Synonyms to Spice Up Your Resume
There are few things more boring than a resume that repeatedly uses the same exact verbs in sentence after sentence. Total snorefest! To engage your readers, you must spice up your resume by highlighting strong action verbs that bring your background to life.
While not every synonym will be the perfect fit to convey your exact meaning, by choosing from various alternatives, you can mix things up and create a resume that is fresh and engaging.
Is Your Resume Filled with Bad Words?
When it comes to creating a top notch resume, the key challenge lies in how to get hiring managers interested in your value with just one or two sheets of paper. Knowing what words to leave out is just as important as knowing what words to put on your resume.
50+ Verbs That Can Give Your Resume Pizzaz
Having written thousands of resumes, I have gradually compiled a comprehensive list of descriptive verbs to spice up even the most mundane of documents. After all, how many times can you use the word managed, led, or developed in the same resume without becoming boring?
3 Easy Ways to Improve Resume Wording
An effectively worded resume, one that clearly communicates key skills and accomplishments without coming across as unprofessional or rambling, can often mean the difference between an interview and a rejection. Here are 3 tips that can improve both the quality and content of your resume:
Words That Should Not Appear on Your Resume
Resume content always seems to spark the ‘great debate’. What should be written vs. what should not be written – this is the burning question. What do employers want to see? How can you wow them with the wonders of you conveyed on an 8 ½ X 11 piece of paper – even if it is printed on paper so soft and thick you could make a shirt out if it?
Don’t Use that Verb, Use These
After having written more than 10,000 resumes and telling people constantly that there are more verbs out there than managed and developed, I decided to put pen to paper (or let my fingers do the walking on the keyboard in this case) to give you some help with other verbs. Don’t get me wrong – there is nothing wrong with managed or developed. The issue is that when writing a résumé, people use them all the time – I mean in every line. You want to engage the reader, not help the person lapse into a coma. I realize that these don’t exactly correlate. I want to give you some ideas. Without further ado, here is a list (albeit a short list) of alternative verbs that you should consider.
This blog's author, Debra Wheatman of Careers Done Write, provides executive career services including resume and cover letter preparation, job search / interviewing strategies and professional branding including how to effectively use LinkedIn, Twitter and other social media in your career.
Visit CareersDoneWrite.com to learn more about how we can put your career in gear with interview catching resumes and professionally written career documents.