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“I Plan to Take Full Advantage of My Acquired Skills!”

By Karen Kelsky | January 23, 2015

A line from a letter last week:

“In my own lab I plan to take full advantage of my acquired skills and use the XXX equipment  to further investigate xxxx.”

This kind of language is braggy and at the same time, completely devoid of meaning.

Who doesn’t take advantage of acquired skills? When a person washes their dishes, are they not taking advantage of acquired skills?  When you drive a car, are you not taking advantage of acquired skills?

If it is a thing that can be said of LITERALLY ALL HUMAN ENDEAVOR then it adds nothing of value to your candidacy for this job.

This is a close kin to the problem of last week’s post:  stating the obvious.  But here, it’s “bragging the obvious.”  Don’t brag about engaging in generic human behavior!  Job documents are short. Don’t squander words.  Make every word count, with substance and distinctive meaning about you and your profile.

Similar Posts:

  • Don’t State the Obvious
  • Americans Don’t Brag
  • The Job Search is Not a Striptease
  • This Christmas, Don’t Be Cheap
  • No Motivation? Look to Your Needs to Find It.

Filed Under: How To Write Academic Job Cover Letters, Landing Your Tenure Track Job, Major Job Market Mistakes, Promote Yourself!, Strategizing Your Success in Academia, Writing

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. A Smith says

    October 3, 2015 at 2:37 am

    “If it is a thing that can be said of LITERALLY ALL HUMAN ENDEAVOR…”

    That is the funniest thing I have read since I proof read my friend’s (fourth-year neuropsychology) laboratory report stating he ’employed’ a chin rest.

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. The Job Search is Not a Striptease | The Professor Is In says:
    June 16, 2020 at 10:43 am

    […] the way, this is a close cousin to both stating the obvious, and making claims so painfully general as to be meaningless.  Please read and study these posts and banish generic […]

    Reply

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