Official LinkedIn Blog: It's 2017: this could be the year to start something big. If you’ve thought about pursuing a new career direction or a challenge, you’re not alone — this week marks the busiest week of the year (so far) to update your LinkedIn profile and we want to help you start the year off right.
3 comments:
This article makes a really good point with the images of famous people from history with very bland descriptions. I suppose the reason we use these buzzwords is we feel a need to be succinct so calling myself a leader is faster than giving a little story about the last time I led something. It also seems as though a resume is not the place for short stories. Maybe a LinkedIn profile, website, or cover letter is a better platform for a story, but there has to be a trade off between the whole 10 seconds to make an impression, and not being bland with bland buzzwords. I am currently in the process of updating my LinkedIn profile and I will take these suggestions into account when creating new content. I will also use the idea of incorporating short telling stories into cover letters because I now fully subscribe to the concept of showing by example and not just telling.
I understand that many jobs, even though they have the same title, may involve different responsibilities and that describing the actual work you did is necessary. It is difficult to imagine what non-theater people's resume looks like because they vary wildly from industry to industry. For example, my friend who majored in computer engineering said that any classes or any class projects that taught her new skills and 'algorithms' are recommended to be on the resume. I have also read many articles saying that rather than just using buzzwords, explain in numbers. For example, how much sales increase you achieved, how many members were in the team you led and etc. It is still difficult to grasp still because the resumes for theaters and especially stage management is fairly simple. I can't imagine how difficult it must be to write something more elaborate when writing the production, company and director/boss's name on the resume is already difficult enough.
This article makes a really interesting point about the fact that human beings are complex individuals and thus cannot possibly all look the same on paper. I think that those are definitely just easy words to grasp onto when describing oneself because people use them all the time. I'm not sure if it is truly possible to completely avoid these buzz words. Similar to the rule my professional development teacher taught me about the infamous "no sing" list for musical theatre auditions, I think you shouldn't use those words unless of course you're using them in a way that is more concise than everyone else. Sometimes the ten words listed can not be avoided and that's okay. Using all 10 words on the list in one resume might not be a wise move in the end though.
I think the moral of the story is that balance is always key and too much of a good thing is definitely overkill. Marketing oneself is hard enough without being the kind of person who blends into the crowd.
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