You have limited space to sell yourself, so which words are you using to land the job? Your resume is typically the recruiter’s first impression of you, so yes, it’s crucial to make it perfect. Your word choice has a significant role in whether you get a call back for an interview.
It’s important for your resume to have facts instead of fluff. Even if you fluff it up to make yourself sparkle and shine, the resume fluff will rarely be identical to your real skills. The goal is to look good in reality; therefore, it’s essential to understand each and every word you choose to add to your resume so you can look equally good on paper as well. We want you to succeed in landing the job, so we’ve created a list of the best and worst words to put on your resume.
The following words are just empty words to the hiring managers. You’ll end up on the “do not call list” quickly by using any of these words.
Worst Word Choices
- Detail-oriented
- Team player
- Hard worker
- Go-getter
- Think outside of the box
- Dynamic
- Self-motivated
- Thought leadership
- Go-to person
- Proactively
- Bottom-line
- Track record
Everyone claims to be detail-oriented these days, but few actually are. Do you even know what the word means? Every employer wants to hire people who are detail-oriented, and you’ll be able to prove yourself during the interviews and other parts of the hiring process. On a similar note, it’s great to be creative, but saying you excel at thinking outside of the box is overrated these days. There are other ways to go about saying you’re creative, but again, the hiring manager/interviewer will be able to tell during the hiring process if you were telling the truth.
And, to save the best for last, here are the words hiring managers want to see when they look at your resume:
- Achieved
- Improved
- Ideas
- Launched
- Created
- Volunteered
- Influenced
- Revenue/profits
- Won
- Managed
- Trained
- Mentored
Notice the majority of these words are action verbs. Adding action verbs to your resume makes it stand out. Don’t bore the hiring manager by starting every job duty with “Responsible for…”
Now it’s time to take a look at your resume. Does it have any of the “bad” words in it? Remember, your resume could be the only thing getting in the way of you and your dream job. Take your time on your resume, read it aloud several times, ask for a family member or friend’s opinion or the help of an expert, and only when you’re 100% confident in your resume, send it out. Good luck!