Words/Phrases to Avoid in a CV

There is a very famous saying that “You will never get a second chance to make a first impression”. This is perhaps very true when it comes to a candidate’s CV. In the era, where most companies use applicant tracking software’s to screen CV’s, recruiters are mainly the very first people an individual needs to impress.

Every statement on an individual’s CV should paint a compelling picture of his/her capabilities as no amount of formatting can summaries a lengthy CV. The content and language of an individual’s CV can certainly increase/decrease their chances of getting a step closer to their dream job. On an average, hiring managers spend less than 30 seconds on a CV so, an individual has very limited time to catch their eyes.

It is important to make sure that the precious CV space is not filled with verbose language or overused buzzwords as they can surely backfire. Let’s take a look at some of these words and phrases that should be avoided while writing your CV.

1)      Objective:
An outdated objective simply wastes space that could be used to showcase and individual’s professional strengths. Recruiters now want to know what you have to offer before they can consider your goals.  The time of opening a CV with an objective is long gone as the cover letter is sufficient in addressing an individual’s objective of the application. Instead, including a career summary that highlights key skills and accomplishments related to the position is much more beneficial.

2)      Unemployed:
Professional’s should never highlight that they are unemployed as the employment dates on the CV already shows the same.

3)      Go-Getter:
This is another word that is most hated by recruiters. Employers are looking for candidates who can carry out their company’s objectives and this generalization does not help them understand how an individual was involved in solving a problem or bringing positive results. An individual can prove their worth by describing how those results were achieved in the past.

4)      Hardworking:
Nobody wants to hire someone that’s lazy, that’s a no-brainer. Recruiters hope that you are hardworking and self-motivated without having the need to call it out.

5)      Out-of-the-Box Thinker
Just by calling oneself a creative or strategic thinker is quite pointless if an individual cannot demonstrate why their ideas are unique. For a change, ditch the boring list of duties, and write down job descriptions in a manner that quantify your accomplishments.

6)      Team Player:
It doesn’t make an individual an extraordinary hire if they mention that they are good team players or good communicators. This is by default expected out of every professional. By replacing these subjective CV words with accurate action verbs, visualizing candidate’s experience becomes easier for the employer.

7)      Highly qualified:
The sole purpose of a CV is to convince recruiters that the candidate is highly qualified without having to state the obvious. This can be achieved by tailoring the CV according to the position an individual is applying for and bringing out their values, strengths and goals that complement the company’s vision.

8)      Result-Driven:
Unsurprisingly, “results-driven” is considered as the worst CV term. Nobody ever starts a task without expecting some result. So, instead of making high claims, an individual should load up their resume with tangible numbers and milestones, showing the employer as to how exactly they will stack up against the competition.

9)      Ambitious:
Spelling mistakes [like this one] should never appear on an individual’s CV. He/she needs to make sure that the CV is read a number of times and also make someone else read it. Spelling mistakes demonstrate lack of attention to detail and can completely eliminate an otherwise strong candidate from consideration.

10)  References available upon request:
An individual should never mention this phrase at the end of a CV, as it just gives a sign that they are overeager to get hired. If the employer wants to know more about a candidate, they will reach out directly or ask for it when needed.

Having discussed words and phrases to avoid, here are some words that hiring managers in the UAE and across the world prefer seeing on a candidate’s CV. These include words like “achieved,” “trained/mentored,” “improved”, “ideas,” “increased/decreased,” “influenced,” “volunteered,” “resolved,” “negotiated”, “created” and “managed.”

Most of the CV’s written by individuals on their own undoubtedly have either all or a few of those words/phrases on their CV that recruiters hate to see on an application. Here the role of CV Distribution services in UAE comes into picture. Professional writer’s help individuals ditch common CV phrases that could apply to anyone. To make an individual stand out, they use significant stories with action verbs and job-specific keywords to make sure the hiring managers can imagine the candidate in the role they’re trying to fill within seconds of scanning the CV.