Word clutter hides a clear focus.—Roy Peter Clark, How to Write Short
Today let’s focus on something close to my heart: cutting the clutter (aka jargon) from your sentences.
⚠️Yes, keywords matter, but beware.
It’s easy to get so caught up in trying to beat the ATS (applicant tracking system) or boost SEO (search engine optimization) that we lose sight of our message.
Keyword packing without strategic context won’t add the strength you need for a powerful profile. At best, that tactic will slow down the reader. At worst, it’ll cause some eye rolls on the other side.
Bottom line: Don’t confuse buzzwords with words that actually do bolster a phrase.
Here’s an example:
Original sentence:
Skilled strategist maximizing workable solutions and performance for key marketing goals.
(Wait…what?? As in, what does this person actually do, what do they deliver, and what are the results?)
Revised sentence:
Marketing strategist who introduces sustainable solutions that lead to multimillion-dollar results.
See how, by replacing a word salad with meaty specifics, the sentence is stronger?
💪 Try this exercise:
Print out a copy of your resume and ask a friend or relative (preferably one with a strong BS meter) to review it and highlight confusing or vague statements.
💡 HINT: Don’t ask them to edit. Ask them to just identify anything that doesn’t make sense with a quick read. Nothing works better than a fresh pair of eyes to catch statements that bog down your resume.
Once you have that highlighted document, play with the words, rearrange them, and see what you can cut. Hands down, the #1 reason resumes are a drag to read is that they’re bloated with unnecessary words.
🛎️…Or ask a professional for help.
My main service is re-writing resumes and LinkedIn profiles, but did you know that I’m also available to provide 1:1 guidance and feedback on your resume, LinkedIn profile, and other career documents?
Not everyone needs a complete resume or LinkedIn overhaul—if you have questions about your strategy, content, or layout, I’m here for you.
We have this massive machine in our spare room. At one time, someone in our family thought it was a good idea.
Now it’s not. It’s just taking up space.
Time to sell it.
🧹🗃️ Out with the old…
Speaking of clearing out stuff that’s no longer useful, now’s a great time to make space for relevant Information.
It’s been fun celebrating the new roles many of you have landed recently.
But whether you earned a new role in the last 2 weeks or the last 4 years, how about taking 15-30 minutes to clear out dated details—even if you’re not actively looking?
Spring is a great time to scan your career profile to identify details that no longer serve you or your target companies. 🍃
There are exceptions to every rule, but generally speaking you shouldn’t need to include information beyond 15 years. So if you’re about to add achievements for the last 5 years, think about what you can remove from your earlier career.
Especially if you’re working in high tech or marketing—where so much has changed—take special care to replace technical skills and terms that no longer apply to you or your field.
I just got great feedback from a client regarding my process; she thought a tactic we used was helpful to landing her new job. 🎉
To be honest, the tactic is so simple that I’d taken it for granted.
I’m referring to the practice of using 1-3 job postings to help you focus and tailor your resume to your target role.
The key to writing a compelling resume is to begin with the end in mind: In what role do you see yourself in 6 months? How can you help the employer envision YOU in that role?
Job descriptions help you future-proof your resume—and learn to think like an employer.
So, how can you use and analyze job descriptions?
🕵️♀️ Dig for themes
The first thing you’ll want to do is scan for themes.
Does the job description repeat the need for certain skills? If so, those qualifications are likely prioritized by the hiring manager.
What else is the company looking for in an ideal candidate? What problems are they hoping you’ll solve? What are some specific skills they list? What are the top 3–5 qualifications they’re looking for?
🏆 Gather your own examples of success
Once you understand what the company needs, gather examples of when you’ve demonstrated the required skills.
Don’t worry about grammar or crafting the bullets perfectly at this point.
Just get it down on your laptop, your journal…whatever works.
🎯 Align and get specific
Once you’ve had a chance to brain dump, THEN start polishing…
Craft your specific mini stories and achievements that align with the company’s language. What adjectives or descriptors stand out?
Be careful with adjectives: It’s not just a matter of word-packing your resume.
For example, if the company is looking for someone with great communication skills, don’t just say you have great communication skills.
Include specific examples of how you used your communication skills under the job titles to which they apply, and if communication is a top skill they’re looking for in a candidate, include how you’re a great communicator in your branding statement at the top.
For example, are you really good at distilling complex technology to non-technical audiences in meetings and at trade shows?
🌟 Differentiate yourself
Think about how you can tell these stories in a way that differentiates you.
Instead of simply calling out your strategic leadership…are you the kind of person who isn’t afraid of risk? Do you think it’s important to tell the CEO the truth, even if it might sting a little—as long as it’s in the spirit of advancing the company toward its goals?
If you have experience with cloud architecture, talk about how you led a large team in migrating a legacy system to the cloud in record time.
How about leveraging your existing network to expand the market and drive revenue growth? The possibility that you’ll bring existing partners to your new employer can be a huge asset.
One more thing…
If you had to achieve something in a less-than-ideal economic or competitive landscape, such as driving revenue growth or gaining new customers in a down market; converting what was supposed to be a live conference to a virtual one in record time (remember 2020?); or changing the strategic direction after overcoming resistance, all the better.
🎁 Job description bonus
When you’re forced to sit down and think about your achievements, they start to bubble up to the surface, and you’re reminded of all the great things you’ve accomplished. Way to go!! Celebrate!! 🎉
When we modernize our house, we don’t always need to go out and buy new furniture or the latest smart home gadgets.
Sometimes a fresh coat of paint or donations of dated items will do. That’s what I spent last weekend doing, and I can’t tell you how refreshing it was!
These two simple changes can do wonders to brighten things up around the house.
The same goes for our resume.
Following are 10 tips to modernize your resume. Good news: you should be able to complete this in 15 minutes if you know your way around your resume software.
✂️ #1: Cut back your margin
If you’re like me, you were taught early that you needed a one-inch margin around your page. But that’s not true when it comes to resumes. My recommendation? Change it to .6 or .7.
This will allow you to create more space between bullets and within the document.
Which leads me to…
🌬️ #2: Give your bullets breathing room
I usually set my spacing at 3 points between bullets (and single spacing between lines of the same bullet). The reader will appreciate this because your document will be easier to read.
🖋️ #3 Update your font
If you’re using Times New Roman as your default, it’s time for a refresh. Times New Roman has been around forever—and you can tell.
If you’re wondering which font to use instead, you can’t go wrong with Calibri. To add variety, you can use Cambria for headings (e.g., Professional Experience and Education).
Now, it’s not necessary to use more than one font—and definitely don’t use more than two. That’s a design no-no.
🌟 #4 Kick off your resume with a title that pops
Your title could be as fancy as Award-winning Biotechnology Sales Leader or Global Technical Sales Leader & Keynote Speaker.
Or it could be as simple as Director of Global Security or General Counsel.
The point is to communicate who you are and the job you want.
❌ #5 Remove irrelevant statements
Remove words and phrases like objective or references available upon request. Both are dated and take up valuable real estate.
Worse, an objective statement shouts me, me, me! Marketing is about addressing what the reader needs. Not what we want. Our resumes are marketing documents, so let’s treat them as such.
Re: references, it’s a given that we’ll provide them if asked, so no need to mention them.
🔤 #6 Use font variety
Make it easy for the reader to distinguish between your job title, company name, dates of employment, and location.
I see a lot of resumes that have the title, company name, location, and date all scrunched together and in the same font style, making for a challenging read.
If your role’s the most important item—maybe you have an impressive career progression—and you want to showcase that, then bolding and all caps work great.
Your company name is the next priority. Maybe use bold (without all caps) to set it apart from location and dates while distinguishing it from the job title.
Your dates and location don’t need much attention, so visually separate them (off to the right is fine) and just stick with regular (un-bolded) font.
Sometimes the company name is more important than your role. You may want to draw more attention to the company names because you’ve worked for some top brands.
In this case, follow the same principle as I described for the prioritized job title, above.
🎨 #7 Use color and shading
Spiff up your resume by shading your section headings and then use that color for your name and title at the top. You could also use color for your job titles or company names.
📝 #8 List (if you must) older roles without dates
If you’ve been working for a while and you’re worried your resume might date you, here’s a tip: add a Prior Experience subsection, and then just list your roles and the names of your companies—sans dates.
Since this section is separate from the main Experience section, omitting dates won’t appear inconsistent.
I had a client who worked at Kraft early in her career and was looking for a role in CPG. Since Kraft is known as a leader in CPG, we wanted to keep Kraft on her resume, so we listed it under Prior Experience—with no dates.
🔎 #9 Find and replace worthless words
If you know me, I’ve been saying this for years, but I still see it from time to time, so I’ll repeat it here:
Replace words like responsible for with action verbs and data points.
Action verbs give you more ownership, AND take up less space.
Here’s an example:
Rather than:
Responsible for launching…
Try:
Launched…
If you kick off your bullet with a verb like Oversaw or Spearheaded, you’ll get to the point a lot quicker than Responsible for...
Don’t forget to include data points (results) wherever possible to prove how fabulous you are.
If you worry about leaving money on the table when negotiating job offers…or you’re feeling overwhelmed by all the different types of employer equity grants…or you aren’t sure which are the best options for YOU, then you’re not alone!
Many job seekers struggle to navigate the complexities of equity compensation.
So I sat down with Richard Archer, President of Archer Investment Management to learn how to navigate this often-fraught piece of the negotiation process.
Richard shared relatable stories and practical strategies to secure the equity compensation you deserve.
The following is an excerpt from our conversation. I’ve edited for brevity.
💰 The basic types of equity
Emily: If we could start with a little primer about what types of equity might be included in an offer package…
Richard: Sure. Equity can be offered in a lot of different ways. You can have equity compensation, such as restricted stock, incentive stock options, or nonqualified stock options.
You can also get equity through employee stock purchase plans, which can be incredibly valuable. You also might have employer stock in your 401K. Maybe that’s how they do their match.
Or maybe you’re able to buy employer stock through your 401K. So there are different ways it can show up.
💰 The difference between private and public valuation
Emily: Let’s talk about the difference between private and public companies. I understand there are different options depending on the type of company, and there are benefits to each, correct?
Richard: In general, public companies tend to be larger than private companies.
So when you’re joining a private company, that stock might have a greater probability of a lottery win, if you will, of growing really quickly—as opposed to if you join Apple.
Apple’s stock does very well, but the chance of it tripling in size in the next 10 years is a lot lower than for a company that’s a startup that could get purchased in 3 years for $100M. And if you’ve got 1% of the stock, that’d be amazing.
So that’s one thing. The private stock tends to have more growth potential.
Another thing is that public companies have a market valuation. So when you look on Yahoo Finance or Morningstar, you can see that Apple shares are selling for X dollars right now.
On the other hand, a private company has an internal valuation provided by an internal auditor.
That internal valuation can sometimes be quite stale, especially now. So you have to be careful that the internal valuation they’re projecting for you in your offer is fair.
💰 The importance of asking for current information
Emily: Why would it be stale?
Richard: That’s a good question. Public markets are live. Everything’s valued every day.
But private companies typically submit 409A valuations on an annual basis. So you could have an internal valuation or a 409A valuation that’s 11 months old.
Well, anyone who’s looked at the market in the last 12 months knows that tech stocks have had a really hard time, and that old valuation could be 50% or 75% higher than the actual valuation right now.
We had a client who took an offer at a big tech company that was private.
She based her house purchase decision and acceptance of the job on the valuation provided by HR, which was based on old numbers and rosy projections. Where she thought she was going to have $8M in 5 years is now probably closer to about $1.5M.
She bought this fabulous house here in Texas and is now panicking a little bit because she bought more house than she probably should have, based on the valuation provided.
Keep in mind, this is a new client to us, so we weren’t a party to that decision.
💰 Understanding what we’d give up by leaving our current job
Emily: What are some questions candidates can ask on the front end so they can avoid these big mistakes later?
Richard: The first thing is to figure out what you currently get for compensation and what accolades you’ve had at your current job. That can help you negotiate a better job offer.
Have your history of raises, accomplishments, any teams that you’ve run, or new certifications you’ve earned at your current job. Look at your benefits package, like your 401k summary plan description.
Also include a listing of all current grants, like your restricted stock or stock options.
I had a client who negotiated as a salesperson for a tech company, was moving to a competitor, and had negotiated his entire offer. He had a nice salary coming in. He called me and asked whether there was anything he’d forgotten.
I said, Well, in the next 6 months, you’re going to vest $235,000 of restricted stock in your current company. Did you mention that to your new employer?
So he sent them an email. Within an hour, they gave him a vesting grant of $235,000 of stock in the new company. So with just a simple email, he earned a quarter of a million dollars.
💰 Considering best fit for our lifestyle (It’s not always obvious)
Emily: What are some other ways people can avoid leaving money on the table?
Richard: When you’re negotiating a new job, you want to think about the best type of compensation for you and your situation.
For someone who has a lot of risk tolerance and not a lot of need for cash right now, maybe they want to take more stock options, with the potential of greater earnings in the future. For others who’ve got a mortgage or college expenses, maybe cash is more important now.
We’ve got a client who’s young. He’s a phenomenal engineer, and he keeps getting hired away to new companies. The problem is, he’s too smart for his own good.
He’s amazing, but he gets bored easily.
He jumps to the next company and the next company, and we’ve actually talked with him about taking more cash upfront and less equity, because he’s not there long enough for it to vest.
It’s more valuable for him just to take cash, even though he has the risk tolerance to take the private stock. We just take cash with him and then invest it elsewhere because it just makes more sense for him.
☝️ Results of our never-ending atmospheric rivers…
Last weekend, we celebrated Easter.
Whether we celebrate the holiday or not, many of us can appreciate the message of renewal.
As a resident of Northern California, I’m grateful for the signs of renewal and glimpses of spring, after a whooole lotta rain.
Personally, I’m fine with the rain. We needed to fill our reservoirs, and I’m convinced the bursts of extra-vibrant colors are, in part, a result of all those atmospheric rivers.
Speaking of renewal, I’m excited to see the new roles some of my clients have landed recently.
And speaking of new roles, if you have one…
Have you refreshed your LinkedIn profile to reflect your new position?
If we’ve worked together on your LinkedIn profile, I’ve already done the heavy lifting. So a quick refresh should be easy.
Just remember that your profile is a dynamic site. It’s meant to evolve just as you and your career are. So be careful not to set it and forget it.
Below are steps you can take now to refresh each LinkedIn profile section, assuming you updated them before you landed your latest job.
The best part? Unlike house spring cleaning, you should be able to do this in under an hour:
Headline (⏰ 5 minutes)
Are you now a VP rather than a director?
Did you expand the scope of your role, say from strictly sales to sales and marketing leadership?
Make sure your heading reflects what you’re doing in your current position, as opposed to what you did in your last job.
About (⏰ 15 minutes)
In this section, does it read as if your last role is still current?
If so, add a couple of sentences re: your current role, and change any references to your previous job to the past tense.
For your older roles, use words like “Previously…” or “Prior to leading global operations for…”
Make room for your current role by condensing any information from your earlier jobs.
If you list your top skills in this section, are they up to date?
Skills & Endorsement (⏰ 5 minutes)
Take a quick inventory: what skills are you applying in the new role? Are they listed in this section?
Experience Section (⏰ 15 minutes)
Be sure to add your new role in the Experience section.
Although you may not have had a chance to add measurable impact, you can include the scope of your role.
If you have made an impact, but you’re not ready to share publicly, that’s OK, too.
But at least keep an easy-access diary of your achievements so you won’t have to go searching for them later.
Recommendations (⏰ 10 minutes)
One of the best times to ask for recommendations? Right after you’ve left your previous job, while your fabulous contributions are still fresh in your colleagues’ minds!
Remember, it’s not just those you’ve worked for that you should ask. Endorsements from industry colleagues, clients, and peers from different business units also add credibility.
And nothing says leadership like a glowing recommendation from someone who considered you a mentor—even if they didn’t work directly for you.
Education, Courses, and Certifications (⏰ 5 minutes)
Have you gone through additional training at your new organization?
As part of onboarding, you may have benefitted from training for leadership or DEI. Go ahead and add that to your courses.
Education or certification that are in progress qualify, too. And will boost SEO.
Volunteering and Organizations (⏰ 5 minutes)
Check in on what you have listed in your Volunteering section.
Have you taken on new leadership roles? This is a great section for adding additional keywords—especially if the skills you use in your board or volunteer work is related to your profession.
So there you have it. Just one hour.
Just like spring, your profile should be growing and evolving.
Time passes. Seasons change. Keep your LinkedIn profile refreshed so you’re prepared for your next opportunity.
I recently sat down with Anne Janzer. She’s the author of several books on effective writing and has a special interest in how people write for and in the workplace.
Anne also coined the term servant authorship, a play on servant leadership.
Servant authorship is the discipline of getting to the heart of what the reader actually needs and delivering on that expectation.
Sounds simple, right? Unfortunately, we tend to overlook our audience’s interests as we hustle to get our content out.
The need for more focus on servant authorship couldn’t apply more to resume writers and job seekers.
You’ve heard me say it over and over…
When we write resumes, cover letters, and LinkedIn profiles, it’s so important to share experience that’s relevant to what the hiring team is looking for in a candidate.
Servant Authorship in an AI World?
A key tenet of servant authorship is authenticity (no surprise the words spring from the same root). Naturally, my conversation with Anne turned toward AI and ChatGPT. Specifically, how they apply to resume writing.
In case this is the first you’ve heard of it, ChatGPT is the latest tool from OpenAI, and it’s getting a lot of…well…chatter.
So I conducted my own test to see what all the buzz was about.
Oh, how many times have I heard that, only to dig deeper to find that these unassuming clients were actually movers and shakers.
A sampling:
The senior tech manager who convinced C-suite leaders to invest in new software—and helped propel the company toward its goals.
The account manager who unified teams across marketing, operations, and finance to support a key sales initiative that sparked 10X millions of dollars in revenue—and established trust for future high-ROI projects.
The volunteer fundraiser who built and nurtured hundreds of donor relationships—while creating innovative revenue-generating community events—to guarantee a long-term competitive high school music program.
The engineering/client liaison who skillfully uncovered the true needs of the customer, articulated those needs to the engineering team, and then distilled the technical requirements back to the client.
These employees sound like leaders to me.
Even if you’ve never formally led a team, you may have more to say about your ability to lead than you realize.
I recently had a client who epitomized what it meant to lead from behind.
I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and that you’re off to a joyful, low-stress start to the holiday season.
Speaking of low stress, I recently had a refreshing conversation with Lynda McDonell from PiqueProsperity. A financial coach, Lynda has an unconventional approach to managing finances—specifically during a career transition.
Spoiler alert: You don’t have to give up everything in order to be fiscally responsible when the going is tough.
For more than a year, there was a billboard near my home that read “BETTER LEFT UNREAD THAN DEAD.” It was a powerful ad that aimed to convince drivers that no risk was worth texting while driving.
The problem for my hyper-orderly mind was that grammatically, the subject of “dead” was the text, not a person—an incongruence that wreaked havoc on my grammarian sensibilities. In other words, the writer didn’t follow the rule of parallel structure.
Parallel Structure Defined
As a refresher, the rule of parallel structure calls for the repetition of a chosen grammatical form within a sentence or bulleted list. By following the same grammatical pattern for each listed or compared item, you ensure parallel construction.
So every time I drove by that sign, I’d get annoyed and try to think of a better way to say it that was grammatically acceptable. (Yes, I realize this puts me on some sort of OCD spectrum—hopefully I don’t scare up too many bad memories from high school English😅).
I’ll admit—I’m hard-pressed to come up with a grammatical alternative that’s just as powerful. No doubt (and hopefully!) the ad folks spent some time around a conference table debating alternatives, finally settling on poetic license to justify their form. And let’s face it: The meaning is clear.
Unfortunately, most of us can’t claim poetic license if we make grammatical mistakes in our resumes and other career docs. So we need to make sure our content is strong both in terms of storytelling AND grammar.
