Check out this forbes.com article about terms to avoid when preparing your resume. But don’t despair when following that advice leaves holes in your resume.
Yes, you should take out words like experienced, leadership, dynamic, and good communicator.
But you should still use your resume to highlight those excellent traits.
Instead of writing those general terms, try describing work you have done that illustrates those characteristics. You might start with a 1-2 sentence description, but then you should sleep on it and edit it down to a short, pithy phrase.
Here’s one example:
Mentor, After School Program for Latina Adolescents
- planned and executed a field trip to a local college campus
That is a specific, concrete example that shows you are an experienced, dynamic leader. Planning and executing a field trip involves a lot of logistics: sending home permission slips to get signed, ensuring insurance is in place, scheduling transportation, arranging a tour, providing snacks, providing chaperones.
As you design your resume, the results of this eye tracking study might be useful.
And just in case you’re wondering if it’s too early to get started on all this preparation for the job search, the answer is NO! Start now. Here’s a link to How to Prepare for Your Career While in College from CAREEREALISM. This is what people a few years ahead of you said about the worst makes of first time job hunters.
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