Words To Never Use On a CV

[AlexLielacher1]

As I have discussed in my recent post titled How Bankers Really Look At Your CV most hiring managers will only give your CV about 20 seconds when they are scrolling through the initial batch of CVs. Having said that, before your CV even arrives on the hiring manager’s desk it is first screened by a graduate recruiter in the human resource department.

Graduate recruiters will generally look at your CV in a bit more detail. Therefore, make sure your CV is well formatted, clear and concise in communicating your strengths and, also, does not contain the following ‘cringe worthy’ words, which have the tendency to regularly show up on CVs and cover letters and are almost guaranteed to make the HR person roll their eyes.

According to a recent survey you should never use the following words on your CV:

- best of breed (Seriously, who would ever use that to describe themselves?)
- go-getter (Ok, so you complete what you are asked to do. Awesome!)
- think outside of the box (As opposed to you being only an ‘inside-the-box’ thinker? Great job!)
- synergy (In my personal opinion the worst word anyone can ever use, as it has been massively over-used in the past.)
- go-to person (Ok, so you answered a few questions that people asked you. Nice.)
- thought leadership (You just graduated and you are a thought leader? Really?)
- value add (Anyone who does not add value should not be employed anywhere, ever.)
- results-driven (As opposed to not giving a sh*t about results?)
- team player (Ok, so you can play with others? Great! Oh wait, that’s EVERYONE.)
- bottom-line
- hard worker
- strategic thinker
- dynamic
- self-motivated
- detail-oriented
- proactively
- track record

The issue with describing yourself, in general, is that you would never say something negative about yourself in a job application. This in turn means that any words you use to describe yourself are effectively meaningless.

Instead, what you want to do is to describe what you have achieved, learned and what skills you have developed while at university, in societies you have been a member of and/or during previous your work experience. Recruiters want to know what projects you have worked on and what you have accomplished, and how that relates to the job that you are applying for. The way to do that is to use verbs and not adjectives. Great examples of words recruiters want to see would be managed, completed, created, mentored, trained, achieved, improved, negotiated, increased, etc.

When it comes to writing your CV always make sure you clearly and concisely communicate why you are an excellent candidate and why you are better than other candidates with a very similar educational background.

 

[T771]

Second this. This is a bit unrelated, but do NOT list current affairs or any shit like that as an interest, unless you want the person looking at your CV die a bit inside.

 

[JFH1]

A friend of mine also pointed out the value of putting something interesting in your CV which makes employers want to talk to you - in her case this was having studied seven ancient languages - anybody reading it promptly wants to ask what they are, so invite her in for interview! This doesn't replace having a good story to tell, but is a useful trick if used properly.

 

[HowardM1]

A friend of mine also pointed out the value of putting something interesting in your CV which makes employers want to talk to you - in her case this was having studied seven ancient languages - anybody reading it promptly wants to ask what they are, so invite her in for interview! This doesn't replace having a good story to tell, but is a useful trick if used properly.

I think you want to stand out in one way or another that's the key especially if its a more junior role, so I would agree with you. But make sure the interesting thing you mention is true, and something you can talk in an interesting way about!

I once interviewed a guy because he had the worst CV I had every seen, like I mean it was awful, terrible formatting, bad structure etc but I was intrigued. So I read it all and his experience was super interesting. I didn't hire him in the end because it was not the right fit, but he got my attention and I enjoyed the conversation, he was true to his CV a bit all over the place but super interesting!

Now I'm not suggesting you sabotage your CV to stand out but do try to give it some personality especially if your more junior.

Also if you are applying online for a junior or even not so junior positive your CV will be almost certainly screened by a machine, weird fonts/formatting or a lack or relevant keywords will see you cut from the sift and a human might never get to see it.

So while you have to appeal to the humans remember you have to appeal to the machines first!

My advice is use ChatGpt or similar to extract keywords from the job add, use it to help you compose your cv to embed those, then as a final touch add your own flair.

AI has no flair, not yet anyway

I will post something in time around how to use AI to help with your job search.

 

[magellan1]

I feel a bit suspicious when a see a perfect CV of a person who is mediocre based on education, current employment, etc. It makes me think that the person has asked someone else to prepare his CV (a friend, relative or a freelancer). The problem with that is that it creates a false image of the candidate's true skills and personality. I would also avoid listing experiences that are irrelevant to the role. For example, it is fine if you had to clean the dishes at a local restaurant to make ends meet while you were a student but this is not relevant anymore if you are applying for an Associate or VP position. Also, you might want to tune down your ambition and leadership aspirations because many companies are just looking for people to carry out the existing tasks and not someone who can become a threat (moving to a competitor or opening a company). It would be interesting to see a list of words that one should use on his CV (research-based) to increase his chances of getting hired or at least reaching the interview stage.

 

[HowardM1]

I feel a bit suspicious when a see a perfect CV of a person who is mediocre based on education, current employment, etc. It makes me think that the person has asked someone else to prepare his CV (a friend, relative or a freelancer). The problem with that is that it creates a false image of the candidate's true skills and personality. I would also avoid listing experiences that are irrelevant to the role. For example, it is fine if you had to clean the dishes at a local restaurant to make ends meet while you were a student but this is not relevant anymore if you are applying for an Associate or VP position. Also, you might want to tune down your ambition and leadership aspirations because many companies are just looking for people to carry out the existing tasks and not someone who can become a threat (moving to a competitor or opening a company). It would be interesting to see a list of words that one should use on his CV (research-based) to increase his chances of getting hired or at least reaching the interview stage.

Yes agreed I think the CV personality and level should fit the candidate, if it doesn't then red flag. I also think you should depreciate the amount of information as you go back in time, I mean I worked in a load of bar's, I served the Queen and Prince Philip once at a function, that's interesting but is it relevant for me now...well not unless I'm interviewing in hospitality .

As for the words you should use, that's a good idea, I'm not sure it's so much words but phrasing and choice of verbs, a lot of CV's list things people did not what they achieved. But in terms of actual words for sure keywords from the job advert are a good start, you should at least cover this.

 

[JustAnotherHuman1]

This is all good advice, have a decent CV of course, but probably is more relevant for senior level roles rather than junior. HR departments don’t have the time or will to compare CVs together in detail and then dwell on who to give an interview, they will look at the brand name of the uni, anything interesting that sticks out and decide. 30 seconds. At the end of the day the resume is just that, a piece of paper and what will matter is the type of content on it and the interview itself, not whether a bulletpoint is worded very thoughtfully or has perfect grammar/slightly broken (which is a bad sign on its own anyway; goes to show you either didn’t care, or you don’t know grammar).

One minor thing I’d add is that I have recently moved the education section down to the bottom of my resume, as I have amassed more and more professional experience. It probably wouldn’t make a difference if it’s on the top anyway. But the name, grade and institution that is on my degree became less important, and my achievements in the real world more important. So I wanted to make this clear and a point. Obviously don’t leave out an MBA and or PhD that you possess, as it could serve as a discussion point if your interviewer did the same programme, but if you don’t work in academia I believe it matters less than what you actually got done in the industry.

 

[HowardM1]

This is all good advice, have a decent CV of course, but probably is more relevant for senior level roles rather than junior. HR departments don’t have the time or will to compare CVs together in detail and then dwell on who to give an interview, they will look at the brand name of the uni, anything interesting that sticks out and decide. 30 seconds. At the end of the day the resume is just that, a piece of paper and what will matter is the type of content on it and the interview itself, not whether a bulletpoint is worded very thoughtfully or has perfect grammar/slightly broken (which is a bad sign on its own anyway; goes to show you either didn’t care, or you don’t know grammar).

One minor thing I’d add is that I have recently moved the education section down to the bottom of my resume, as I have amassed more and more professional experience. It probably wouldn’t make a difference if it’s on the top anyway. But the name, grade and institution that is on my degree became less important, and my achievements in the real world more important. So I wanted to make this clear and a point. Obviously don’t leave out an MBA and or PhD that you possess, as it could serve as a discussion point if your interviewer did the same programme, but if you don’t work in academia I believe it matters less than what you actually got done in the industry.

I think once you have a professional career history this always comes first and education last for sure. I know when I recruit I do glance at education but I can't say it would change my mind either way vs other elements. Clearly that's different if someone is a grad/Phd looking for their first role.