Your resume is the document that will highlight all of your strengths and hopefully help you land the job of your dreams, but you should be sure that how you word your strengths and experience doesn't cast you in a negative light. In order to write glowingly about yourself, it can be easy to put down others, even if doing so feels warranted. The concern with this approach, however, is that the manager reading your resume may feel as though you're a difficult employee — in other words, someone who might be subordinate, competitive to a fault, and possess other similar traits that may not make you a good fit. Here are some inclusions on your resume that you should avoid.

Critiquing Past Employers

If you felt as though a past employer was inadequate, you don't want to let this feeling come through on your resume — even if it were true. For example, perhaps your old boss was lazy, which meant that you ended up taking on some of his or her job duties. Don't write something such as, "Had to take on some of my manager's responsibilities because I was better at them than he was." You might view this comment as a sign that you're a self-starter, but the critique of your employer can be detrimental. Instead, you might wish to say, "Handled duties outside of my formal job description to help the sales team meet its quarterly goals."

Putting Down Former Colleagues

Just as it's a bad move to critique a former manager, you should also be careful about how you voice your skills in relation to your former colleagues. There's nothing wrong with suggesting that you were the most valued member of your office if you received awards to this effect or there's data to back up this claim, but you don't want to look as though you have a superiority complex. Don't say, "Known as the best person in the sales department." Instead, you could write, "Earned the award of top-grossing salesperson three years in a row."

Criticizing The Company You're Applying To

In an effort to make themselves seem valuable, some people commit the head-scratching error of actually putting down the company that they're applying to. For example, someone might write, "I know your sales have suffered because of competition, but I can help you to regain your market share." No manager wants to read such a sentiment, and this may impede your ability to be hired.

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