iCareerSolutions vs Let's Eat, Grandma: Which Is Right for Your Career?
Let’s Eat, Grandma and iCareerSolutions are both well-reviewed boutique resume services with CPRW-credentialed leadership. Both offer 1:1 writer consultations. Both target career professionals seriously enough to charge premium prices. The difference comes down to executive specialization and what you can buy beyond a resume.
Tamara Cameron
Last updated on : 2026-05-08
Let’s Eat, Grandma is a US-based resume writing service founded by Chris Villanueva, CPRW, with packages from $439–$1,899 and an “Executive Concierge” tier for senior leaders. Strong reputation for personalized writing, with a Job Loss Protection guarantee and 4.9/5 Google rating.
iCareerSolutions is a 32× award-winning boutique founded in 2011, led by NRWA Board member Arno Markus, with resume packages from $495–$1,495, federal resume specialization, and a full Reverse Recruiting practice ($1,995–$5,995/month) — managing the entire executive job search end-to-end.
If you need a high-quality executive resume + LinkedIn and that’s it, both services can deliver. If you also need someone to actually run your search — applications, outreach, hiring-manager conversations — Let’s Eat, Grandma doesn’t offer that. iCareerSolutions does.
Quick verdict
| Your Situation | Better Fit |
|---|---|
| You want a polished resume + LinkedIn at a mid-tier price ($439–$889) | Let's Eat, Grandma |
| You want a boutique with the longest runway "Job Loss Protection" guarantee | Let's Eat, Grandma free rewrite if you lose your job within 12 months) |
| You're at the C-suite and need a fully managed executive search | iCareerSolutions |
| You want done-for-you reverse recruiting (sourcing + applications + outreach) | iCareerSolutions (Let's Eat, Grandma doesn't offer it) |
| Federal or USAJOBS resume |
iCareerSolutions (Let's Eat, Grandma explicitly doesn't write federal resumes) |
| Board / advisory / portfolio-career resume | iCareerSolutions |
| You want award-judged writing pedigree | iCareerSolutions (32× awards) |
| You want an Executive Concierge with unlimited revisions in 10 days + 60-min career coaching baked in | Let's Eat, Grandma ($1,899 Concierge tier) |
Side by Side Comparison
| iCareerSolutions | Let's Eat, Grandma | |
|---|---|---|
| Resume pricing | $495–$1,495 (Silver / Gold / Platinum, by complexity) | $439 / $689 / $889 / $1,899 (Starter / Premium / Transform / Executive Concierge) |
| LinkedIn included | Gold and Platinum |
All packages from Starter up |
| Executive bio | Yes (Platinum or Signature RR) | Yes (Executive Concierge $1,899) |
| Reverse Recruiting (managed search) | Yes — $1,995–$5,995/month, 3 tiers | No — does not offer |
| Federal resumes | Yes ($895+) | No — explicitly doesn't write federal |
| Board / advisory resumes | Yes (Platinum or Signature) | limited |
| Consultation length | 45–60 minute strategy call (all tiers) | 30 min (standard packages); 2× 60 min (Executive Concierge) |
| Revisions | Two rounds | 2 revisions in 7 days; unlimited in 10 days (Executive Concierge) |
| First draft turnaround | ~7 days post-consultation | |
| Senior writer guaranteed | Yes — every executive engagement | Only on Executive Concierge ($1,899) |
| Awards | 32× industry awards (CDI/TORI, NRWA/ROAR, PARW&CC) | "Featured in" NY Post, Money.com, US News — earned-media recognition, not award-judged |
| Reviews | Trustpilot 4.8 / Google 4.9 / 100+ public LinkedIn recs | Google 4.9, strong Trustpilot, "Best Resume Writing Service 2026" featured by NY Post |
| Founder / leadership | Arno Markus, BA, MSc, CPRW — NRWA Board of Directors | Chris Villanueva, CPRW — CEO/Founder |
| Founded | 2011 | 2014 |
| Job-search guarantee | 90-day Interview Guarantee on Enhanced+ Reverse Recruiting tiers | Job Loss Protection: free rewrite if you lose your job within 12 months of purchase |
| Career coaching | Add-on (Career Coaching service) | Embedded: Career Roadblock Office Hour (Transform); 60-min executive coaching (Concierge) |
| International clients | Yes | Yes (no photos, no demographic info, max 2 pages) |
When Let's Eat, Grandma genuinely makes sense
LEG is a strong choice if:
– You need a great resume + LinkedIn at a clean mid-tier price. Their Premium tier at $689 is well-priced for a polished resume + cover letter + LinkedIn rewrite + 30-min consultation.
– You want their distinctive “Job Loss Protection” guarantee. If you lose your job within 12 months of purchase, they’ll rewrite your materials for free. That’s a longer runway than most service guarantees and meaningful peace-of-mind for buyers worried about layoffs.
– You want extensive coaching baked into the engagement — their Transform package includes a Career Roadblock Office Hour group session, and their $1,899 Executive Concierge includes a 60-minute career coaching session.
– You want unlimited revisions on the executive tier. Their Concierge offers unlimited revisions in 10 days vs. iCareerSolutions’ two-round model. If you tend to iterate heavily, that’s a better fit.
– Your search is straightforward — you’ll do the applying, networking, and outreach yourself, and you just need world-class documents.
If those describe you, LEG is a legitimate, well-reviewed choice.
When iCareerSolutions wins
The buyer profile shifts if you need anything beyond a resume + LinkedIn — or if your search is in executive territory where positioning depth and search-execution support change the math.
1. You can buy a managed search, not just documents
Let’s Eat, Grandma writes excellent documents. They don’t offer reverse recruiting — there’s no service tier where someone at LEG sources roles for you, tailors and submits applications, runs outreach to hiring managers, or reports on your weekly pipeline.
iCareerSolutions does. Reverse Recruiting is a category at iCS, with three tiers ($1,995–$5,995/month) and weekly KPI reports showing accepted intros, applications submitted, replies, and interviews scheduled. For senior leaders bottlenecked on execution time (not strategy), this is the difference between a $1,500 document and a $40K+ search.
If you’re a sitting executive who can’t moonlight as your own job-search coordinator, this gap is decisive.
2. Federal and board specializations
LEG explicitly states they don’t write federal/USAJOBS resumes — academic CVs and federal resumes have specific conventions different from typical professional resumes, and LEG doesn’t specialize there.
iCareerSolutions does federal resumes ($895+) and board resumes (as part of Platinum or Signature RR tiers). For government, defense, and board-of-directors candidates, LEG isn’t an option; iCS is built for it.
3. Senior writer access at every tier (not gated to $1,899)
LEG explicitly markets “Guaranteed Senior Writer for Executives” as part of the $1,899 Executive Concierge tier. Their lower tiers use their broader writing bench.
At iCareerSolutions, every executive client works with a senior, named, award-winning writer — visible on the team page before purchase — across all executive engagements. If you’re spending $695 (Silver C-Level) or $1,495 (Platinum), you still get a senior writer.
4. Award-judged writing pedigree
LEG’s marketing leans on earned-media recognition — “featured in NY Post, Money.com, US News, Best Resume Writing Service 2026.” That’s legitimate consumer-facing validation.
iCareerSolutions has 32 industry awards across executive, technical, healthcare, and career-change resume categories — judged by other professional resume writers via CDI/TORI, NRWA/ROAR, and PARW&CC. The award trail is the closest available proxy for “do these writers actually know how senior resumes get evaluated by the people who decide” — because the people judging are the people doing.
Both forms of validation are real. They tell you different things.
Real client comparisons
What we typically see when clients switch from TopResume
A mid-career product leader upgrading after TopResume's mid-tier
A senior product manager bought TopResume’s Career Confidence tier (~$349) after a layoff. The deliverable was clean and ATS-friendly — but written by a writer she never met from TopResume’s broad network, in a generic “driving results” voice that flattened the scope of what she had actually owned. The resume read as competent and forgettable. Months of applying produced screen-level interviews at the level she was trying to move past, not above it.
What iCareerSolutions did differently: a 45-minute strategy call with a senior, NRWA-certified writer assigned 1:1. The resume was rebuilt around portfolio scope — span of control, P&L, transformation outcomes — rather than functional duties. LinkedIn was rewritten to match. Reverse Recruiting Professional tier layered in targeted outreach into Senior Director and VP openings.
Outcome: senior-level interview activity began within weeks of the relaunch. The eventual offer landed inside iCareerSolutions’ typical 15–35% total-compensation lift range — consistent with the named ~25% lifts publicly reported by iCS clients.
Pricing math
For pure resume + LinkedIn comparisons, LEG’s Premium at $689 and iCS’s Gold at $995 are close enough that the choice should be on fit, not price.
Where the math diverges is when you add reverse recruiting:
– LEG’s Executive Concierge ($1,899): resume + value-prop letter + LinkedIn + executive bio + 60-min coaching + dedicated CSR. One-time purchase. Excellent for documents.
– iCS Enhanced Reverse Recruiting ($3,995 first month, $3,495/mo recurring): everything in LEG Concierge equivalent + a managed monthly search. Different category.
If your search bottleneck is documents, LEG Concierge is appropriate. If your search bottleneck is execution time and access, iCS Reverse Recruiting solves a problem LEG doesn’t address.
FAQs
Partially. Both write executive resumes, LinkedIn profiles, and bios at boutique quality. The category difference: iCareerSolutions also runs a Reverse Recruiting practice (managed monthly search) and writes federal/board resumes — neither of which Let's Eat, Grandma offers.
iCareerSolutions has 32 industry awards judged by other professional resume writers (CDI/TORI, NRWA/ROAR, PARW&CC), with NRWA Board representation. Let's Eat, Grandma has strong consumer-press validation (NY Post, Money.com, US News). Both produce high-quality executive documents. For award-judged pedigree, iCareerSolutions is the deeper signal; for consumer-facing reputation, LEG's media presence is broader.
No. Let's Eat, Grandma writes resumes, cover letters, LinkedIn profiles, and value-proposition letters. They do not offer a service where they source roles, tailor and submit applications, or run outreach to hiring managers on your behalf. iCareerSolutions offers Reverse Recruiting in three tiers ranging from $1,995 to $5,995 per month.
Different shapes. Let's Eat, Grandma offers Job Loss Protection — a free rewrite if you lose your job within 12 months of purchase, on any package. iCareerSolutions offers a 90-day Interview Guarantee on Enhanced and Signature Reverse Recruiting tiers (eligibility criteria apply). LEG's guarantee covers a longer time horizon but a different scenario (job loss); iCareerSolutions' guarantee covers active search outcomes.
Yes for executive engagements at iCareerSolutions — every executive client works with a senior, named writer regardless of tier. At Let's Eat, Grandma, 'Guaranteed Senior Writer for Executives' is part of their $1,899 Executive Concierge tier specifically, not lower tiers.
