copyright (c) by Kevin Donlin
Getting ready to write a resume or cover letter? Here's a tip -- use
English.
I say this because far too many job seekers succumb to the urge of filling their career documents with highfalutin gobbledygook instead of good old-fashioned English.
It's a career-wrecking mistake I refer to as a "superabundance of polysyllabic terminology," or too many big words.
Here are three examples of bafflingly bad language from actual resumes and cover letters, along with my suggestions to help you write right ... and get hired faster!
1) Sentences that keep going, and going ...
The following sentence, from a resume that crossed my desk last week,
is just plain longwinded. As a result, employers are likely to lose
interest ... and perhaps toss the whole resume.
Here it is:
Pioneered
development of market research department, including
establishment of workflow processes, department functions and database
setup and network operations, resulting in capabilities of simultaneously
servicing market research needs of 15 brokers.
Solution?
Read
every sentence in your resume and cover letter out loud. If you find
yourself gasping for breath -- just try to read the above example
without
turning blue -- put a period, dash or semicolon in there, and break
the
offending sentence in two. Or three.
2) The passive voice
Somewhere in eighth or ninth grade English, we all learned to avoid
passive
language in our writing. Example: instead of, "I was served a
breakfast,"
we learned to write, "I ate breakfast."
Guess what? It's still a good idea.
Active
verbs add punch and clarity to everything you write ... unlike the
following passive disaster, taken from another resume:
Responsible for the implementation of company uniforms.
With
no active verb, we have to fish for meaning here. What does
implementation mean, exactly? Did this person dress his co-workers
every
morning, like a valet? Clean and press the company uniforms? Unknown.
Solution?
Instead
of being responsible for a clear implementation of writing
principles (passive voice), you should write clearly (using the active
voice).
3) Language not found in nature
Perhaps it's because we feel a need to impress employers that we fill
resumes and cover letters with high-sounding words we would never,
ever
otherwise use. All too often, the result is gibberish. And gibberish
won't
make the phone ring with interview offers.
Here's
an example sentence from a resume that crashes to the ground under
the weight of too many ideas, poorly expressed:
Trained,
supervised and evaluated staff, resulting in multilateral staff
achievement of work objectives.
Multilateral staff ... work ... what? Huh?
Solution?
Again,
read your resumes and cover letters out loud. Specifically, picture
yourself standing next to the water cooler at work, reading what you
write
to your colleagues.
Does
this sound trite or childish? It's not. It can save your butt by
weeding out gobbledygook before it reaches a hiring manager.
Here's proof.
Can
you imagine any workplace, anywhere on Earth, where the following
might
be said in casual conversation? "Say, John, nice job on the multilateral
staff achievement of work objectives."
No.
So, read your resumes and cover letters out loud before you print
and
mail them.
Today's three tips have a common theme: don't write resumes and cover
letters designed to impress. What you want is to be understood ...
so you
can get called for a job interview. So write clearly and concisely,
using
everyday business language that sounds like you on paper.
Now,
go out and make your own luck!
++++
Copyright © 2003 by Kevin Donlin
Kevin Donlin is Managing Editor of 1 Day Resumes. The 1DR writers provide same-day, one-on-one resume writing assistance. He is also author of "Resume and Cover Letter Secrets Revealed," a do-it-yourself manual that will help you find a job in 30 days ... or your money back. For more information, please visit Resume and Cover Letter Secrets
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