My mother used to say that I had what she called “the curse of spelling.”
It basically meant that I seemed genetically predisposed to finding errors in text. One example: I can open a complex restaurant menu, something I’ve never seen before, and within a few seconds, my eyes will inevitably zoom in on the one or two misspelled words in that giant mass of text. It’s almost a brain condition.
In “Show, don’t tell,” I talked about telling stories in your cover letters and resumes. In addition to lots of empty phrases (“people person”), another enemy of getting your point across is the impulse to list every single task, every single award, every single college club on your materials, in the hopes that all that accumulated stuff will be impressive.
When writing cover letters and resumes, words mean things.
Diligent. Trustworthy. Reliable. Dynamic. Enterprising. Professional. Detail-oriented. Organized. Enthusiastic. Passionate. Creative.
Recognize these words, or words like them, from your resume or the resume of others?
I have some simple and direct advice about including these words in your job-hunting materials: Stop it. Stop it now. I’m serious.
Recently a friend asked me for advice about her resume.
“In my “Objectives” section, should I say I want to ‘acquire’ a position or ‘obtain’ a position?”
Neither, I thought. (I’m difficult like that sometimes.)
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