• 2-minute read •
We are realizing slowly that when you try to hire great people through mechanical means by searching their resumes for keywords, you don't get the results you want.
You have to hire people through human means, by engaging with them as people rather than as bundles of skills and professional credentials. Everybody has a story. We all resonate better with certain people and cultures than with others.
We need to get the human element back into recruiting. It would be good for shareholders, customers, team members and job-seekers if more employers would treat their recruiting processes as human activities rather than mechanical ones.
Sadly, most of us have been taught to write our resumes to look as inoffensive, robotic and inhuman as possible.
I can understand why real estate agents tell us to make our houses look bland and generic when we're trying to sell the house.
Our family photos, knickknacks and personal things might turn off a potential buyer. I don't mind painting the walls my least favorite shade of beige and removing anything with personality from view when my house is for sale. I'll be moving out soon anyway.
It's different when you hide your personality and flatten your vibrant style in order not to scare away or offend fearful people. How could you ever be happy in a job when you only got the job because the interviewers never got to meet the real you?
Your first outreach to most employers is your resume. Why not put some life and color into your resume? No matter how automated an organization's recruiting system is, you will not get an interview until at least one human being reads your resume.
What kind of job applicant do you want that person to meet as they read your resume: someone who sounds like a clone trooper, or someone who sounds like you?
Here are ten traditional, boring, say-nothing resume phrases to remove from your resume as soon as you can:
Results-oriented professional with a bottom-line orientation
Motivated self-starter
Superior communication skills
Savvy/seasoned/strategic Business Professional
Meets or exceeds expectations
Skilled at leading cross-functional/high-performance teams
Proven track record of success
Progressively more responsible positions
Strategic visionary
Dynamic Industry Leader
I'm sure you can think of a lot more garbage phrases to delete from your resume, once you see the pattern. All of these terms have five things in common:
they are so generic that they could mean wildly different things to different people.
they are cliches -- we have read and heard them so many times that they've lost most or all of their meaning.
they brand us as fearful folks who don't know how to or are afraid to speak with our own voices.
they say nothing useful to a recruiter or a hiring manager, and
they are the worst possible way to showcase who you are and what you're capable of.
Some of these resume-killing phrases are embarrassingly self-congratulatory. The bigger your flame grows, the less need you will feel to praise yourself!
You can simply tell your story and let the reader of your resume decide whether you are savvy, strategic or visionary.
Any joker on the street could call themselves a "Results-oriented professional." You are more individual than that! Tell us your story in your Human-Voiced Resume Summary, the way Chrystal has done here:
I'm an Executive Assistant whose mission is to keep a busy CEO calm and focused by removing distractions from their day. I manage schedules and budgets, handle communication with teammates and clients, plan events, create reports, make travel arrangements and ensure that my teammates feel supported and equipped to do their jobs.
Chrystal's Summary is only two sentences long, but it packs a punch. Not everyone will love the way Chrystal describes herself at work. The people who like Chrystal's human branding are the only people she wants to work with!
Chrystal has already had one HR Manager tell her at a recruiting fair "You're applying for an Executive Assistant job that already exists, either because someone was in the job or because the job has just been created. You're applying to fill a need that a company has. You don't get to decide exactly what you'll do in the job.
"You should edit your resume so that it lists your capabilities rather than stating that you already know what duties you'll perform in your next job."
Chrystal laughed as she told us about that conversation.
She said "I told the HR Manager that job applicants have listed their qualifications and skills in their resumes for years. The only thing that's different about my resume is that instead of listing my skills, I said 'Here's how I can help you. Here's my ideal job.'
"If the HR Manager who didn't like my Human-Voiced Resume thinks I am uppity to describe my perfect job, obviously I wouldn't work for her company anyway -- so she is wasting her breath coaching me on how to be more acceptable to people like her!"
It's a new day. You don't have to fill out online job applications anymore.
You can reach your own hiring manager directly with your Human-Voiced Resume and a second document called a Pain Letter. You can let your personality shine through both documents.
Try it and see how it feels to sound like yourself for a change!
Pass this advice to your friends. Share with them.
We are realizing slowly that when you try to hire great people through mechanical means by searching their resumes for keywords, you don't get the results you want.
You have to hire people through human means, by engaging with them as people rather than as bundles of skills and professional credentials. Everybody has a story. We all resonate better with certain people and cultures than with others.
Sadly, most of us have been taught to write our resumes to look as inoffensive, robotic and inhuman as possible.
I can understand why real estate agents tell us to make our houses look bland and generic when we're trying to sell the house.
Our family photos, knickknacks and personal things might turn off a potential buyer. I don't mind painting the walls my least favorite shade of beige and removing anything with personality from view when my house is for sale. I'll be moving out soon anyway.
It's different when you hide your personality and flatten your vibrant style in order not to scare away or offend fearful people. How could you ever be happy in a job when you only got the job because the interviewers never got to meet the real you?
Your first outreach to most employers is your resume. Why not put some life and color into your resume? No matter how automated an organization's recruiting system is, you will not get an interview until at least one human being reads your resume.
What kind of job applicant do you want that person to meet as they read your resume: someone who sounds like a clone trooper, or someone who sounds like you?
Here are ten traditional, boring, say-nothing resume phrases to remove from your resume as soon as you can:
Results-oriented professional with a bottom-line orientation
Motivated self-starter
Superior communication skills
Savvy/seasoned/strategic Business Professional
Meets or exceeds expectations
Skilled at leading cross-functional/high-performance teams
Proven track record of success
Progressively more responsible positions
Strategic visionary
Dynamic Industry Leader
I'm sure you can think of a lot more garbage phrases to delete from your resume, once you see the pattern. All of these terms have five things in common:
they are so generic that they could mean wildly different things to different people.
they are cliches -- we have read and heard them so many times that they've lost most or all of their meaning.
they brand us as fearful folks who don't know how to or are afraid to speak with our own voices.
they say nothing useful to a recruiter or a hiring manager, and
they are the worst possible way to showcase who you are and what you're capable of.
Some of these resume-killing phrases are embarrassingly self-congratulatory. The bigger your flame grows, the less need you will feel to praise yourself!
You can simply tell your story and let the reader of your resume decide whether you are savvy, strategic or visionary.
Any joker on the street could call themselves a "Results-oriented professional." You are more individual than that! Tell us your story in your Human-Voiced Resume Summary, the way Chrystal has done here:
I'm an Executive Assistant whose mission is to keep a busy CEO calm and focused by removing distractions from their day. I manage schedules and budgets, handle communication with teammates and clients, plan events, create reports, make travel arrangements and ensure that my teammates feel supported and equipped to do their jobs.
Chrystal's Summary is only two sentences long, but it packs a punch. Not everyone will love the way Chrystal describes herself at work. The people who like Chrystal's human branding are the only people she wants to work with!
Chrystal has already had one HR Manager tell her at a recruiting fair "You're applying for an Executive Assistant job that already exists, either because someone was in the job or because the job has just been created. You're applying to fill a need that a company has. You don't get to decide exactly what you'll do in the job.
"You should edit your resume so that it lists your capabilities rather than stating that you already know what duties you'll perform in your next job."
Chrystal laughed as she told us about that conversation.
She said "I told the HR Manager that job applicants have listed their qualifications and skills in their resumes for years. The only thing that's different about my resume is that instead of listing my skills, I said 'Here's how I can help you. Here's my ideal job.'
"If the HR Manager who didn't like my Human-Voiced Resume thinks I am uppity to describe my perfect job, obviously I wouldn't work for her company anyway -- so she is wasting her breath coaching me on how to be more acceptable to people like her!"
It's a new day. You don't have to fill out online job applications anymore.
You can reach your own hiring manager directly with your Human-Voiced Resume and a second document called a Pain Letter. You can let your personality shine through both documents.
Try it and see how it feels to sound like yourself for a change!
Pass this advice to your friends. Share with them.
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