Resumé Writing For Dummies (and Hacks)

Maybe a hack doesn't really need a resumé anyway -- but I suppose one can be helpful if you hope to pass for something other than a hack....

How did this person get to be a Rear Admiral? Maybe that is a better question.

Number 3 on the hack parade:

3: Rear Admiral Cristina Beato
Acting Assistant Secretary for Health, Department of Health and Human Services

In June 2004, Cristina Beato admitted to her hometown newspaper that she hadn't paid much attention to the details of her resumé. That's too bad, because those silly little details seem to have stalled her confirmation for assistant secretary for health for over two years now.

Beato said she earned a master's of public health in occupational medicine from the University of Wisconsin (but the university doesn't even offer that degree).

She claimed to be "one of the principal leaders who revolutionized medical education in American universities by implementing the Problem Based learning curriculum" (but the curriculum was developed while Beato was still a medical student).

She listed "medical attaché" to the American Embassy in Turkey as a job she held in 1986 (but that position didn't exist until 1995).

She also boasted that she had "established" the University of New Mexico's occupational health clinic (but the clinic existed before she was hired, and there was even another medical director before her).

For her part, Beato has offered a simple explanation: English is her third language, after French and her native Spanish, and sometimes the language barrier is just too much to handle. How does one say "pants on fire" in Spanish?

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