Thursday, October 1, 2009

Real ingredients, real results.

The skincare and beauty industry thrives on the promise of active ingredients and noticeable results. Most of us at one time or another put the question to ourselves exactly what DHEA5, Factor17A and hydroxynuclease are, and why we now need 35% more of it.

Shifty words and shady outcomes - we would like to believe what advertising tells us, but we are natural skeptics when it sounds like the answer to all our problems.

So does your resume currently include a broad selection of these? honest, reliable, trustworthy, kind, supportive, a team player, motivated, dedicated, results-driven, enthusiastic, easygoing, confident, committed, ambitious, loyal, willing to learn, approachable, open-minded, dynamic, eager, considerate, pleasant and responsible...

What rubbish. It's no use telling the reader all of these things. These words in a resume mean nothing because they are so common - they will appear in 90% of the other applications the recruiter/hiring manager will read that day.

If you really are ambitious and have great energy and initiative, that will be very evident in the detail you have provided and the achievements you have made both at work and in your own time.

To talk about your personal characteristics in your cover letter and resume, don't rewrite the Thesaurus of Goodness. Pick some that really are you and elaborate on them, use your own language and examples so that you stand out. If you spread happiness and improve team morale, say so. If you are last out of the office because you want to spend time helping others, spell it out.

Talk about your real qualities so that you really can deliver on those skills and produce results. Make the you on paper resemble the you in person. After all, no-one else really is like you.

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