Phrases That Poison Resume: Avoid Them At All Costs

phrases to omit in resume
We can’t even imagine the exact amount of resumes hiring managers when they require new employees. Respectively, it’s tough for them to process every single resume attentively. Therefore, to ease their job, they are forced to sort resumes according to their content and structure quickly.

Suppose you wish to get into a pile of approved resumes. In that case, it’s necessary to create a customized document, which contains solid and concrete facts about your past accomplishments and job experiences, avoiding odd and personal information.

Nevertheless, a well-structured CV can quickly get to the “no” pile if your recruiter identifies too many wrong phrases and words, including jargon and flat hackneyed clichés.

In many cases, it would be a wise decision to apply to a professional resume writing company, such as Resume Writing Lab, to perfect your resume and obtain a 100% guarantee to get an invitation to the job interview.

However, if you decided to cope with the problem on your own, together with professional hiring managers, we have analyzed typical expressions, which must be omitted if a person wants to be contacted ever again.

Job Duties

Most career experts agree that focusing on the term “job duties” would put your resume at significant risk of being denied.

Recruiters advise each of the job hunters to save the place for more important facts, such as your past accomplishments, rather than describing job duties of your past work positions.

Remember that you’re required to do your job duties, and there’s nothing special in them in contrast to your job accomplishments.

Proven Ability

When filling out resumes, many people put a memorable phrase, which sounds like “a proven ability”. HR managers always doubt the accuracy of this term. Who was it proven by, and how? If it was established, then how does it differ from the ones that were not proven? If you want to verify the credibility of your skills, then provide necessary examples of your career achievements.

Transferable Skills

Whenever you write this phrase, most HR managers consider it as if you say: “Do me a favor, because I am not qualified”. Remember to use the term “transferable skills” – instead, present your obtained skills and how they might be used in the job you are applying for.

Single, No Children

Personal information in the resume is odd and irrelevant. Even if it sounds rude, who cares about your marital status when all the recruiter’s attention is on your professional skills, abilities, and knowledge? People who complain about their personal life share stories of job search failures and unemployment.

There might be a possibility when your manager wants to ask some questions about your family or personal relationships (for instance, they do it to know how much time you can give your attention to the job, etc.). However, it usually happens during one-on-one interviews. Other than that, try to avoid this data entirely in the resume.

Results-Oriented

Once again, any setup goals are oriented to maintain some results, so it’s useless to mention something evident.

Utilized My Skills

Stay away as far as you can from commonly used boilerplate phrases. Today resumes should be focused on your features, which means you’d better use expressions related personally to you.

Had ___

When composing text for your CV, it’s highly significant to use proper tenses and incline to solid and active verbs to state your results. Nevertheless, be careful with the word “had” – it’s a very dull and colorless verb, which doesn’t bear any interest in describing the action.

Peculiar Email Addresses

build resume

Hopefully, you’re smart enough to create an email with a proper name.

By the way, it’s desirable to use your first and last name in the address, but no way you provide your old [email protected] account – be sure your resume will automatically be thrown into the “no” pile or, even worse – in the trash can.

Even small details you didn’t seem to be concerned about can ruin the overall reputation of your recruiter.