resume writing business is something we’ll have to discover.
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It’s worth noting that they claim to have more than 70 million annual users, and this is backed up by their website’s high traffic, but – troublingly – there are very few reviews online.
Rather than jump to conclusions, let’s take our time going through all their services and pull together the information. That way, you can get a sense of if they’re worth the money.
What does The Muse do?
The Muse sells itself as a one-stop-shop for finding fulfilling work you feel passionate about.
In reality, that means they combine elements of resume writing with elements of job posting boards – so you technically don’t have to juggle multiple platforms while searching.
Their main service is career coaching, where experts help craft resumes and cover letters while advising you on your goals over the phone.
Think of it like a directory for 1-on-1 resume writing coaches. Don’t worry, later we’ll look at the fees involved to find out if this is cost effective compared to other platforms.
Who is this service for?
As far as who this platform is for, things can get a little confusing…
The Muse claims to target both job seekers looking for more meaningful work, and employers looking to access passionate talent.
Supposedly, they can match you with purpose-driven job openings (suggesting that company culture is the main selling point of their listings).
However, in spite of their marketing claims, The Muse resembles Indeed or other job sites a lot more than something radically different. Nothing really screams “purpose” on each job post.
With that said, the ability to select coaches means those in specialized fields like healthcare, tech, finance, or law can get more targeted advice before submitting applications.
Although founded by women, and having acquired the female-first community ‘Fairygodboss’ in 2022, The Muse has slowly shifted its focus away from female empowerment to broader appeal.
The Muse: the pros and cons
| Pros: Choose your own resume writer Full career coach details Individual reviews for coaches High salary jobs on job board 1-on-1 personalized attention | Cons: Slightly more expensive No real job or resume integration Lack of support No success guarantees Very few reviews online |
The Muse’s process
The Muse claims to take a more 1-on-1 approach to typical resume writing platforms. Let’s find out if this is true together:
How does The Muse’s writing process work?
To start the process, you must complete a questionnaire about your career stage and field.
The Muse then lists potential coaches. Rather than being assigned a random writer, you can browse the available coaches and choose the one you like most – seeing their photo, credentials, and area of expertise
Next, you pick your desired service package, which ranges from basic resume reviews to complete document creation.
After paying the fee, you’ll receive an email from your chosen coach to schedule the 30-60 minute phone session. This allows you to work 1-on-1 to map out your resume plan.
While selecting your coach, paying, and scheduling calls happen over the platform, it seems like things work on a case-by-case basis. It’s unclear if there’s any overarching process, or if you’re really just working with contractors.
How long does the process take?
The Muse doesn’t give set timelines, as duration likely varies based on coach availability and applicants’ responsiveness.
They state you’ll receive an email from your selected coach to schedule a phone session within 24 hours. However, responses can be faster.
Once in touch, completing the resume, cover letter, and career planning process itself takes 1-2 weeks total based on their FAQ page.
With no set schedules, the personalized nature allows for flexibility, but it might be concerning for those with more urgent career needs.
What do The Muse resumes look like?
Since The Muse emphasizes career coaching over writing services, they don’t provide examples of resumes or cover letters to set expectations.
With each client working 1-on-1 with their chosen coach, there’s likely some variability in formatting, style, and overall polish based on individual skill.
Those looking for consistency and reliability over a customized approach may view this as a drawback. But for others, the personalized approach might lead to more in-depth resumes.
Is their platform easy to use?
While branded as an all-in-one career guidance platform, The Muse doesn’t offer much in the way of technology beyond a job board and coach directory.
You browse open roles and potential coaches on their site like any other standard directory.
The actual resume writing, career coaching, and application processes happen externally via email, phone, and document sharing platforms.
Because of this, it’s easier to understand The Muse as a combination of personalized coaching services and job search rather than a single tool.
How qualified are The Muse’s writers?
As far as credentials go, a major advantage of The Muse is that it lets you handpick your career coach based on their qualifications and client reviews.
These coaches appear well-credentialed, with bios highlighting relevant work histories, skill sets, certifications, and specialties.
The Muse’s Pricing, Packages & Guarantees
Given that The Muse uses freelance coaches, prices do vary.
Most coaches offer individual resumes, cover letters, and LinkedIn writing and consulting starting around $100.
Set packages like the Resume + LinkedIn Review bundle range from $256 for a standard coach up to $859 for a vetted “Master Coach.”
Unlike competitors, The Muse’s personalized model means it’s up to you to pick the right coach for your level, and bear the costs involved with that.
What are their guarantees?
Given The Muse’s freelance model, there’s a conspicuous lack of true satisfaction guarantees.
They cite a vague 95% satisfaction rate but offer limited money-back options – unless there are “missing deliverables” or documents with spelling, grammar, tense, or formatting issues.
This is slightly concerning, as there seems to be no way to get a refund if your resume doesn’t land you more interviews, or you’re generally unsatisfied with your level of service.
Other resume writing services tend to place a big emphasis on “landing interviews”, whereas The Muse simply puts you in touch with a coach, and promises a bare minimum level of quality.
How does The Muse compare to other resume writing services?
The Muse is unique in the way it lets you pick your writer. But it’s strange that they bill themselves as some kind of unified platform, when really you work independently with coaches.
While this could suggest a lack of oversight, reviews might reveal more.
TheMuse.com reviews
Okay, here’s where things get weird. There are next to zero reviews of The Muse online.
For a site boasting 70 million annual users, and monthly traffic in the 3+ million range, we were expecting a little more buzz online.
To give you at least some detail, we’re also going to look at reviews of their coaches on their own site, but this doesn’t say a whole lot about their business as a whole.
The Muse reviews from TrustPilot
The Muse has only 1 written review on TrustPilot, but averages 3.3 stars.
The Muse reviews from their own website
As mentioned, finding reviews of The Muse online is next to impossible. So let’s take a look at some positive and negative feedback for their individual coaches.
(Although it’s worth noting, reviews of all coaches range from “very good” to “excellent”, so it’s unclear whether these are handpicked, or a true reflection of their service)
What else should you know?
Okay, so tricky to find reviews aside, let’s take a real look at what The Muse can promise you.
How effective is The Muse?
While it seems most users we could find are happy with the career coaching and resume writing services, it’s hard to tell how successful the service is.
This is because they make few real promises about your success, or back things up with data.
This is strange in the world of resume writing, where most competitors at least guarantee some form of results like job placement or interview rates.
This combined with their lack of money-back guarantees means job seekers don’t have much to go on by the way of success evidence.
For those comfortable assessing coach quality independently, results seem largely positive. Just don’t expect robust quality assurances.
Which other services do they have?
Aside from resume development and career coaching, The Muse also operates a job search board with openings filtered by industry, seniority level, company values and other preferences.
Additionally, The Muse helps companies find talent, giving employers access to the platform’s user database. While beneficial for organizations, it’s debatable whether this corporate aspect takes away from or enhances the experience for users.
What kind of support do they offer?
The Muse offers customer support through an email-based support ticketing system – a slightly dated approach when compared to other services.
While they do have an FAQ and help center, these offer pretty limited troubleshooting resources. Really, only basic questions are addressed.
What makes The Muse different?
The area where The Muse really stands out is its ability to connect you directly with career coaches.
We’ve already covered how this works, but in short: you work with independent contractors, giving you far more control over who and how you work.
For those who value control, this transparency and flexibility helps Muse stand apart.
But there is a tradeoff. By selecting your own coach, more responsibility falls on you to determine if they understand your industry and goals, with little recourse if things go wrong.
How safe is my information?
The Muse employs standard data protection in line with most websites, stating they may share your information with third party service providers to fulfill site functionality, including targeted advertising. However, they do not directly sell personal user data.
Conclusion: is The Muse worth the money?
All in all, The Muse fails to fully deliver on its lofty promises. For those searching for company culture fit and “worthwhile” careers, the service will likely fall flat.
The Muse more closely resembles a cross between freelance resume writer directory and existing job sites like Indeed, rather than the connected career ecosystem they claim.
Having said that, their focus on quality writing guidance and a coach marketplace does stand out. So as a resume writer search engine, The Muse could be interesting.
Just not as the inspiring all-in-one career solution promised by their marketing.
