GETTING RID OF TATTLETALE WORDS IN YOUR RESUME ( CONT ’ D )
Hardworker and go-getter seem as useless in a résumé or query letter as ambitious . It ’ s like tooting your own horn . The person reading it might ask , “ Who says ?”
Overblown adjectives . Words like exciting and amazing — even when they describe results or projects — are anathema . They have the same problem as hardworking above . I call this the awesome syndrome . They are words that tempt a reader to scoff . Instead tell a story about the extra effort you put into a project and the difference it made . Or quote one of the rave reviews you received from one of your supervisors in a periodic assessment , recommendation , or endorsement .
Team player has been a cliché for decades . Instead choose a group project you ’ ve worked on and tell about your contributions . Or just list some of the ways you might have helped another department or division . And , because human brains have been wired for stories since we sat around the fires we made in caves , make it into an anecdote if you can . If you don ’ t believe me , you might read Nina Amir ’ s book Wired for Story ( bit . ly / Wired4Story ) published by Writers ’ Digest . I recommend other books by this author in the Recommended Reading section of the Index in my How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically : The ins and outs of using free reviews to build and sustain a writing career ( bit . ly / GreatBkReviews ). Think out-of-the-box is also a cliché-ridden no-no . It ’ s storytelling time again Microsoft Word . I ’ m proud that I can produce an entire book using Word from its Contents to its Index to its Footnotes . I love that I don ’ t have to spend time learning another program . But there ’ s no point in telling people that I ’ m an expert at Word . Everyone is . Of course , I can use it prove another point like how well I have managed to adapt its features to new , advanced project and tell how much time I saved by doing that rather than learning a new program . I might mention how much more professional it looked even as I saved that time . And I might mention that my project got rave reviews . Oh , yeah . I might mention how many actual dollars were save because — after all — time is money .
Some frequently used words like synergy have become a way to insert some humor into a résumé and that has become as much of a cliché as the overuse of the word . Marco Buscaglia picked this word out of the hundred ( if not thousands ) of popular words I call business-ese . You can avoid them by reviewing your copy and purging anything that sounds officious including most words with more than three syllables .
Think in terms of relationships , colleagues in other departments , associates
WINTER 2017
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WRITERS ’ TRICKS OF THE TRADE