As I was going through a stack of resumes I had saved from the past year, 500+ of them to be exact, I could only find 5 that were noteworthy. What do I mean by noteworthy? The summary actually told me something about the person.
Liz Ryan’s post from the other day cited these resume killing phrases. (FYI, these were the most commonly re-occuring phrases on the 500+ resumes)
“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”
So grab a red pen, a thesaurus and your accomplishments to build a better summary, one that will jump out of the stack!
Hannah Morgan speaks and writes about job search and career strategies. She founded CareerSherpa.net to educate professionals on how to maneuver through today’s job search process. Hannah was nominated as a LinkedIn Top Voice in Job Search and Careers and is a regular contributor to US News & World Report. She has been quoted by media outlets, including Forbes, USA Today, Money Magazine, Huffington Post, as well as many other publications. She is also author of The Infographic Resume and co-author of Social Networking for Business Success.
