Why is it that so many resumes have extraneous information,
you know that stuff that is thrown in as filler! Should one strive to have
sheer volume on a resume? Isn’t content more important? I posted a discussion
about resume length that attracted a lot of opinions about length. Regardless
of their position I believe virtually everyone agreed they don’t like to see
‘fluff’.
Every day I receive resumes with all kinds of overused,
self-assessing adjectives. Am I supposed to believe you just because you tell
me you are ‘effective’, ‘self-motivated’, ‘innovative’, ‘creative’, ‘dynamic’,
‘results oriented’, etc.
Prove it! I’ll believe it after I interview you and test you
a little.
If you would simply tell me what you have accomplished, what
the results of your work have been, crisply and succinctly, you would not need
to include all kinds of fluff that I won’t just accept on the surface. Your
descriptive adjectives would be self-evident if you would just prove them; you
would not need to say them and you would be a more believable person to me. I
can also confirm what I learn from an interview by speaking to people who know
your work. You can bet I’ll pin them down.
So when you write your resume, tell me about yourself. It is
important to me. Certainly I am interested in what your responsibilities
were/are crisply and concisely, but not in a long-winded fashion.
If you describe yourself as a salesman, I hope you don’t
think I don’t know what a salesman does. Likewise a manager, librarian,
pharmacist or most other positions, particularly if you are directing your
resume to the industry I work in. Why elaborate at great length?
And leave a comment with your point of view. Or email me at kl@hoochresumes.com or visit http://www.hoochresumes.com.