Powerful Words: Mastering the power of the written and spoken word
Whether you are a native English speaker who is seeking to improve upon and expand their vocabulary so as to have a more dramatic effect on potential employers and people who you deal with on a daily basis, or whether you are a non-native business person trying to make that all important first impression with a potential client, mastering the effective usage of powerful words will stand you in good stead.
Many people read the various guides that are on offer across the internet and then fail to appreciate the message that is being sent or the lesson that is being taught, as these people will end up simply filling their resumes with a whole bunch of (quite often randomly selected) powerful words, assuming that this “magic” combination will somehow net them that job. If only things were that easy! Unfortunately a horse painted with black and white paint is not a zebra, and just like your resume, merely inserting powerful words is not enough. You need to ensure that your resume is a well-written, mature piece of work that will engage the reader and actually spark their interest in you, as a person.
A CV (curriculum vitae) also known as a resume is a list of the relevant skills, experience and qualifications that you have and will also include your employment history, and it is used to “sell” yourself to a prospective employer. A good resume will be a well-structured, coherent and articulate piece of work, which will clearly specify the skills and necessary attributes of the person to whom it belongs to. Powers words will be used sparingly and strategically. Remember,
A bad and ineffective resume will rely too heavily upon powerful words, be too descriptive and not analytical enough and or will be filled with spelling mistakes, as well as containing too much irrelevant material.
Correct and effective usage of grammar will help to more effectively structure and layer your resume, allowing for the eye to flow naturally to the powerful words you have carefully selected and dispersed throughout your resume.
As a general rule of thumb, action verbs are so named because they involve action, and in addition they will also be time-telling, i.e. they specify when a particular action (the verb in question) will be carried out at and this is achieved by their tense, whether it is past, future or present. In the context of resumes, powerful words/action verbs can help be used to explain negative aspects of a resume, in terms of the bad negative occurring in the past, and dealt with.