Sunday, November 12, 2006
Words That Weaken Your Resume
This article goes through a bunch of common resume words and explains how these either gum-up your resume with inefficient formulations or detract from your accomplishments.
I agree that highlighting accomplishments in the clearest way possible is a good move. But the article dissuades the use of 'responsible for' because it relegates your accomplishments to a laundry list of duties. I would argue that mentioning your responsibilities can show leadership, although I am not a hiring manager.
Additionally, as far as the word 'interface' goes, I think that is a perfect, compact word for one who works with interdisciplinary teams. In fact, many bioinformaticists in industry act as liaisons between the hardcore programmers and the bench biologists. Wait, sorry, 'liaison' is bad word too....
Of course Yahoo HotJobs does not have the last say on resume advice, but it seems that there is a ton of conflicting advice out there that can really fray the nerves of job seekers. After all, we always hear how our carefully crafted applications have <45 seconds to impress hiring managers, GSK has 20K+ resumes submitted via their website a week, and improper keyword usage can cause a database to hold your resume hostage.
So I do not have any solutions, but comments on the anti-keywords are appreciated.
Monica
