Boilerplate Phrases That Kill Resumes

http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/career-experts-10_boilerplate_phrases_that_kill_resumes-97

by edw519 • 17 years ago

5 10 17 years ago

hotjobs.yahoo.com

dazzawazza• 17 years ago

It wants me to login to yahoo to see this article :(

edw519• 17 years ago

Sorry, I had no idea. Try this link.

http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/jobseeker/tools/ept/printallept.htm...

If that doesn't work, I'll just cut & paste it here (It's not long.)

gamache• 17 years ago

Still doesn't work.

stepherm• 17 years ago

works just fine for me.

avolkov• 17 years ago

Don't bother, the point if it is advertisement of yahoo job search services.

The article contains no useful information whatsoever, just 10 phrases which no sane person would ever say.

treo• 17 years ago

As you have to login to read it, here is the text:

The Savvy Networker Liz Ryan, Yahoo! HotJobs

The 2009 job market is very different from job markets of the past. If you haven't job-hunted in a while, the changes in the landscape can throw you for a loop.

One of the biggest changes is the shift in what constitutes a strong resume. Years ago, we could dig into the Resume Boilerplate grab-bag and pull out a phrase to fill out a sentence or bullet point on our resume. Everybody used the same boilerplate phrases, so we knew we couldn't go wrong choosing one of them -- or many -- to throw into your resume.

Things have changed. Stodgy boilerplate phrases in your resume today mark you as uncreative and "vocabulary challenged." You can make your resume more compelling and human-sounding by rooting out and replacing the boring corporate-speak phrases that litter it, and replacing them with human language -- things that people like you or I would actually say.

Here are the worst 10 boilerplate phrases -- the ones to seek out and destroy in your resume as soon as possible:

    * Results-oriented professional
    * Cross-functional teams
    * More than [x] years of progressively responsible experience
    * Superior (or excellent) communication skills
    * Strong work ethic
    * Met or exceeded expectations
    * Proven track record of success
    * Works well with all levels of staff
    * Team player
    * Bottom-line orientation

You can do better. What about adding a human voice to your resume? Here's an example:

"I'm a Marketing Researcher who's driven by curiosity about why people buy what they do. At XYZ Industries, I used consumer surveys and online-forum analysis to uncover the reasons why consumers chose our competitors over us; our sales grew twenty percent over the next six months as a result. I'm equally at home on sales calls or analyzing data in seclusion, and up to speed on traditional and new-millennium research tools and approaches. I'm fanatical about understanding our marketplace better every day, week and month -- and have helped my employers' brands grow dramatically as a result."

You don't have to write resumes that sound like robots wrote them. A human-voiced resume is the new black -- try it!

Liz Ryan is a 25-year HR veteran, former Fortune 500 VP and an internationally recognized expert on careers and the new millennium workplace. Contact Liz at liz@asklizryan.com or join the Ask Liz Ryan online community at www.asklizryan/group.

noss• 17 years ago

> Years ago, we could dig into the Resume Boilerplate grab-bag and pull out a phrase to fill out a sentence or bullet point on our resume.

This looks like a lie to fill out the article. When were buzzwords ever seen as a good thing?

mixmax• 17 years ago

It sounds like if you ask 100 HR people what a good resume is, you'll get 100 answers.

Bjoern• 17 years ago

I think this article is quite content free.

The only message of this article is in my opinion "if you write your cv you have to keep up with the stupid^Wintelligent cycle of .. currently we only like writing style X so change or your cv lands in the bin".

Writing a good CV is probably impossible. Everybody has different ideas what "good" actually means.

Pity HR people don't understand Geek code ;)

philwelch• 17 years ago

"You don't have to write resumes that sound like robots wrote them."

It depends on the company--at many, robots are going to read my resume, so why shouldn't a robot write my resume?

Boilerplate Phrases That Kill Resumes

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