Are you trying to read the minds of hiring managers and recruiters? You may end up feeding them the same tired phrases in your resume that they read in every resume crossing their desks. Like every candidate, you must respond to the specific advertisement or job description and address its specific requests for skills, education, and experience. But while doing that, you should avoid the following tired phrases in your resume:
- Proactive. This one has been beaten to death. Show that you anticipate problems and innovate solutions through your accomplishments.
- Multitasking. More and more research is showing that multitasking is actually a problem, reducing productivity and increasing mistakes.
- State-of-the-art. If you have worked on a project or product that sets new boundaries in your industry, define those boundaries and how you exceeded them.
- Disruptive. If your technology or innovation made old technologies, products, or processes obsolete, explain how.
- Client-centric. The ability to manage and retain clients or customers is extremely important, but “client-centric” has become a cliché—in fact, “centric” anything (user-centric, keyword-centric) should be approached with skepticism.
- Data-driven. Companies are searching for people who know how to mine, apply, and communicate data; they have plenty of people on board who are “data-driven” without being data savvy. They also want executives who know that their data-driven decisions must take into account the reality of an imperfect, human world.
- Optimize. If you have made something better, explain how and how much.
A recent survey of 2019 buzzwords and jargon included bleeding edge, growth hack, hyperlocal, omnichannel, and transformative. They are not tired phrases just yet but make sure you understand exactly what they mean and how to use them in context, to distinguish your resume from your competition’s.
At Robin’s Resumes®, we appreciate that most industries invent jargon and buzzwords to fulfill an important communication purpose. However, we try to avoid tired phrases in your resume so that you stand out as a truly valuable candidate.