I’m not a professional resume writer. I don’t even play one on TV. Nevertheless, as a professional writer and active job-search candidate, I’ve learned a few things about how to craft killer resumes and cover letters, beginning with our vernacular… that’s a fancy word for the language or dialect spoken by ordinary people in a particular country or region. How we obfuscate the English language One reason why recruiters and hiring managers have caved into Applicant Tracking Software (ATS) is having to wade through hundreds of resumes that use trite, lifeless terms like utilize, monetize and re-contextualize. Words we never speak or write in our common conversations with other people.…
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I’m Mad as Hell and I’m Not Going to Interview Anymore Or, what’s gone wrong with the current job search process?
I’ve dropped out of the job market. I give up. I’m not retired. And it’s not that I don’t need the money anymore. I do. But I need intro-cranial bleeding, high blood pressure, and assaults on my dignity a lot less. So, I’ve adopted Howard Beale’s 1976 rant from “Network:” I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore! Despite everything you read in Forbes, on LinkedIn, and in Fish & Stream, there’s something seriously wrong with the job search process today. Industry experts shrug their shoulders, claiming there are just too many people looking for work these days. Poppycock. There’s something fundamentally broken with the system.…