I had an interesting chat with an old friend today. He is the VP of a career management firm, not a recruiting company, but one that you hire and that follows you from College through to retirement. They are like a union hall for entrepeneurs, or as he calls me, an INtrepreneur. I will work INSIDE a company, but only if left alone to do what I choose to do. I’ll do my thing, you write my paycheck and you can thank me later. (there’s a fine line between arrogance and confident assurance here)
We were talking about this years errors that people make on resumes (every year there’s at least one trendy and poorly abused buzz word in all resumes) and he brought up how awful it is to use the word CHALLENGING as a career objective.
People say they are looking for a ‘challenging’ environment…” Whereas executive level employees generally see this and sigh in disappoinment while rolling their eyes, nobody wants you to be ‘challenged’ by the job they need you to do, because they are looking for someone COMPETENT and skilled not ‘challenged’ by it. He is a high level executive and has many friends that are too, so he interviews them to stay on top of his market. Apparently, ‘seeking a ‘challenging’ position’ is very common nowdays and it makes them toss the resume.
The end result is he has had a lot of success with his clients when he says “Seeking a position where I am able to ‘challenge’ MYSELF…” Which sounds MUCH better to me! It shows a need to create goals of high expectation.
It seems that industry and trendy buzz words have always been around, ever since we were kids and said EX or Groovy or whatever. It’s just cool, if not habitual, but in the case of finding work, it it can be quite detrimental.
Anyone else have any ANNOYING buzz words in their industry that everyone seems to adopt?
Like TEAM PLAYER, EVERYONE is/wants a team player these days.
What’s a team player for MOST companies?
Someone who brings donuts to meetings on Monday is generally considered a ‘TEAM PLAYER’ ?!
Someone who sits and chats with everyone all day is a TEAM PLAYER?
Most companies have replaced EMPLOYEE with ASSOCIATE now, what kind of half assed PC crap is THAT?
Buzz words gone bad!