After checking out a resume that a coworker sent me to chuckle over that had a smushed bug attached to it, I realized that it's been a long time since I offered up a nugget of resume wisdom. Let's discuss words of embellishment today.
Be prepared to back up your resume claims with actual data. Better yet, put that data in your resume. Example in the resume we saw today: "Dramatically improved customer relation ratings". Really? Says you? By how much? Measured how? According to who? Dramatically? I think that you're fibbing more dramatically than the improvement of your customer relations.
In addition to being able to back up this bold claim, just go ahead and avoid words like "Dramatically", "Drastically" and all other over the top embellishments. How to fix this? Make it true. "Improved Customer Relation Ratings by 13% from 2011 to 2012 according to Customer Satisfaction Surveys issued in January 2011 and January 2012."
I understand that it is possible that you improved customer relations without having solid data like this to back up your claim. In that case, again, keep the embellishments out, and list a specific way that you accomplished this. "Improved Customer Relation Ratings from 2011 to 2012 by securing funding for the Customer Service Team to attend a course in Customer Service Best Practices in January 2011."
If you are unable to provide specific data and/or a specific example, then guess what? You are embellishing, (i.e. lying) and should not have it in your resume.
