Friday, October 06, 2006

JST/HNAR - Part Four: "Gloss"

(From the archives...)

While I appreciate this candidate's honesty...

"I didn't usually have much to do while I was at work...There were many times I was told to answer the phone so I would sit at a desk and wait for the phone to ring."

...I don't really anticipate I would ever be inspired to ring her phone after reading that on her resume.

"Sitting," waiting," and "not doing much" are generally never highly-sought-after skills in today's job market.

When your description of your job makes it seem like something a monkey could - quite literally - be trained to do, maybe an application of a slight gloss to your listing of job duties is in order.

You should never lie...but no matter how little there was to do in any position, certainly you can find more than the above to fill a two-sentence description.

Remember the old chestnuts...action verbs, showing how you took initiative, going above and beyond, blah blah blah. Yes, it's all a bunch of hooey, but that hooey is the currency of the job search, so start polishing it up.

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