10 Words to Not Include In Your CV

By devika

We all know that sending across our CV to potential employers is the first step of the overall job search process. The resume is the first point of contact between a job seeker and the recruiter. There could be various reasons for a recruiter to reject your application, starting from grammatical errors to lack of experience. There could be another problem with your CV and this one may annoy the recruiter enough for him to let your CV pass.  This is the excessive use of deadwood phrases and words, which include empty clichés, recycled buzzwords and annoying jargons.

Let us take a look at some of such terms –

Salary negotiable – Whether you say it or you don’t, of course it is understood that the salary is negotiable. So stop wasting precious space on your resume. A line saying so will be a waste and the recruiter may think you are trying to fill up the pages with irrelevant text. You should be confident enough not to include this statement else it would portray that you have run out of stuff to talk about. You must also avoid using sentences like ‘References available on request.’

Responsible for … – When you start your sentence with these words, the recruiter begins to imagine you as the uninspired average employee who wishes to mechanically fulfill the job requirements without taking any initiatives or bringing something extra to the table. Having been responsible for work does not mean you did something great, it just happened to you. Make sure you change phrases such as ‘responsible for’ to ‘managed’ ‘led’ and other strong, decisive verbs.

Experience working in … – Just like responsibility, experience is something that has happened to you over a period of time. It is not an achievement. So always remember to describe your work history with respect to achievements.

Problem-solving abilities – Seriously? You think you can solve a problem? All the employees previously hired by the recruiter or those appearing for the interview have problem-solving skills too. Even dogs and monkeys do. Don’t make a great deal out of it and stick to something that only you can do and adds value to your resume.

Detail-oriented – So what if you pay attention to details, there is nothing unusual about it. Everyone else does. Why not come up with something more genuine and unique to impress the hiring manager? There are chances that these words can make your CV seem amateurish.

Hardworking – Heard of the phrase ‘show and tell?’ This is where you ought to apply it! Anyone can call themselves a hard worker and feel proud about it, but a real achiever ensures he backs up facts with data. Use examples and facts to make it look more convincing. Describe the situations in detail and prove how your hard work benefited your previous employer.

Team player – You will seldom come across a job where you do not have to work with another person or where the job won’t involve working with a colleague. And because this is such a common manifestation, there is nothing surprising about being a team player. So make sure you don’t just place the words, include relevant success stories about team spirit, collaboration and leadership. Discuss about the different kinds of people and teams you worked with and show how you succeeded. Also, refrain from using words such as ‘Enthusiastic’ and ‘Proactive’ as they are completely deflated buzzwords.

Objective – It is high time you dropped this word from your resume. It is clearly understood that your core objective is to get the job you are applying for so there is no need to spell it out on the CV in a prominent section. Stop stating the obvious and replace this with a career summary that talks about your work experience, achievements and special skills that can be of help to an employer.

You can use the above mentioned tips to revamp your application in order to create a flawless CV that is difficult to overlook and portrays you as a performer. Alternately, you can also deploy the resume writing services offered by  job search portals and start sending out the CV to potential employers.