Tip of the Day

If you feel the need to call yourself a "rock star" on your resume, that's fine—just back it up by describing your experience. Recruiters say the important thing is to make sure your skills are presented accurately and that your resume is tailored to the job description. As long as you do that, they say, call yourself whatever you like. However, it's important to include your real job titles so you're not missed during keyword searches. That could be as simple as running them in parenthesis with each entry. And bear in mind that folks in HR may be more buttoned-down than a recruiter, and so may not be as forgiving when it comes to non-traditional labels. To decide whether or not that's going to be an issue, learn as much as you can about the employer's culture. Finally, be careful about using profanity or potentially offensive language to describe your attributes or previous positions. You never know when your resume may end up on an executive’s desk.

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