Resume Writing - Buzzwords vs. Concepts
Sometimes our clients ask us about using buzzwords. Some want them exactly as they appear in employment ads, others find the use of buzzwords offensive. The following is a brief discussion on buzzwords and why 1-on-1-resumes.com uses both buzzwords and a more conceptual approach – and when.
For the sake of this discussion, let’s say a buzzword is the exact word listed in an employment ad or posting (or used within an industry). In contrast, a concept is a descriptive phrase that describes the job function in place of the buzzword and does not make use of the known buzzword itself.
When we use buzzwords directly, it is based on many factors that include interpretation of the information provided with the client’s order, requested by the client, or a determination made from reading the job posting. For example, it is often clear from the employment posting that the buzzwords will be a point of consideration by the employer, so the buzzwords are used in the resume. The major advantage of buzzwords/phrases is that they are a concise way of stating the same information as the more detailed concept, and are understood by most people. (At some major American corporations, using their chosen buzzwords, as they appear in their job posting, are a major indication of your ability to “fit in,” and thus, extremely important to your resume.) Sometimes we feel that the buzzwords in the client’s original resume are company-specific and do not apply globally, so we use the concept approach...
Likewise, some of our clients feel that buzzwords categorize them and hide their true talents. In this case, we use concepts instead of buzzwords. A conceptual relationship is developed from the buzzword/phrase – or vice versa. For instance, the simple statement “answered phones” can be interpreted as “answered phones and directed calls to the appropriate party.”
Using the buzzword/phrase or providing the descriptive concept phraseology is part of the decision making process at 1-on-1-resumes.com. In either case, answering phones in our resumes is expressed as an important job task performed at the highest level of competence by our clients.
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