7 Clichés to Remove from Your Resume

Transcription

1 7 Clichés to Remove from Your Resume

2 Table of Contents Every Word on Your Resume Matters Secret Resume Killers 7 Common Resume Clichés If it Sounds Like a Throwaway Line, Don t Use It The Purpose of Action Words Final Thoughts Tell Us What You Think Clichés to Remove from Your Resume

3 Introduction Creating a good resume is not an easy task. You have to go through years of work experience, education, etc., and pick out the exact details that will give you the best shot of winning the job. It is a long process that requires you to look back at your career and figure out what you have accomplished, finding a way to turn them into words on a page that will draw the reader s attention. For only a single sheet of paper, writing a resume can take a long time. You need to carefully choose every phrase and analyze every word. Your resume must be powerful and error free, and be able to attract the eye of the toughest hiring manager. 3 7 Clichés to Remove from Your Resume

4 Last, but not least, avoid clichés like the plague. William Safire Every Word on Your Resume Matters Your resume has limited space for a reason. Employers receive hundreds of resumes for every position they open. Some companies go through dozens of new employees every year, requiring someone to sort through hundreds of resumes in order to find the one qualified applicant for the role. They don t have time to sift through a 30-page resume novella. You could tell them your entire work history from A-Z, including the state of the bathroom stalls and which job had the cutest coworker, but an employer is going to want to spend the least amount of time possible looking at your resume so that they can quickly move on to the next one. You have very limited time to grab their attention, and even less to get them interested in you. Your goal with your resume is to ensure that everything they read draws in their attention. Secret Resume Killers It is with that in mind that we will discuss a little known resume killer the cliché. For over a billion years, novice resume writers have relied on clichéd terminology in order to sway hiring managers with as little effort as possible. These clichés roll easily off the tongue and sound professional. They are also used by every resume writer in the world to express intangible skills that everyone claims to have. In this guide, we will go over some extremely common resume clichés and the steps you can use to replace them. 4 7 Clichés to Remove from Your Resume

5 7 Common Resume Clichés 1 Excellent Communication Skills. Why this is bad: So what you re saying is that you have the unique ability to speak to people? That s amazing! We have always wanted to hire someone that uses words to communicate! FINALLY we have an applicant that can do things like talk and listen and respond. How you can make it better: Everyone has excellent communication skills. Try using something more specific. Led 3rd annual research symposium for tenured urologists. Basically, discuss what you have done with those communication skills, i.e. the details of how you used your communication skills to complete a difficult task, not that you have them. 2 Team Player. Why this is bad: No one is ever going to admit they hate working with others and would prefer to be left alone to do their job and go home. It is no surprise to an employer that you claim to work well with others. But, they don t want to just hear you say it, they you to provide examples that prove it. 5 7 Clichés to Remove from Your Resume

6 How you can make it better: It is not hard to add this skill to your resume without saying you are a team player. Add it to one of your accomplishments. Worked directly with sales staff to implement weekly action plan, and as a result contributed to increase in monthly profits by 187%. This implies that you were on a team but puts the focus on what you accomplished with that team 3 Hard Worker. Why this is bad: Even though this is probably one of the worst clichés of all, it actually would be fun to find a resume where the applicant said If you hire me, there s a pretty good chance I ll do the bare minimum that I need to get the job done and go home at 1 minute past 5 every day. Maybe that is the type of person you would like to hire since at the very least you know they are honest. How you can make it better: Everyone says they re a hard worker. No one really is a 100% hard working 100% of the time. Your resume will show you are a hard worker by listing off a variety of accomplishments, tasks, and showing your knowledge. It does not need to be in your resume. 6 7 Clichés to Remove from Your Resume

7 4 Results Oriented. Why this is bad: This is an interesting one. On its own, it is already somewhat lame and overused. Who doesn t try to complete tasks they have been assigned? Yet, it suffers from another problem as well. If you could choose between two applicants, one that said they enjoy the process and another one that said that they only enjoy the completion, which applicant would you hire? Chances are the process applicant is going to be the one that does their job most efficiently. How you can make it better: The employer will see that you are results oriented by the accomplishments you place in your resume. They are the results of your work, after all. If you are listing accomplishments in your resume that you have not actually completed, you are probably writing your resume incorrectly. 5 Successfully Why this is bad: It sounds nice, but it is better if you avoid the term successfully as you begin any one of your accomplishments. Similar to results oriented, projects you have accomplished successfully are implied by the fact that you are putting them in your resume. Very few people are placing Had the potential to increase profits by 100% if my boss gave me the damn file on time on their resume. If it s in your resume, you completed it successfully. 7 7 Clichés to Remove from Your Resume

8 How you can make it better: This would not be that big a deal if the term was used less often. These days, however, you can find it on almost any resume. The reason action words are so successful is because they make the user sound proactive and intelligent. Using a word that everyone else uses does not support that goal. 6 Provided Excellent Customer Service. Why this is bad: Like always, the main problem with this sentence is that it is overused. It also has negative implications. It s rare that people call customer service just to thank them for how amazing the product was. Customer service is used for complaints, problems, and occasionally mean spirited questions. How you can make it better: Try to elaborate on how well you helped solve a problem or a complaint that eventually translated to company-wide policy, and your accomplishment was then Awarded platinum medal for outstanding customer and client services. 7 Strong Organizational Skills Why this is bad: Does this mean that you don t randomly throw files on your desk? Does this mean that when you are given tasks and told what order to complete them, you magically know the order to complete them? What do organizational skills even mean? 8 7 Clichés to Remove from Your Resume

9 How you can make it better: Why not instead elaborate and detail the list of things that you have organized, such as Organized strategic resources department with the bureau of undergraduate affairs by re-categorizing resources based on usage behavior versus alphabetical listing. 9 7 Clichés to Remove from Your Resume

10 If it Sounds Like a Throwaway Line, Don t Use It As you write your resume you will need to come up with key points that will sell you to the employer. Remember that it is your job to stand out. If you are using a phrase that you have heard other people use before, chances are the other applicants are using the same phrase. Imagine you are buying a lamp and you have to choose between four descriptions. The descriptions are as follows: Lamp 1 Features: Lights up a room. Is black. Uses light bulbs Lamp 2 Features: Lights up a room. Is black. Uses light bulbs Lamp 3 Features: Contains 5 different light settings including time delay. Color changes from black, pink, yellow and red. Colors can be changed via the color button. Uses both standard and non-standard light bulbs. Lamp 3 Features: Lights up a room. Is black. Uses light bulbs 10 7 Clichés to Remove from Your Resume

11 You are always going to choose lamp 3, because lamp 3 provides you with more interesting features. Lamps 1, 2 and 4 are identical, and do nothing to stand out from the pack. Lamp 3 is the most attractive with value added features. Even if option 3 was unavailable, you could choose any one of lamps 1, 2 and 4 at random and end up with the same result. Resumes with common resume clichés and phrases all sound the same. An employer reading your resumes is going to see nothing that implies you deserve any more of a call back than anyone else. By avoiding clichés and elaborating actual accomplishments and information into your resume, you will have a great chance of getting a job interview Clichés to Remove from Your Resume

12 The Purpose of Action Words In order to avoid clichés, resume writers turn to action verbs to make their accomplishments sound more powerful. Action verbs are words that catch the reader s eye directly after a bullet point. Examples of action verbs include: Implemented Augmented Dissected Improved Invented You get the idea. There are a lot of them. Some of them are a great way to bring attention to your accomplishments. Compare this: I was able to improve our vendor management campaign by 72%. To this: Streamlined vendor management campaign to reduce reloading times by 72%. It is clear that action verbs dramatically change the appearance of a sentence/accomplishment. They are perfect after a bullet point (the first thing the employer sees will be the action verb), and action verbs also add syllables to your writing Clichés to Remove from Your Resume

13 Word of Warning with Action Verbs However, don t fall into the trap of using them poorly. Consider the reasons why these action verbs are so beneficial: They help your accomplishments stand out. They improve your resume s readability. They draw the attention of the reader. Image: MarzkyRagsac Jr, Dollar Photo Club Now remember what we discussed with resume clichés. The same holds true with action verbs. Do your best to select the verb that will have the most impact. Improved is never going to be as powerful as Augmented since Improved is far more common. At the same time, you never want your resume to read as though you looked up these words in a thesaurus. If improved helps your writing read more natural and clearly, use it. If you have a more attractive, uncommon action word to place in the resume, consider using that instead. Your criteria should be Which action verb is the most powerful while still sounding the most natural Clichés to Remove from Your Resume

14 Action Verbs are an Important Part of Any Resume Your accomplishments are the most important part of your resume. Accomplishments are how you differentiate yourself from other candidates. They are your key to showing employers that you are someone they have not seen before. The problem is that without the right introduction to the accomplishments, they simply blend together and do not draw anyone s attention. Action verbs will help your accomplishments stand out. Without good action verbs, your accomplishments simply look like numbers on a page. It is your responsibility to choose the best action verbs that you can find. You want the employers to see the verb, notice the action, and want to read what the action refers to. The only way to do that is to choose your action verbs wisely Clichés to Remove from Your Resume

15 Image: bsanchez, Dollar Photo Club Final Thoughts Hundreds of applicants, possibly thousand are trying to sell the employer on their achievements. They want the employer to notice. They want the employer to pick up their resume and say Wow, this candidate sounds amazing; we should call them in for an interview. To do that, your resume needs to have something that makes you seem different. If one hundred applicants have Good Communication Skills on their resumes, it makes the same phrase on your resume less important. That same phrase no longer makes you stand out, because they can get that quality from any other candidate who also applied for the position Clichés to Remove from Your Resume

16 When you build your resume, always keep that in mind. It is not just about what makes you a good candidate. You are also trying to make yourself a different candidate. You want to be a swan amidst a sea of ducklings. To do that, you will need to: Avoid all resume clichés. Use applicable, unique action verbs. Focus on what you did at each job, not the intangible qualities that you have. The more you can prove to the employer that you have accomplished things throughout your work history, the more you will stand out against and amongst all of the other candidates. This means the more likely you will be short listed and be selected for a job interview Clichés to Remove from Your Resume

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