We see a lot of applications and resumes at On Demand offices. Applicants load their resumes with buzzwords and clichés. That makes it hard to differentiate yourself and hard for us to tell applications apart.
If you’re a motivated, passionate, results-driven person, banish those three words and these other words and phrases, too:
- Ambitious
- Creative
- Driven
- Dynamic
- Engaging
- Experienced
- Expert
- Extensive
- Handled
- Hard worker
- Highly-qualified
- Hit the ground running
- Honest
- I
- Innovative
- Microsoft Word/Excel/whatever
- Motivated
- Outside the box
- Outside the box
- Passionate
- People-person
- Phone (just write the number!)
- Proactive
- Problem-solver
- Proven
- Punctual
- References available upon request (yes, that’s technically four words)
- Responsible
- Responsible for
- Salary negotiable
- Seasoned
- Strategic
- Successfully
- Team-player
- Timely
A lot of these words are obvious, cliché, or hard to prove. You can’t say you’re honest or hard-working. You have to earn that. That’s what other people get to say about you.
Of course you’re dependable and have Microsoft Word skills. Everyone else claims the same thing. Leave it off your application.
Instead, try these words in place of some of the weaker, unspecific versions above.
- Advanced
- Announced
- Assigned
- Attracted
- Budgeted
- Coached
- Completed
- Created
- Delegated
- Developed
- Enhanced
- Formulated
- Generated
- Increased
- Influenced
- Justified
- Logged
- Maintained
- Managed
- Obtained
- Operated
- Programmed
- Recovered
- Refined
- Retained
- Revamp
- Revised
- Run
- Secured
- Simplified
- Streamlined
- Supervised
- Taught
- Tutored
- Upgraded
- Validated
- Witnessed
- Won
- Wrote
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