The selection of words is vital. It is wise to exclude certain words because they will give poor impression. The list on the right contains words it is best to avoid.
The two wisest reasons for not using a particular words are that it is over used or that it is too negative sounding. LinkedIn has released the most overused words and phrases that people put into their profiles. They are:
A good CV, resume or linkedIn profile will not contain any of these words. They will contain original words and phrases and thus sound more unique and avoid sounding like a replication of many others.
The second category of words to avoid is those which sound too negative. These can turn off a future employer. Examples of these include hate, awful, impossible, weak, mistake, avoided, failed, lost, argued and stress. These words can be off putting and sentences containing them should be altered to sound more positive.
This website detects all of them and many other over used words and phrases.abandoned | absurd |
aggressive | alot |
always | ambitious |
analytical | and/or |
anxious | argued |
assisted | attempted |
avoided | awesome |
awful | bad |
basically | because |
believe | brilliant |
bullying | bureaucratic |
compelling | competent |
confined | conflicted |
cool | creative |
criticised | decline |
decrease | defeated |
deliverables | denied |
detail-oriented | difficult |
disagreement | disciplined |
dismissed | disorganised |
down-sized | driven |
dynamic | effective |
empty | energetic |
energy | entrepreneurial |
essentially | etc |
example | exasperating |
excellent | exceptional |
experimental | failed |
fault | feel |
fired | firstly |
flexible | fought |
futile | goal-orientated |
good | got |
granular | grievence |
harassed | hate |
hopeless | idiotic |
impossible | impractical |
incapable | inconceivable |
indecisive | ineffectual |
inept | infuriating |
innovative | intolerable |
irreparable | irreversible |
isolated | job |
just | killer |
legacy | leveraged |
like | literally |
logical | lost |
loyal | maddening |
matrix | mature |
meticulous | miserable |
mistake | monetise |
monetize | morph |
motivated | multinational |
necessitate | never |
nice | non-viable |
nothing | objectionable |
opposed | optimise |
optimize | orchestrate |
organisational | organizational |
outstanding | panic |
paradigm | perfectionist |
plus | portal |
preposterous | proactive |
problem | problem-solver |
problems | professional |
quite | really |
recession | reintermediate |
reinvent | reiterate |
reliable | repurpose |
responsible | revolutionize |
ridiculous | robust |
scalable | seasoned |
secondly | seize |
sex | sexy |
shoddy | slump |
specialized | sticky |
stress | strong |
strong ability | stupid |
succumbed | synergy |
talented | tenure |
thirdly | thru |
totally | tried |
ubiquitous | ugly |
unbearable | unendurable |
unmanageable | unreasonable |
unruly | unsuccessfully |
unworkable | very |
visionary | weak |
withdrew | wonderful |
wrestled | youth |
youthful |