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Words That Help or Hurt a Resume or Blog

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resumeAccording to a 2014 CareerBuilder survey, 68% of hiring managers spend less than two minutes reviewing a resume, so it had better be filled with words they care to see, warns Debra Auerbach.

Boy, I couldn’t help thinking, is that ever true for blog content writing as well! In fact, according to Site Meter, the average reader spends just 96 seconds reading a blog.

Exactly what sort of words make employers cringe?  Words and terms that are vague, passive, and clichéd.  Employers would much rather see strong action words that highlight specific accomplishments.  Don’t use “I am” phrases, suggests Carina Chivulescu, director of human capital at The Expert Institute. Chivulescu prefers to see “I did” phrases, which tell her exactly what you were doing to bring value to previous employers.

Suggested action words include:

  • Achieved
  • Improved
  • Trained
  • Managed
  • Created
  • Resolved

Unfortunately, as a blog content writing trainer, I see a lot of the same sort of “fluffy stuff” on corporate blogs as Chivulescu sees on resumes, including

  • Best of breed (what does that even mean?)
  • Value added
  • Results-driven
  • Team player
  • Excellent customer service
  • Bottom-line oriented

“Instead of speaking in plain English, they (marketers) fill their conversations with overused jargon and buzzwords,” Carmine Gallow complains in Forbes.

Chivulescu sums it up neatly: “Employers (you may substitute ‘blog readers’) want to see words and phrases that clearly and succinctly define your skills, experience, and accomplishments.”

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Blame It On… the Printer? the Advertising Department? the Client?

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TJust whose mistake was that stray apostrophe anyway? I wondered, reading a very clever print ad for a local logistics company in a business publication a couple of weeks ago. Just who should shoulder the blame for writing that its client provide’s quality ingredients?

Great ad, by the way, showing a truck making its way up the layers of a tiered, iced cake. The concept – when the baking ingredient manufacturer was looking for an innovative and trusted logistics partner, they didn’t settle for half-baked solutions. After all, the logistics company claims that “we can ship better.”  But – somebody didn’t punctuate better, that’s for sure!

Aw, who’s gonna notice? Well, I did, for one. Typos can have a devastating financial impact on the publishers, companies, and people who make them, explains Zack Crockett in the grammarly blog.  Yes, but who should eat the crow/ foot the bill?

“We have a clause in our agreements that states it is the responsibility of the client to check spelling,” says David Scott of Cosmic Graphic Design & Advertising. (Well, that’s certainly one approach…)

Bloggers who commit punctuation and grammar sins don’t have clauses like that – there’s nobody to pass the buck to (“to whom” would be better, but, hey, the blog writing style is conversational, no?)  But, let’s draw the line in the sand. As Melissa Culbertson says so aptly in her blog, “Bad grammar and spelling is WAY different than using conversation style or slang.”  Proper grammar and spelling matter, even in the blogging world, she points out. Treat your blog like your resume, she advises. In fact, she adds, it IS your resume.

I agree, but, just in case, it will be my printer’s fault…

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