How to Semantically Pimp Your Resume

How to Semantically Pimp Your Resume 28 Flares 28 Flares Veronica Park is an author, journalist and world-traveler of many different past and future vocations. Keep an eye out for her first published novel, which will hopefully be announced soon. In the meantime, you can read about her exploits in the Caribbean and find out her opinion on pretty much everything by following her on Twitter (@VeroniKaboom) and checking out her  website. Pretty much everyone is familiar with the saying “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” But guess what? According to a little involuntary neurological condition called Synesthesia, that saying is basically untrue. (If you’re curious about the details of this condition, see this article for more details.) Feel free to ignore that, though, because regardless of whether or not words can change the smell of objects, I can GUARANTEE you that words on a resume WILL affect the way you are perceived as a job candidate. That’s why, no matter WHAT kind of job you’re applying for (be it a position as a rocket scientist, kindergarten teacher, plumber or side-of-the-road sign spinner), you should ALWAYS try to find the BEST the CLEAREST… and the SMARTEST possible words to describe your traits. On that note, here is a list of some commonly used resume identifiers, and synonymous words and phrases that can take your resume’s perceived education level from “Average Joe Street Slang” to “Doctor Cornelius Von Vocabulary, PhD”: “STREET” TERM RESUME TERM Hard working Industrious (adj) Always shows up on time Punctual (adj) Good at working with others, friendly Gregarious, Team-player (adj) Great at dealing with horrible people Diplomatic (adj) Made a lot of money (i.e. in sales) Lucrative, Successful (adj) Answering phones, reception Telecommunications (n) Writing e-mails and letters Professional Correspondence (n) Organizing spreadsheets full of data Database Management (n) Did one thing for a long time Experienced (adj) Did a lot of things for a short time Versatile (adj) Was in charge of people or things Managing, Coordinating (v) Used things to do other things Utilizing (v) Started a new policy or system Implementing, Creating (v) Patient, doesn’t freak out under pressure Composed, Even-Tempered (adj) Gets the job done Effective, Reliable (adj) Gets the job done quickly and neatly Organized, Meticulous (adj) Did a lot of things really well Accomplished (adj), Executed (v), Achievement (n) Of course, this list is far from exhaustive. Which is why I always advise resume builders to make very good friends with the Dynamic Duo of Vocabulary Skills: the Thesaurus and Dictionary. However [VIP EDITOR ADVICE HERE]: you should NEVER use a thesaurus to exchange a word without also looking the  new  word up in the dictionary, especially if you’re not 100% familiar with that new word. Even then, you’d be surprised how often a really cool-sounding word carries a little known connotation that is NOT what you are going for. Example: COMMON RESUME WORD SYNONYMS of “dedicated” (which is perfectly fine on its own, by the way): committed, purposeful, ZEALOUS. Let’s say you choose to put that on a resume. Here are some other words which are similar to/often associated with the word ZEALOUS. See what I’m getting at here? Make sure to use  all  the tools at your disposal when pimping your resume. Good luck, job hunters, and happy pimping! Photos and definitions above are screen shots obtained from  dictionary.reference.com  and  thesaurus.com  respectively. Manipulation was added by the author of this post. All rights reserved by their original source.