Indeed Editorial Team & Jessica Hernandez
You only have a short time to make an impression with your resume. In those moments when a potential employer is scanning your resume for your skill set and experience, it is important to choose words that will communicate the value you’ve added in previous roles.
Using common business terms like “wheelhouse” or “go-to person” can seem like the best way to get your qualities across efficiently. Yet, words like these have become so overused they have lost meaning and won’t help you stand out from other applicants. Instead, choose action-oriented phrases that show rather than tell why you should be considered.
Words to avoid on your resume.
Here are some categories of words you should avoid including on your resume:
Business lingo
Choosing overused business jargon can weaken your resume. Using plain, clear language that explains how you’ve delivered value is much more effective. Here are some more examples of business lingo to leave off your resume:
Bottom line
Buy-in
Core competency
Ecosystem
Move the needle.
Synergy
Thought leadership.
Value adds.
Wheelhouse
Instead of writing a resume that highlights the standout value of achievements by quantifying them clearly many job seekers fall back to using terms like responsible for, duties included, or worked with.
These are all passive terms. You also want to avoid phrases like results-driven, successful, or accomplished.
These don't actually communicate any information of substance they take up space.
General phrases of self-promotion
Though your resume is a space to showcase your skills and abilities, broad terms and phrases to explain your value can be ineffective. A term like “self-starter,” for example, is a generality that doesn’t specifically explain why or how you might bring value to the role you’re applying for.
Instead, try showing an example of a time you self-started, like “Identified time-waste and implemented a new CMS system, cutting time spent on cleaning customer records in half.” Here are more examples of self-promotional phrases to avoid:
Go-getter
Go-to-person.
Strategic thinker
Best of breed
Think outside the box.
Proactive
Smart
Best
Start your bullets with verbs that convey action that will show employers that you did something. Follow the verb with a quantifiable accomplishment and you have a winning formula.
One more tip, make sure you vary the verbs you use.
Too often, I see resumes that reuse led, managed, and created. There are so many options out there that you can use instead.
Here are a few verbs to get you started:
Accelerate
Achieve
Avance
Align
Analyze
Arrange
Assess
Brainstorm
Catapult
Command
Compare
Compel
Devise
Detect
Double
Earn
Edit
Educate
Forge
Form
Helmed
Implemented
Improve
Influence
Those last four are some of my favorite verbs.
Words to include on your resume
Examples of your past work give employers clear evidence of how you’re different from other applicants. They’re looking for examples of times you delivered value, and whenever possible, with numbers to support them. For example, instead of saying you’re a “results-driven team player who delivers impactful results,” hiring managers want to see something like, “I developed a streamlined delivery process that reduced revenue slip by 20%.”
Consider the following list of words that can be helpful as you develop a resume with action statements that clearly show the value you’ll bring to their team:
Achieved
Coordinated
Created
Developed
Established
Ideated
Improved
Increased/decreased.
Influenced
Launched
Managed
Negotiated
Resolved
Generated revenue/profits
Trained/mentored.
Delivered under budget.
Volunteered
It's not enough to avoid passive language you need to replace it with action verbs.
Start each bullet with an action verb.
Here's a list of some of my favorites:
Use these terms to convey that you've led a project, department, or division:
Chaired
Coordinated
Guided
Headed
Inspired
Mentored
Motivated
Operated
Oversaw
Synchronized
Use the following terms if you brought an idea to fruition:
Crafted
Charted
Choreographed
Devised
Enhanced
Forged
Fulfilled
Implemented
Pioneered
Spearheaded
These are great alternatives to responsible for or duties included.
Try starting the accomplishment bullets on your executive resume template with these instead.
Space Wasters
Two of the biggest space wasters I see on resumes are demonstrated success in and proven results.
They don't convey detailed success or results. There's nothing factual or proven in those statements. It's better to use metrics because actual data does a lot of convincing. It's always better to share the specific result.
You also want to eliminate small filler words like a, an, the, and by. These words take up space on the page when every single word counts. Eliminating them makes your writing tighter and cleaner which gives your resume more impact.
Words that really say… nothing.
When writing your resume, you want to tell your whole career story in the least number of words possible because readers have short attention spans and most readers skim versus reading word-for-word.
That's where this tip comes in. If you only have your reader's attention for a few seconds and chances are their first interaction with your resume is a quick skim read, you want to give them powerful information instead of empty words.
Eliminate these words that communicate nothing of value:
Successful/success
Results-driven/results-oriented
Excellent communication skills
And be careful that you're not mentioning 'team player' too often either. It can actually be detrimental to your resume.
Instead of taking up space saying that you're successful, results-driven, and possess excellent communication skills (there went half your career summary, I hear you saying) go back to those accomplishment-based statements and wow statements. Use those to guide your writing so you don't fall back on these same but valueless words.
Givens
There are a few words and phrases you should leave off your resume because they don’t add any new or differentiating information. You don’t have much time or space to make hiring managers understand why they should consider you as a candidate, so avoid taking up space with words like “people person.” Nearly every job will require you to work with other people, so unless you have a specific example that shows you’re exceptionally skilled in this area, it’s not worth including.
If this is a critical asset in the position you’re applying for, try using an action statement that shows how you work with others. For example, “I established a monthly workshop that led to increased team collaboration, and which resulted in three completed projects in the past quarter.”
Here are a few additional examples of phrases hiring managers will expect without needing to see them on your resume:
Hard worker
Self-motivated
Team player
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