Words That Are Killing Resumes

PRLog (Press Release) - Sep 15, 2009 -
As unemployment steadily rises, so too does the number of resumes in circulation.  Sadly, many of these resumes will end a job hunt before the candidate’s qualifications are even considered.  Words like “ambitious”, “provoke”, anxious", and “urge” litter the thousands of resumes that are written every year—and the authors of these resumes are not even aware that such words can have negative connotations that drastically reduce the chances of getting an interview.

The influx of bad resumes coming into one company prompted the owner, Phil Baker,  to do something about this situation: provide specific, focused, and powerful vocabulary words and resume example statements for potential job candidates to use.  Thus the resume writing dictionary: http://www.resumedictionary.com was born.  The site lists an entire dictionary’s worth of “power words” for demonstrating everything from clerical skills to leadership ability to profit-oriented thinking.  Each entry contains a short definition, guidelines for using the word, and resume writing examples that show the given word in action.

The benefits of such a dictionary?  Finding precisely the right words to paint a positive picture of a candidate.  And the cost? Absolutely free. In addition the site offers a free download eBook: The 197 Words You Should Not Use on Your Resume.  

The dictionary has grown by leaps and bounds since its inception in November of 2008, and all of the content is provided for free—all you do is visit the site and begin searching for the skills that you want to express on your resume.

For example, suppose you want a word to show off your leadership qualities.  The dictionary returns a list of potential words, including ‘confer’, ‘teach’, ‘advise’, ‘direct’, ‘approve’, ‘staff’, ‘supervise’, and others.  Choosing ‘advise’, you would see the definition of the word, a host of examples and tips on use, and a list of synonyms.

The same goes for words in other categories, like those that “Demonstrate Responsibility” or “Show Technical Skills”.  The dictionary has been designed to be broad enough for almost any job seeker, and yet the specific examples show how to apply these words in concrete ways when writing a resume.

http://www.resumedictionary.com also includes a great knowledge base of resume help, tips and advice and continues to update with content and present feature articles on resume writing and job hunting techniques.