Resume Buzzwords to Avoid

Some words appear on resumes so often they have stopped meaning anything. Recruiters call them buzzwords, and they actively weaken a resume by wasting space that could carry evidence. Cut them and replace each with a verb plus a metric.

• Team player — replace with "collaborated across X and Y".
• Hard worker — replace with a result that proves effort.
• Go-getter — replace with "initiated" or "spearheaded".
• Results-driven — show the result instead.
• Detail-oriented — replace with "caught 12 errors in X".

The rule: every buzzword is a claim without evidence. "Hard worker" asks the reader to trust you; "delivered 14 projects on time" shows it. When you catch yourself writing a buzzword, ask what evidence would prove it, then write that evidence as a bullet with a verb and a number.

The fastest way to audit your own resume: read it and underline every word that could describe anyone in your industry. "Hard worker", "passionate", "team player", "go-getter" — anything generic gets underlined. Then rewrite each underlined phrase as a verb plus a number.

Buzzwords survive on resumes because they feel safe. The risk is the opposite: they cost trust. A recruiter reading "results-driven" for the fourth time in a stack starts discounting everything else on the page. Concrete verbs with metrics are the only safe words.

Verb suggestions reviewed by the ResumeVerbs editorial team.