After reviewing over 150 resumes in a three day time span I decided that there is a serious epidemic out there. A plague so harmful it is costing millions of people thousands of dollars every month. It is called the responsibility virus and it is infecting millions of resumes all across the nation. Think I’m kidding? Take a look at your resume.
Does your resume include any of the following statements?
Responsible for XYZ…Held responsibility for….Ability to….adept at…. duties included….
Well, does your resume have any of those phrases? If you answered yes I’m sorry but you’ve been infected and it is costing you weeks in your job search and hundreds of dollars in salary while you are unemployed. If your resume does not include these phrases shout for joy – you’re immune. Just make sure you don’t catch it anytime in the future. Protect your resume from these harmful phrases at all costs!
I have heard more hiring managers and recruiters than I can count say how much they loathe those words. **FLASHING LIGHTS AND SIRENS** avoid those choice words. All you are really doing is shooting yourself in the foot before you ever really get a chance to start. Using those phrases is harmful for several reasons.
(1) They are boring. I don’t know many people who leaped from their chair to make a call to a candidate who used the words responsible for or duties included on his resume.
(2) They are inferred. When you are listing accomplishments and information on your resume if you did it, it is inferred that you were responsible for doing it or it was one of your job responsibilities. No need to state the obvious.
(3) They lack power and the all important WOW factor. They even lack substance for that matter. There are more concise ways to say you did something. Here are a few other choice words you can try: Pioneered, Spearheaded, Implemented, Launched, Championed, Marshaled, Initiated and Developed.
These are just a few of the many colorful, powerful, and concise alternatives to catching the responsible virus on your resume. It is amazing how one small change can have a huge impact on your resume. Go through your resume and cover letter and look for all instances of the words responsible for, duties included, ability to, and adept at then replace them with appropriate strong action verb choices like those listed above. I think you’ll be surprised at the feedback you’ll receive.
|
About Jessica: Jessica Holbrook is a former Executive Hiring Manager for Fortune 500 companies and President/CEO of Great Resumes Fast. She creates powerful, customized, and targeted resumes that are guaranteed to get her clients interviews. For a free resume analysis visit http://www.greatresumesfast.com or for a free phone consultation call 1.877.875.7706. |
Related posts:
{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
Jessica:
you’ve just confirmed one of my greatest fears. The entire industry around recruitment, resumes and self-promotion is self-contradictory. My resume has some of those words – put in by people who were payed to help me! Now, I would guess, you’d tell me you can do a better job! But how do I know your version will have any greater results?
I have a background in experimental science. So, I am putting up a challenge for you. Can you show me, from your archives, evidence of 30 cases where an old-style resume did not work, but your re-draft resulted in either more interviews of a hire?
John
John
I can’t agree more to what you are saying. Jessica is selling something here and you are right to challenge by asking her some real facts.
Good luck anyway.
Francis.
Hello Jessica,
You make some very interesting points in your article, and to some extent, I do agree with what you are saying. However, I feel there are times when these kind of statements cannot be avoided. The key is to use these statements in the right place on the resume, ensuring the resume still makes an impact.
I’m a former resume consultant based in the UK, and I too challenge you to demonstrate your point by providing us with an example of your work.
Regards,
Harry.
Hello All,
Thank you for your comments and lively discussion. First I will address John: If you look through the samples on this site they have posted many of them(resumes and cover letters) – probably at least 30 or close to it. Not quite sure how you want me to ‘prove’ that my resume works better than the originals clients send me. Seeing as I cannot provide you confidential client information to speak with them. But you can read the testimonials on our site. I will tell you that we offer a 60-day interview guarantee and I have NEVER had a client need it. We receive rave reviews every day about how much better our resumes work then the originals the client sends. Skeptical? Send your resume for the free analysis. You’ll see there is no fluff to that either.
Francis – I am not trying to sell anything on this blog. The blog articles that I write are purely my opinion about what a resume should and should not contain based on my experience as a hiring manager. I write these articles for the job seekers out there who are looking for real advice with no fluff that tells them exactly what their resume needs and doesn’t need to land in front of a hiring manager. As you will see from my article archives on this site all of my articles are written this way and provide not only examples of what is wrong but examples of how to fix it. If I was trying to make money from the articles I wouldn’t be giving away all my advice and telling job seekers exactly what to do to fix the resume themselves.
Harry – Thank you for the comment. In my experience you can always get around using this statement. I instead choose to use strong action verbs versus those phrases especially responsible for and duties included. Again, I’m not quite sure how to prove with 30 resumes… other than to tell you to view my samples on the workbloom site. I think the fact that no one has needed our 60 day interview guarantee speaks for itself. But again, I’m trying to provide information here not make the blog article a sales pitch.
I appreciate your comments and always welcome feedback on my work!
Thanks!
Dear jessica
What you are telling about your “non commercial intentions” is difficult to believe. This is the information I am getting when connecting to your web site:
“Choose one of our Professional Resume Writing packages to jump start your job search today. Our Silver package is our most popular package and includes a professionally designed resume and
customized cover letter.
Entry Level
Entry-level resume writing is for a new job seeker with 0-3 years of work
experience or a recent college graduate.
Professional
Professional level resume writing is for a job seeker with 3-15 years experience including managers up to senior and executive level.
Silver Package:
3-5 Day Service $189.95
24 Hour Service $239.95
Entry Level Resume Only $159.95
Silver Package:
3-5 Day Service $219.95
24 Hour Service $269.95
Professional Resume Only $189.95
…and so on.
If your objective is to help people for free, you have all my respect and consideration
Best regards.
Francis.
I found your article very interesting. I try to stress the use of “action” verbs constantly. I’ve also tried to stress the fact that accomplishments and summaries are far more productive than the old “objective”. Great article. Howie
It seems that writing a resume is becoming a game of finding the right hyperbolic catch phrases. Don’t HR people or interviewers read more than just catchy words?
Is there any substance to applying and interviewing for a job than just getting the buzz words du jour into your resume?
No wonder it’s so hard to get a job! Experience doesn’t matter, portfolio of work doesn’t matter. It’s just about hiring the young person with the right buzz words.
This is a shallow process.
Hey, Jessica!
While you obviously can’t take the resume process from A to Z in one posting, you have generated a great dialogue! I’ve seen thousands of resumes in my career and only a few could be considered at any given time. So what makes a manager place a resume in the stack on the right versus the stack on the left?
Martin makes a great point; I just come at it from a different angle. It isn’t about having the same buzz words as everyone else…the shallow process. It is about NOT looking like the other 99…the WOW factor.
You’ve given away some great tips here, Jessica. Thank you for sharing your insight.
Francis, would you ever work for free? You have here someone giving valuable advice for free and you still find a way to complain??
Thank you John, Becky, and Howie I appreciate your comments.
I find this whole process humiliating and degrading. Although I have not engaged the services of any resume writer, I have had my CV critiqued nearly 5 times and each time I incorporated the suggestions. Regardless of what improvements I used, each critic routinely contradicted the other. My only suggestion is to save your money and go with your gut instinct. While most resume writers are sincere, there are many looking to make a fast buck on those who are desperate. I for one am satisfied with my CV. I welcome anyone’s comments.
It’s one thing to have your resume critiqued and amend your resume yourself and it’s quite another thing to have a professional rewrite your resume from top to bottom. That being said, choosing a good resume writer is also key. Like in any profession, you have good ones and bad ones.
Too bad we cannot take a look at your resume to give our 2 cents!
It’s all about making a difference and standing out from the crowd. If the right wording helps, why should one not use them? So, thanks Jessica for these tips. Of course, a job comes with responsibilities and duties, so no need to stress that. Exceeding your customer’s expectations in fullfilling those responsibilities is a much better way to stress your strengths. Strong action verbs will emphasize that.
I could not agree more with Martin. Having sat on the other side of the table, I was turned off by the use of buzz words like “pioneered, spearheaded, marshaled”. I was more interested in what a candidate could do for me rather than what they may have done for someone else. I believe that the whole process has become too impersonal and downright rude. Whatever happened to sitting down with someone for a “gut check” and checking references? Instead, well qualified job seekers are subject to age discrimination – which I believe is pervasive – and the whims of what the HR person has in mind. Therefore, the candidate isn’t given the opportunity to get in front of the real decision maker.
I have submitted resumes for positions that I know I have the experience for. But I don’t even get the courtesy of a response either way. It makes you wonder if the resume is off somewhere in some black hole of cyberspace.
You’re right Howard – it is humiliating and degrading and it’s the employers who are missing out.
David
I have had the same issue, Howard. I have revamped my résumé many times due to “professional” advice of career counselors and other professionals. It is all about their own “opinion” as what needs to be stated, style, format, white space, etc. What I have noticed, is a difference of a preferenced style in certain regions of the US. In the end, we never know what the hiring manager’s “opinion” is and what they are searching for; thus, we produce a quality résumé that could still be passed up. Also bear in mind, than many résumé are put through a word search to see if it meets the criteria for the position dependent on the key words they are looking for. The résumé has become a cumbersome task in not only writing it, but also in how it is sent (email, mail, etc.). There a more rules in this era than there were 15+ years past.
Everyone has made some great comments. I agree with many of you!
Thanks Jessica, I think your advice is very good. I believe what you are trying to express is that HR recruiters are over worked and deluged with resumes. You are just trying to help everyone catch the attention of the corporate recruiters. They are looking for a person who can do what the company needs done. It’s not about what you did, it’s spelling out what you can do for the prospective employer.
Having said that, it’s very easy to get frustrated in a job search these days. As a former Director of HR and an award winning Director of Training and Development, I have to scratch my head and wonder about the whole process. I have heard several career consultants contradict each other. Some charge $3000 to $5000 to do just that. I am beginning to wonder if anyone in this environment really knows what will work. What should happen is not happening. Common sense has taken a holiday and the best qualified people are not getting hired. HR departments have been ravaged with layoffs also. Fewer people are left in these recruiting departments and they have less time to review resumes. I don’t think the corp. recruiters spend much time with a resume. I wonder if many of them fully understand the positions they are recruiting for. Their job has become one of screening out resumes. That’s a shame because the best qualified people do not get selected. For these reasons, I appreciate Jessica’s information.
Although, while I was employed I didn’t believe that ageism was alive and well, many of the conference calls I have been on regarding job search skills involve people who talk about it. One expert guest speaker said that many of the older workers were laid off. That means younger, less paid hiring managers are left. “They don’t want to hire their parents and have them tell them what to do.” Ageism is illegal and should not happen but its hard to prove. I do know that if you are a person of age you should be aware of things in your resume that indicate age.
When applying at larger corporations, many use a program to screen out the hordes of resumes based on buzz words. They are dumped into a program that scans for key words. I just found out from someone who wants to sell me a resume service that I have half the key words I need in a resume. That explains the lack of response. Here’s the kicker, several months ago, I swallowed my pride and paid $700 for a resume and cover letter that hasn’t worked well for me. I believe the second guy was right but how much money do you throw at it? Again, I thank Jessica for her advice.
Our world has changed significantly. Yesterday’s rules don’t apply. What we believe or want doesn’t count. Resumes aren’t going to get us jobs. Finding out who the key decision makers are and getting to them will offer us a better opportunity.
I’m enjoying this thread and find it both relevant and informative, no matter what side of the table one is sitting on. I’d like to point out that, though the average resume is a boring, two-dimensional, collection of buzz-words and trends, it is often a response to the average job description, which is equally horrific. When the description is a cattle-call, you get cattle.
I’d encourage candidates to present what they can do for the next employer in a manner that represents who they are, using past history only as supporting evidence indicating future performance. I’ve been thinking back over the many dozens of people I’ve hired and I can’t think of one of them that wasn’t ultimately hired because of who they were as people, not who they were on paper. This leads me to my second comment.
Like most hiring managers, I was once overly focused on specific skills and “must haves” that I thought were required to do the job. The truth is that if I’d done a better job of describing the problems and pain points I needed to have resolved, I’d have gotten fewer yet more targeted candidates. When I made that change, I went from sifting through 150 resumes, most of which were off-target rubbish, to receiving maybe 30 well-reasoned, targeted resumes of suitable candidates.
Final thoughts:
Hiring managers – do a better job with the descriptions. Perhaps consider paying a consultant to create a job description that accurately describes what you need and is agreed to by all internal interests. You’re a buyer. Describe what you want and you’re more likely to get it.
Candidates – if you hire a writing agency, it isn’t one size fits all. Interview them to make sure they get you and vice versa. Otherwise, you’re likely to get a marketing piece (called a resume) that doesn’t fit the product (you).
I think it is a brilliant piece of information. However, Jessica could have elaborated and gone into details. I have no issues if she intend to promote her professional work for commercial reasons.
Best Regards
Gaurav
You say…” 2) They are inferred. When you are listing accomplishments and information on your resume if you did it, it is inferred that you were responsible for doing it or it was one of your job responsibilities. No need to state the obvious….”
I disagree. I understand “punchy” words but after a while these so-called improved words will also become stale and boring if often-seen over time. I do work process improvement consultation and for those familiar with the theme…we use RACI charts to identify the roles and responsibilities of various team members and project stakeholders. For example…RACI is a chart where each letter coincides with that person’s role on the team. ( R= responsible person, the one doing the work. A= Accountable person, like the boss of the responsible person, who runs the group where “R” works. C= coordinating role…does not take an active action on the team but helps facilitate other’s functions. I = informed, like the chief executives). In this case, there is a definite difference between being “responsible for” vs “accountaable for” and my resume uses the proper words.
Spearheading ?…..yes, this sounds fantastic and “punchy” and clues people in that you are truly with the times… although I know some people who “spearheaded” their entire careers and never finished a darn thing ! If hiring managers and HR people truly get their knickers twisted over “power words” vs the true and actual *substance* of the CV text….then God help us all !! but I guess it is true!
Do you not simply write your CV to match and then sell yourself in the interview matching the content? I work in IT and my CV is full of direct content of what I do and good examples of achievement. I only use words like responsibility when I want to list a range of errr responsibilities! I always say select a resume/CV writer who understands the industry you are in as different hiring managers from different industries have different views.. and of course different “punchy” words.