Hiring decision-makers surveyed for the book,
Top Notch
Executive Resumes identified this as one of their Top 30 Executive Resume Pet Peeves:
Resume language is replete with “fluff,” flowery words, and “resume speak” instead of specifics. Your
resume “needs to have good factual information and be clear as to what it is that you actually do; it
doesn’t need to be fluffy and overwrought,” said survey respondent Thomas Burrell. Meg Steele, director
of recruitment and employment mobility at Swedish Medical Center in the Seattle area, decried the lack
of specifics in resume language: “The most irritating characteristic on senior-level resumes is an overuse
of flowery language without substantiation,” she said. “I want to see actual accomplishments, not summary
statements that imply an understanding of functional areas that reported up to the individual. A good leader
knows enough about what his or her people are doing to speak intelligently about the problem that was
being solved by this or that initiative. So, if [candidates] say ‘oversaw development of strategic solutions,’
they should have some more specific examples of said ‘strategic solutions’ and what the impact was
to the business [and] the employees.” Agreed survey respondent Alison: “Weed out the garbage and
tell me what you made, saved, achieved and make it quantifiable.
Characterized as “resume speak” by survey respondents were words like “visionary,” “thought leader,”
“evangelist,” “innovative,” “motivating,” “engaging.”
See all 30 peeves: executive resume peeves
1-10 in Part 1, executive resume peeves 11-20 in Part 2 and
executive resume peeves 21-30 in Part 3.
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