3 Things to Avoid When Writing a Resume

The LACD blog has been brimming with resume tips over the past couple of weeks. Intern Angela has been writing about some excellent ways to raise the aesthetic look of a resume. Now, how about rereading the document to ensure that your writing is equally well done?

As a Business Writing Consultant for the Purdue Writing Lab, I've seen countless resumes from undergraduate students. There are a few things that many students love to include in their resume that really (as Peter Griffin would say) grind my gears. Here are my top three resume pet peeves:

1)      Overused verb selection

When describing your previous work experience, do not use the same verbs over and over again. It becomes repetitive to read and makes you appear stale and uncreative. Make sure each bullet point on your resume has a different verb. Break out a thesaurus if necessary. You can also scan through the job ad you are applying to, identify verbs and work them into your bullet points. This will vary your word choice and tailor your resume to the specific job. Win, win!

2)      The word 'utilize'

Just stay away from it. ‘Utilize’ has become overused by students trying to sound professional, and it is rarely ever used in the correct context. On Twitter, I follow an organization called “GrammarSnarks” and at least once a week they will make fun of a terrible sentence that contains ‘utilize.’ When in doubt, just say ‘use.’ You won’t sound dumb: I promise.

3)      Poorly written objective statement

I will admit, even I have a hard time writing an objective statement. In fact, I got so sick of them that the current format of my resume doesn’t even contain an objective statement! They can actually be a turnoff for some employers. Some applicants will include what they want out of the job in the objective statement, instead of writing what they bring to the table, making the applicant sound self-centered. My dad absolutely hates reading resumes with these poorly written objective statements. He throws them immediately into the “No” pile. Here’s my advice: I would make sure to include an objective statement if I were applying for a specific position at a large company (mainly because you don’t want your resume to get lost). Otherwise, leave it off.

Steer clear of these pitfalls and you'll already be miles better than some of your competition. Want more tips? Check out this article “6 Words that Make Your Resume Suck”