Six Words To Avoid In Your Resume & Why

01/02/2007

Including the wrong words in your résumé can spell disaster! I’d like to share six words I believe should never be included, and why.

1. PEOPLE-PERSON. I’ve yet to hear someone tell me they dislike working with people. I can’t really think of a situation where people do not work with other people. Since this is true, there is no value in making this proclamation in a professional résumé. I understand job seekers are trying to say they enjoy working with other people and get along well with others, but this doesn’t belong in the résumé.

2. I/ME/MY. Since the résumé is about you and lists your name at the top of the page, there is no reason to include personal pronouns of “I, me, my” anywhere in the résumé.

3. RESPONSIBILITIES. Surprise! I do not believe the word responsibilities should appear in a résumé. Hiring decision makers are not really highly interested in a person’s responsibilities or duties. I just don’t think this is a good strategy to sell your credentials. I recently counted the phrase “responsible for” 72 times in someone’s résumé!

4. REFERENCES. I see this on the majority of résumés I review. My question is this: since every job seeker always provides references (and always will), why state this in a résumé? It’s like adding this statement, “I am available for interviews.” Seriously, this statement is now outdated and is no longer used in 2006 professional résumés.

5. SALARY. Incorporating salary into a résumé, is a deadly sin. By announcing your salary, you lose. A professional résumé is a scanning tool used to eliminate certain job seekers and narrow down the pool of candidates. The chances are extraordinarily high you will not get called for job interviews if this information is included in your résumé.

6. HIGH SCHOOL. I’m beginning to see more résumés with high school information listed. Our high school education has no relevance to our business experience and is unnecessary to include in today’s professional résumés.

As a Certified Professional Résumé Writer, I believe there are many other words that should not be integrated into professional résumés. If your résumé contains these words, you might consider tweaking the document and bringing it up to current standards.

Written by JoAnn Nix, Certified Professional Résumé Writer

www.agreatresume.com

E-mail: info@agreatresume.com

1-800-265-6901 * Fax: 479-474-4013

Permission must be issued by JoAnn Nix at www.agreatresume.com to use this article.