Most people have come to associate certain words with writing a resume. These former “buzzwords” are used frequently, and yet do not produce the desired results as they make your resume seem bland. Your resume should make you stand out from everyone else applying for a particular position, and so the language used should help accomplish that. If you want to look better than the competition, the following words should definitely NOT appear on your resume:

I, me, my…your name is at the top of your resume, and so obviously all of the information on the resume is about you. Avoid using any form of personal pronoun in a resume, and use verbs and demonstrative language instead. However, note that it is appropriate to use personal pronouns in your cover letter and when writing KSAs for government jobs since these are direct communications from you to the employer.

Responsible for…every job requires you to be responsible for something. Employers don’t really want to know about your responsibilities, they want to know about your accomplishments. Tell an employer how carrying out your daily responsibilities actually benefited the company (i.e., saved time, saved money, made money, etc.) instead of just giving them your job description.

Experienced…the only place “experienced” should be used in a resume is in the profile section and then only once. If you are experienced in anything, you can show this to an employer through your accomplishments and receive much better results. For example, instead of saying “experienced in technical writing,” tell them about your experience by saying “wrote technical manuals for four different cell phone models.”

Team player…not everyone is a team player, but telling employers that you are doesn’t necessarily help you. What team were you on? How did you benefit the team? Prove to the employer with examples that you are a team player. The same principle applies if you say you led a team. Offer examples that prove your leadership of the team made a difference.

Excellent communication skills…well, anyone can say that they have excellent communication skills. How are yours better? How have you used them? And did it make anything better? Tell the employer about times you’ve used your “excellent communication skills” and what the results were.

Now, you may have noticed a recurring theme here. The bottom line for resume writing is that you should consistently DEMONSTRATE to a potential employer what you’ve done, how you’ve used all these skills you claim to possess, and how this has benefited the company you were working for…because if you can prove you were an asset to that company, you’re much more likely to convince someone you’ll be an asset to their company as well.