25 words that hurt your resume

I frequently get emails from friends and former coworkers asking that I take a look at their resume. Either they are considering jumping in to the world of job-search, or, they've been involved in heavy job-search and aren't getting any bites.

I'll never make any claims to being a "professional resume writer," but I've seen my share of good and bad resumes in the last few years and can usually offer up some practical advice.

Although posted in Jan '06, I just came across an article on CNN titled "25 words that hurt your resume" (courtesy of Guy's blog) This isn't a change-your-life kind of article, but one that offers practical advice on crafting your resume in such a way that you actually demonstrate your skills instead of filling the pages with "empty claims."

It's a short article and worth a quick review. My advice? Jot down the 25 words noted in the article and then do a word search (Ctl-F5) on your resume and see how many of the "25 words" found their way to your resume.

Then, get about the business of replacing the empty words with examples that reflect relevant skills used to accomplish the activity.

Here's an example from the article: Instead of...

"Experience working in fast-paced environment,"

try this...

"Registered 120+ third-shift emergency patients per night."

Much better, eh? Recruiters think so.

Dennis Smith
T-Mobile Recruiting

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