Hot Career Advice

A survey of hiring managers appears to indicate which words you should leave out of your resume.  Their list, while predictable, is nevertheless mildly amusing:

• best of breed
• go-getter
• think outside the box
• synergy
• go-to person
• thought leadership
• value add

The study didn't appear to stratify results by the domain of employers or the job types in question; I imagine that jobs that require an ability to babble mindlessly and spew buzz phrases -- areas such as marketing and sales --  and companies that exploit serve Government markets would, in fact, relish this sort of vocabulary.

The things the managers liked to hear were, again unsurprisingly, verbs. Words like "achieved" and  "created" were more attractive. However, in keeping with our relentless focus on the negative things in life, we were more interested in expanding on their list of naughty words. Here are some resume terms that would be unlikely to get you an interview with Wood-Charles.

• nolo contendere
• Sears
• monkey
• Ted Nugent
• DSM V
• Mayor of Toronto
• Spetsnaz
• dancing with the stars
• sexting
• high school yearbook
• Detroit