This week's article is from guest author, Laura Berman Fortgang who founded Now What?® coaching. I've also selected some recent entries from the Now What?® Blog that may interest you.

What Language Do You Speak?

by Laura Berman Fortgang

Spanish? French? Arabic? German?  Those are not the languages I am looking for when I ask what language do you speak?  I am wondering if you up-language or down-language when you write or speak about yourself.  By that, I mean do you undersell, oversell or get it just right?

Whether you are marketing yourself as a business owner or a job candidate, the use of words is critical to your success.

I have had the recent pleasure of working with a director-level job candidate who exemplified the power of our choice of language.

Her resume read like a younger person with less experience than she really was.  The language was underselling her accomplishments and despite almost fifteen years in her industry, her resume read like that of a young hopeful.

She reworked the language to be more powerful and to better exemplify her solid experience.  Entries like  "Established a ____" became "Maintained full responsibility for ____".  And  "Implemented _____" became "Pioneered the implementation of ____".

It was no surprise that interview opportunities started to show up more readily once the changes were made.

Your word choices are colored by how you see yourself.

Other Recent Now What?® Blog Posts

What I Don't Know Really Means

Rock Your Career

Finding The Essence

I'll be back to you in two weeks with a new article in our usual format. Happy Passover & Happy Easter to those of you who are celebrating this week.

Here's to you,