With the tanking world, US and local economies, many people are shopping for jobs, which means updating the resume and circulating it to potential employers. TechRepublic.com posted this guide to words and phrases one should NOT use because they are meaningless, trite or downright painful to read.
Here is their list:
- Results-oriented professional
- Cross-functional teams
- More than [x] years of progressively responsible experience
- Superior (or excellent) communication skills
- Strong work ethic
- Met or exceeded expectations
- Proven track record of success
- Works well with all levels of staff
- Team player
- Bottom-line orientation
I’m not sure I agree with all of these, but I don’t feel strongly enough to defend them. I have posted in the past about the word police who seem hell-bent at times to slap us around for use of perfectly acceptable words and phrases.
Also, I won’t refrain from using some words purely for political correctness, and to this extent I would take issue … resumes should focus on past results, and not necessarily past positions. So what if you were Supreme Commander for Bovine Stall Sanitation? What I want to know is how effective you were at keeping the cow barn clean, and if so how you did it.
So, here’s the drill – write for clarity, and put yourself in the shoes of those who are hiring. Don’t force them to extract information out of your resume, and err on the side of telling them what you accomplished, not how many stripes you had on your sleeve.
Oh, and avoid double speak words such as paradigm, dynamic, diversity, sustainability and value-added. To me they are like fingernails on a chalkboard.
Chris Crawford www.justiceserved.com
Photo credit = Microsoft clip art
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“…put yourself in the shoes of those who are hiring.”
This is a good idea, along with brevity and clarity. Imagine sifting through a pile of resumes that use jargon like “benchmark-rich, aggregated markets, e-enabled intuitive web services, recontextualized infrastructures,” and the like.
It wasn’t until I served on an interview board that I starting giving better interviews myself. Similarly, unless you have to slog through a pile of these resumes, you don’t realize how trite yours sounds.
Thanks for dropping by, TR
It is up to the you, the future employee to make your resume tasteful and impactful enough with your own experiences so that it will assist to advance your new opportunity. This post makes insightful points that should assist your resume building.