Actually...

Certain words really irritate me during an interview. One is overuse of the word “actually”. Specifically, overuse of improper use of the word “actually”.

Let me spell it out for you: “Actually” should be used if one is correcting a prior false statement.

Examples:

1. Interviewer: “Your resume indicates you're from XXX town.”

   Candidate: “Actually, I live in YYY town.”

2. Interviewer: “Your resume shows your last job was in 20xx.”

   Candidate: “Actually, I wasn't able to find the updated copy of my resume. I worked at CC Company from 20xx to 20xx."

[Sidenote: you see what I did with the “updated resume” thing there? Ha. One day. Go back and read my prior post if you didn’t see it.]

You get the picture.

I conducted an interview with a gentleman (and these happen several times per month) who used the word “actually” so many times that I wanted to reach through the phone and smack him.

Let's refer to him as AoA: Abuser of Actually.

Me: Your resume indicates you live in XX.

AoA: Actually, I live in YY.

Me: Alright, and your last job was CC which ended in 20xx.

AoA: Actually, yes. I left due to relocation.

Me: What interested you in this position?

AoA: Actually, I did assembly at PP company and want to do it again. I really liked it, actually.

Me: [irritation setting in] Tell me about what you did at PP company on a day-to-day basis.

AoA: Actually, I did assembly and inspection on ZZ components.

Me: What kind of tools and equipment did you use?

AoA: Actually, I used microscope, some hand tools like tweezers, small screw drivers, things like that.

Again, you probably get the gist. Every answer in our several-minutes-long conversation started with 'actually', ended with ‘actually’, or otherwise used the word ‘actually’ in a manner that was not, ahem, actually necessary. I didn't want to hear that word again for the rest of the day.

Use it to correct something. That's it. Seriously.

Actually, you can probably get through much of life without using 'actually' at all.

(See what I did there? I'm on fire!)