The only permissible abbreviations in a resume are abbreviated street addresses, abbreviated states, and well-known (but non-military) acronyms. Abbreviations don't look very good, so whenever possible, don't abbreviate street addresses or states at all. If you abbreviate a state in one place in the resume, make certain that all states are abbreviated. Also, for the fifty states use the two-letter abbreviations currently accepted by the Post Office.
Avoid almost all other abbreviations. Do not write the Department of Transportation as Dept. of Transportation or Dep't of Transportation. Do not put your position as Ass't Manager, or worse, Ass't Mgr. Write those words out; they look awful when abbreviated.
Perhaps the only other acceptable abbreviation is a widely known acronym. Thus, the Atlantic Coast Conference is the ACC. The National Collegiate Athletic Association is the NCAA. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is the NAACP. The same would hold true for most federal agencies. The National Labor Relations Board is the NLRB. The Securities and Exchange Commission is the SEC.
The United States Air Force is the USAF. But unless the acronym is a household word, don't use it.
Matters of Style
One of the best ways to write powerfully is to use action verbs. If you use lots of nouns, your writing will be mushy, weak, and ineffective. Read this and you'll see what we mean:
Responsibilities as Assistant Manager included development and implementation of a new inventory system with a result of a maximization of space utilization.
That sounds like a page from a Pentagon standard operating procedure manual. Notice the nouns: development, implementation, result, maximization, and utilization. They're weak, mushy, and wimpy. Instead, you can convert many of those nouns to verbs and zap others to produce this:
As Assistant Manager, developed and implemented a new inventory system that saved considerable space.
Now you've said the same thing using fewer words. The revised passage clips along, insisting that the reader pay attention. It has power and action. The reason? Verbs.
You want to avoid mushy noun-speak. To develop the knack you should watch carefully for a special kind of noun, the derivative noun. A derivative noun is derived from a verb, such as conclusion, implementation, emphasis, inference, and the list could go on forever. Watch for the suffixes -tion, -sion, -ence, -ance, -ency, and -ancy. These typically are used to convert a verb into a noun.
Think about it for a minute. What part of speech is absolutely necessary to write an English sentence? A noun? Nope. A verb. Suppose you choose a derivative noun to convey a verb meaning. You'll still need a verb to complete the sentence. So you grope around for another verb to hang the derivative noun on. Thus, you say things like this: "The board reached the decision that..." You chose the derivative noun decision and then groped for the verb reached. The problem disappears if you convert decision to its verb form decide: "The board decided.
This one simple trick of declaring war on derivative nouns and converting them to their base verbs will tighten up your writing considerably. You'll be more persuasive, you'll use fewer words, and your writing will be action-packed. And if you're writing a thirty-second advertisement of yourself, that's what you want to be: persuasive and concise.
Check for those verbs that describe your life, your education, your employment, your activities, your interests, and your accomplishments. You'll be well on your way to writing a potent and convincing resume.
"Responsible for" and "Duties included"
A final word on verbs. To write with verbs you want to avoid nouns. Watch out for two overused expressions in resumes that grammatically require you to use noun forms. First, avoid "Duties included," which requires a noun or series of nouns to complete the sentence. You'd have to write, "Duties included management of cash drawer, supervision of eight other employees, and creation of all advertisements." By zapping "Duties included" and converting derivative nouns to verbs, you write, "Managed the cash drawer, supervised eight other employees, and created all advertisements." Second, avoid the expression, "Responsible for." Notice you're setting up a prepositional phrase, which requires a noun or series of nouns to complete the phrase.
To complete the sentence you would have to write, "Responsible for management of cash drawer, supervision of eight other employees, and creation of all advertisements." By avoiding "Responsible for" and writing with verbs, you obliterated the problem of weak nouns.
Sometimes, of course, you cannot avoid "Responsible for" or "Duties included." If you need to use either, then choose gerunds as noun forms to complete the expressions. Thus, "Responsible for managing cash drawer, supervising eight other employees, and creating all advertisements."
Tooting Your Horn with Adjectives and Adverbs
One good way to congratulate yourself is with adjectives and adverbs. When describing an accomplishment, don't just say you "completed assignments." Instead, say that you "successfully completed all assignments on time." Don't say you "were assigned the task of entering the names and addresses of 20,000 businesses." Instead, go ahead, toot your horn, and say, "Tackled the mammoth task of accurately entering the names and addresses of 20,000 businesses."
Using Numbers
Why is baseball the national pastime? Why is The Count the most popular character on "Sesame Street"? Why do the headlines in the daily newspaper inevitably reveal yet another poll? Because Americans love numbers. We thrive on statistics. We itch to quantify everything. You should love numbers, too. Right in your resume. As you describe your accomplishments, include healthy doses of numbers that favor you. Thus, don't say you "served as the Motor Pool Assistant Manager." Instead say you "served as the Motor Pool Assistant Manager and successfully controlled an annual budget of $985,000." Don't say you "helped train new recruits." Instead, say you "helped train more than 100 new recruits."
When you use numbers to describe your accomplishments, be sure the numbers are strong numbers, not weak numbers. Here's an example of a weak number: 'As Assistant Bank Teller, controlled a daily cash drawer with a $1,000 limit." Make the numbers favor you. If you can, tum a weak number into a strong number. Using the same bank teller example, calculate the total amount of cash that passed through your hands during the job and write, "As Assistant Bank Teller, controlled a cash drawer and successfully accounted for more than $250,000 in cash."
