On your resume, tell what you really do

Your resume must be factual and should highlight your skills and accomplishments. It should be well organized and clearly state the points you want remembered. But using big words and long phrases to try to make your job sound important usually works against you. What you did may be impressive but using "impressive" words to describe it is ill advised.

We have seen thousands of resumes through the years. Many are very well done but some are just plain confusing. I like to read a resume and understand it the first time. After two or three attempts, I get irritated, start looking for the trash can or delete button, and begin to wonder if:

• The writer whipped out a resume in about 10 minutes.


• The writer doesn't know how to make complicated ideas understandable.


• The only way to make this person's accomplishments appear to be good is to dress them up with fancy words.

On my desk right now is a resume with an accomplishment stating: "Defined the specific applications requirements by gathering and analyzing detailed information for developing and modifying corporate business systems."

Did this person stop after the definition and analysis phase? Was this new development, modification, or both? Who did the development? What is an application, or a corporate business system, and how large are they? And to be really picky, the words "specific" and "gathering" add nothing to the sentence.

Here are a couple more (I'm not making these up and I'm not taking them out of context):

• Facilitator of monthly departmental focus group meetings.


• First level contact with customers processing the appropriate paperwork for delivery to the office and the handling of any problem escalates.

Put yourself in the shoes of a hiring official and imagine how you would react to a resume full of this.

Pull out your resume and review it objectively while these thoughts are fresh. Be specific - answer who, what, how many, how much, etc. Then have someone who knows you and your work critique it. It's your calling card - you want to use it to make a good first impression.

Tom Whitley and the staff of Management Recruiters of Kannapolis, specialize in recruiting information systems, telecommunications, and networking professionals at both the technical and managerial levels. If you are interested in discussing career opportunities, if you need assistance with your recruiting efforts, or if you have comments about the Career Advisor contact Tom at tomwhitley@ctc.net.

Liar, liar
Network World, 11/08/99.

Write a resume, not a job description
Network World, 7/20/98.

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