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Writing a résumé isn’t easy. To your reader this one piece of paper is you, and he or she is going to give it about 20 seconds of attention (often less). Unfortunately, there are résumé traditions that seem to make sense but that ought to be questioned in today’s tough job search world. One of those traditions is that certain words and phrases are considered basic necessities. They aren’t. There are many such clichés, but here is my list of 7 of the most common: