Avoid These Over-used 10 Words on Your Resume

These days there are a plethora of ways for employers and candidates to find one another. With the job market becoming ever more competitive it is not enough to simply send off a CV showcasing your skills and experience. Employers will look you up online and if you don't have a LinkedIn profile, you may be falling at the first hurdle.

LinkedIn, for those of you still stuck in the dark ages, is like Facebook, only for your professional life rather than your social life. It's a better social media website to add colleagues without having them see your silly drunk photos on Facebook. It's a great way to connect and build a network in your field.

Still, people treat their LinkedIn resume like they do a boring old resume. Remember, resumes posted on LinkedIn are more likely to be seen by far more folks than the resumes you pass out in person or by email. Do you want to look unimaginative and dull?

HR managers and employers all over the world are on the hunt for resumes that stand out and shine. Whether you're applying for an internship or for a job at your dream firm avoid using the following words or phrases on your resume.

10. "Responsible For…" Reading this term, the recruiter will picture the completely average, uninspired employee robotically completing their job requirements with no individuality or flair, the same way they filled in their LinkedIn profile. Responsibility for something isn't something you achieved — it's something that happened to you. It doesn't indicate success or failure. You could just as easily have been responsible for a catastrophe! (Of course, please don't put that on your resume!)

9. "Hardworking" Something anyone can call themselves. Provide examples instead. Show, don't tell the reader. Show how your hard work benefited a previous employer.

8. "Goal-oriented" What does this vague phrase mean? All work is goal-oriented, so why are you writing this on a resume?

7. "Experience Working In…" Passive, unhelpful. Experience happens to you, it's not something you do. Your resume is already a rundown of your experience – you don't have to say it directly.

6. "Team Player" This is something required of many workers in today's job market. Therefore, there's no need to write it down. If you were a member of a team before, then mention what you did to contribute to the team's success.

5. "Problem-solving Skills" Insects and dogs have problem-solving skills. Everyone has problems to solve. Scratch this one out!

4. "Attention To Detail" We hope so! Everyone boss wants employees who are detail oriented. This goes without saying.

3. "Effective" Definitely avoid this basic, passive and non-energetic word. Sure, maybe you were effective at completing your work, but how well was it done? Use of this word implies that you simply did the minimum required of your work. For employers, that's a complete turn off.

2. "Perfectionist" This word could make you look bad. Employers see this and think you're too picky and difficult to work with. Also, your boss and colleagues will pick up on you being a perfectionist on the job – there's no need to mention it on a resume.

1. "Creative" LinkedIn releases an annual list of the most overused buzzwords on their profiles, and guess what? "Creative" has achieved the honor of first place for the last two years. By using the word creative, you are ironically proving your lack of creativity. Enough said.

At HelpGoAbroad, we discussed with some of our partner companies and they often tell us that intern candidates are turned away because their resumes were not action-oriented enough. You don't need to have tons of experience to be an intern (after all, we place plenty of students or recent graduates), but you need a resume that is drenched in actions and results.

So, before you click send or log onto LinkedIn, give that resume another look through.