The difference between winning and losing resumes and cover letters is:words! The words chosen and how they are arranged.
Resume writing is different than most any other type of writing. Why? You don’t always write in complete sentences. In resume sentences, some nouns, pronouns, and adjectives are generally not used.
Personal pronouns generally not used on your resume:
Writing without these words goes against most of English education and sentence construction.
One method that might help you write resume sentences is:
The Pronoun Elimination Method
1. Write the sentence with the pronouns:
Example:
I devised a strategy for advertising to elderly women, which helped our advertising team tap into a new market and increase our annual sales by 13%.
2. Eliminate the pronouns and read the sentence.
Rewritten Example:
Devised a strategy for advertising to elderly women, which helped advertising team tap into a new market and increase company annual sales by 13%.
If the sentence still makes sense you are done.
Here is a more difficult example:
Example sentence with pronouns:
Over two years, I improved my computer skills on my own time by studying and completing three certifications.
Here is the same sentence without the pronouns:
Over two years, improved computer skills on time by studying and completing three certifications.
Now the sentence states that the candidate “improved computer skills on time” which does not make sense.
Additional or different words are needed to define the meaning of the original sentence:
Over two years, improved computer skills by studying outside of work and completing three certifications.
By inserting the phrase “outside of work” the sentence maintains the original meaning without the pronouns.
Here is another example:
I attracted more traffic to our website by improving the content writing, which raised our rankings in search engine results.
Without pronouns:
Attracted more traffic to company website by improving the content writing, which raised rankings in search engine results.
In this case the pronouns have been removed and the word company has used as a replacement for the pronoun our.
Remember:
1. First write resume sentences with pronouns
2. Read the sentence for clarity
3. Replace pronouns with words or add words if needed.
See more about resume words you should not use.
Copyright 2009 Phil Baker and Resume Dictionary
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