Do these lines look familiar?
- Results-oriented attitude that exceeded expectations
- Excellent customer service skills
- Able to work under pressure and on multiple tasks simultaneously
- Able to adapt to a variety of work environments
- Can work independently or as a team member
You may have seen these phrases on a sample resume or have written them in your own resume.
First of all, these are not wrong lines to insert into a resume. However, they are what we call generalizations. I can guarantee that an HR manager or job recruiter has read those lines repeatedly, as they sift through numerous resumes. If this is basically all you write in your resume, it will contain little recruiting appeal.
Second, these lines don’t say much about who you are and what you can offer a company, agency, or organization.
The more specific you write your resume, the greater chance you have of convincing a potential employer to contact you for an interview.
When I meet with clients, that’s usually what I spend most of our time discussing. I help them to think of how we can make their resume sound less like the hundreds of others out there and more like exclusively theirs.
If you fill your resume with words and phrases like results-driven, detail-orientated, hard working, self-motivated, and relational without giving examples, you waste valuable space that could be used to highlight your job accomplishments.
Refocus how you present yourself. Instead of writing you work hard, list how many projects you completed in your last job. Then it becomes a given you’re a hard worker. This even applies to those just starting out in the workforce. Although your resume might be much shorter than a someone who has been working for a long time, there are still ways to showcase your potential than simply saying you are a team player.
So the bottom line is to avoid generalizations as much as possible OR use them as a stepping stone to reveal what you can do. You have about 30 seconds to intrigue a potential employer scanning your resume. Make every word and phrase count!
I’d be more than happy to help you get started! Contact me to find out more about my resume packages. I’ve helped a wide range of clients with their resumes from a computer science student intern to a high school teacher to an operations manager.