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Glossary

Plain-language definitions for recruiting and career terminology.

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Action Verb: An action verb names what you did in a resume bullet, but it becomes useful evidence only when paired with relevant context and an outcome.

Background Check: A background check verifies selected information relevant to employment, with scope, consent, and candidate rights varying by role and jurisdiction.
Behavioral Interview: A behavioral interview asks for specific past examples to assess how you handled work situations, decisions, collaboration, and results.

Career Change: A career change moves your work toward a different role, function, or industry and requires evidence that connects prior experience to the new target.
Case Interview: A case interview uses a business problem to assess how you structure ambiguity, test assumptions, analyze information, and communicate decisions.

Education Section: The education section records relevant degrees, schools, training, and academic details with emphasis adjusted to your career stage and target role.
Elevator Pitch: An elevator pitch is a brief professional introduction that explains your current focus, relevant value, and reason for starting a conversation.

Functional Resume: A functional resume groups experience by skill instead of date, which can highlight capabilities but make career history harder to evaluate.

Hard Skills: Hard skills are teachable, observable abilities such as software use, data analysis, equipment operation, accounting, or language proficiency.
Hiring Manager: The hiring manager owns the decision to fill a role and usually evaluates how a candidate would perform within the team or function.
Hybrid Resume: A hybrid resume combines a focused summary or skills area with dated work experience, balancing relevance with a readable career timeline.

Informational Interview: An informational interview is a learning conversation about a role, field, or organization, not a disguised request for a job or referral.

Job Description: A job description explains a role’s responsibilities, qualifications, context, and conditions, but may not perfectly reflect daily work or priorities.
Job Offer: A job offer states proposed employment terms such as role, pay, start date, location, and conditions, which should be reviewed before acceptance.

Networking: Networking is the ongoing practice of building professional relationships through mutual learning, useful contact, and credible follow-through.

Panel Interview: A panel interview places several interviewers in one conversation so they can assess different aspects of a candidate at the same time.
Personal Brand: A personal brand is the professional reputation people form from your work, expertise, communication, choices, and public presence over time.
Portfolio: A portfolio is a selected collection of work samples that demonstrates relevant skills, decisions, process, and outcomes for a target audience.

Quantifiable Achievement: A quantifiable achievement connects a work contribution to a meaningful number such as volume, time, quality, revenue, cost, or reach.

Recruiter Screen: Prepare for an early recruiter conversation about fit, motivation, logistics, compensation, and next steps without treating it as a formality.
Reference Check: A reference check gathers information from people familiar with a candidate’s work, reliability, conduct, or qualifications.
Resume: A resume is a targeted summary of relevant experience, skills, education, and achievements used to support a specific job application.
Resume Format: Resume format is the way sections, chronology, hierarchy, and visual layout organize evidence for recruiters and application systems.
Resume Headline: A resume headline is a short professional label that identifies your target or current specialty without replacing evidence in the resume.
Resume Objective: A resume objective states the role or direction a candidate seeks and is useful only when it adds focused context supported by evidence.
Resume Parsing: Resume parsing converts resume text into structured fields such as employers, titles, dates, education, skills, and contact information.
Resume Template: A resume template supplies reusable structure and styling, while the candidate remains responsible for relevant evidence, accuracy, and readability.
Reverse-Chronological Resume: A reverse-chronological resume lists the most recent role first, making career dates, progression, and recent evidence easy to follow.

Salary Expectations: Salary expectations describe the compensation range a candidate considers appropriate based on role scope, market, location, and experience.
Skills Assessment: A skills assessment evaluates job-related ability through a test, task, simulation, work sample, questionnaire, or structured exercise.
Skills Section: A skills section lists relevant tools, methods, languages, credentials, or capabilities so employers can find important qualifications quickly.
Soft Skills: Soft skills are interpersonal behaviors and work habits such as communication, judgment, collaboration, adaptability, and conflict resolution.

Tailored Resume: Learn what resume tailoring changes, what must remain factual, and how to prioritize relevant evidence without rewriting everything for each application.
Technical Interview: A technical interview evaluates role-specific knowledge, reasoning, and execution through questions, problems, demonstrations, or practical tasks.
Transferable Skills: Transferable skills are capabilities developed in one setting that remain useful in another role, industry, project, or type of work.

Work Authorization: Work authorization is legal permission to work in a country or jurisdiction, sometimes limited by employer, occupation, location, or time.
Work Experience: Work experience is the resume section that connects roles, dates, responsibilities, and achievements to evidence relevant for a target job.