December 19, 2011

When describing work experience, show, don't tell

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Creative. Organizational. Effective. All of these are great words you would want associated with your previous work experience. But do you want them on your resume? Not necessarily.

According to the online networking site LinkedIn, those three adjectives are what it considers the most overused buzzwords found in job descriptions uploaded by the group's 135 million members in 2011. Others include motivated, innovative and dynamic, along with phrases such as "extensive experience" and "communication skills." (Click here for the full top 10 list.)

While there's nothing inherently wrong with these particular words, they don't hold up well to scrutiny. Sure, you may be creative, but what does that mean? How has your creativity helped your previous employers? In essence, they are empty descriptors in what should be a narrative of achievements and practical applications of skills.

"Just saying you're dynamic doesn't really mean anything," says LinkedIn spokeswoman Krista Canfield. "It's much better to describe what you did to, say, increase sales by 150 percent," she says.

Canfield has a few rules of thumb when describing past work experience:

What specific action are you describing? If you say you are a motivated or effective employee, think a minute about what that says to a hiring manager. "How many people would ever say they are 'unmotivated' or 'ineffective'?" Canfield says. "It's like saying you're an expert in Microsoft Word -- it's so obvious that it should just be assumed."

Would people ever search for these terms? Canfield uses air travel as an example. When people look for inexpensive tickets, they don't type in industry jargon such as "low-cost airfare" into their favorite search engine. They will type in something simple, like "cheap tickets" -- something that will lead them directly to the results they want.

The same should be true in your work experience description. "Be specific in the projects you've worked on and the courses you've taken," she says. "If you're looking for youth-oriented social work, it's not enough to say you have a psychology degree. Mention what you've done with your degree and whether you've worked with teens."

What kinds of problems have you solved? Try to avoid ad-copy terminology such as "applied creative solutions" or "good at problem solving." Rather, explain how you developed a new tracking system to monitor ad revenues, or mention how much money you saved the company. The more challenges you can demonstrate that you overcame, the better your chances are that a hiring manager will sit up and take notice.

Randy Woods writes about job-search tools, networking techniques and other tips to help you land your dream job.

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career profile, experience, LinkedIn, resumes, work history