What Words Should Not Be Used on a Resume?

There are a ton of articles floating around about what words should not be used on a resume. Sadly, most of those are written by content writers who have never worked in recruiting.

Why do I say this? Because I’ve read them ( I wanted to make sure that it wasn’t a waste of time to write this article. Believe me, if there was a good guide online I’d be happy to link out to it like I do with resume templates in my articles on how to write a resume).

No, the fact is that these are puff pieces written by people who probably never screened resumes for a staffing agency, certainly not top line recruiters or even low level HR hiring mangers.

I’d love to tell you that there is a great essay on one of the job sites that will tell you all of the words that should never be used on a resume, but there isn’t. I checked them out and they are simply boilerplate articles and don’t hit the key problems that recruiters encounter time after time.

I’ll cover this elsewhere, but the majority of content that you see written on agency websites and job board websites is outsourced to content farms. The best is going to be local, USA agencies that employ work at home moms, freelancers, and other writers who do not actively work in the staffing and recruiting industry. The worse material is going to be straight “spun” articles written by overseas content farms.

That’s why I decided to sit down and write this article. Because I’ve spent years in the trenches and have read and reviewed tens of thousands of resumes. And I’ve seen what works and what doesn’t work when it comes to sending out resumes to clients.

There are certain words that you should never use on a resume. More than that, there are certain phrases and topics as well. It’s a nice clickbait title to say: here are 10 words to never put on your resume…but it’s more than that. It’s words and phrase and topics that you need to avoid.

So, this article is going to be a bit more rounded when it comes to tell you what you should and should not included.

I will primarily stick to the words you need to avoid. But I think it’s important to also touch on the topics that you also need to steer clear of.

Words You Should Never Use When Writing a Resume

This first section is going to focus on words that you simply need to avoid. It’s not common that single words can register so negatively, but these words all do. As you will see, there are several reasons why you will want to avoid using them.

All of these words are going to give a very strong impression to the reader. Unfortunately, these words don’t give a positive impression.

Unemployed

This is the big one. Keep it off your resume at all costs. You never want to write that you’re unemployed. It’s just taboo in the job market.

Now, if you are someone who doesn’t understand how recruiters and hiring managers work, you might not understand this.  Why wouldn’t a recruiter or hiring manager want to know if someone is unemployed and looking for work. Shouldn’t that be a good thing?

You might think so, but it’s not. And beyond the complicated behavioral psychology that is at play in the hiring process, just understand that listing yourself as unemployed makes yourself less desirable.

Yes, recruiters and hiring managers want someone who can start working immediately. Yes, they don’t want someone who already is working and will have to give notice (and maybe change their mind once their boss counter offers them). But they don’t want people who are “unemployed”. It’s a stigma.

The word unemployed simply has too strong a stigma surrounding it. If you list yourself as unemployed on your resume you are basically guaranteeing that you are not going to get called for an interview.

As long as you list the end date of your most recent job it will be clear that you’re not currently working and can interview and start as soon as needed.

Entrepreneur

Another word that people sometimes add to their resume is entrepreneur. They think that this makes them more marketable to companies. The fact is just the opposite.

The fact is that companies do not want to hire entrepreneurs, and even more than that, people who list that they are entrepreneurs are often viewed as delusional people without real world corporate experience.

After the show Shark Tank premiered, every unemployed person around the country seemed to all of a sudden become an entrepreneur. Now, sometimes those people might have been developing a business. But when you’re applying for a job in a company, that’s irrelevant.

Entrepreneurs, by virtue of the definition of the word, are people who start business and projects. They are not people who work as employees for other people. So, you can see the disconnect. A firm is looking to hire a database engineer, for instance, and they see a resume that lists the person as being an “entrepreneur”.

What should that company expect? At best, the person is an entrepreneur who will be successful and leave to run their own firm. But more commonly, it’s someone who is completely delusional about their own efforts and achievements and is a dreamer, not a doer.

If you’re an entrepreneur, great. Just keep it off your resume.

Freelance

Employers don’t want to hire someone who is used to working for themselves. That’s just a fact. As a recruiter, if I’m working with someone who has the word Freelance on their resume, I always advise them to remove it.

Why? Because hiring managers and companies don’t want someone who has worked for themselves on their own time. Even if you are someone who is super hard working and diligent, you have to realize that you’re dealing with a very narrow mindset.

Hiring managers are biased against anyone who works for themselves. The idea being that these people are not going to be able to hack it in the normal workplace.

While that might not be true, it’s true that hiring managers and companies think this way. As a rule, employers do not want people with an adventurous spirit. They do not want people who work for themselves and have outside options.

If you are someone who has freelanced, then you should weight the options of listing that on your resume. There are legitimate concerns that should be considered.

There are some people who have years of freelance work and would have gigantic career gaps on their resume if they didn’t list it. Those people need to figure out a better way to handle it then just listing Freelance. Sometimes that solution might be to list the work as contract work, but that also comes with its own set of problems.

I’d suggest listing out the various clients or industries. Anything is better than writing in big bold letters Freelance.

Leader

This is one of those generic and non-specific words that recruiters cringe at when they see it on a resume. What it immediately signals is that the person who wrote the resume is not a leader.

These sort of words are very common on resumes of people who buy into the business lingo that is used in self help books, and in business classes in high school. As a rule, if a recruiter sees this sort of wording on a resume, they are going to turn away immediately from the resume someone who is not competent.

If you are a leader, it will show through a progression of job titles and duties. You can also show that you were a leader by highlighting management skills, management responsibilities, oversight of projects, etc… Simply labeling yourself a leader is a surefire way to get yourself laughed at by a hiring manager.

Life Coach

This is something that became more popular in recent years and let me tell you, it has no place on your resume.

Most businesses don’t want to hire someone who works as a “life coach” because that’s in line with freelance and entrepreneur in that these people work for themselves.

Also, most businesses consider these titles to be fake and the people who use them to be strange and not suited for employment. It sounds harsh, but it’s the truth.

Then there’s the obvious bias against life coaches in general. There is a common conception that they are basically con artists. While that’s not true, and there are plenty of life coaches that help people, the fact is that you can’t expect every recruiter and hiring manger to understand that.

So, if you have worked as a life coach or counselor, then list the name of the company or the LLC and write counselor instead of life coach. It suggests a more structured job and it’s a job title that isn’t as stigmatized in the workplace.

Category of Words To Never Use on a Resume

This next section is going to focus more on phrases instead of single words. There are a lot of  phrases and “types” of words that you should never have on a resume. The main thing about these phrases is that they don’t belong on a resume.

If you are wondering why a recruiter won’t call you back or why you’re not getting an interview after submitting your resume, then check your resume for these words.

Hype Words like Super Star!

Hype words have no place on a resume. You might notice a trend on LinkedIn and social media where people hype themselves up with phrase like “project management superstar” or “executive assistant extraordinaire”, but believe me these don’t pass muster with recruiters or hiring managers.

These self promotion words signal that the people are showboats and more interested in getting attention from social media and not focused on work.

Having placed hundreds of PMs and thousands of E.A. I will tell you that none of the serious applicants used hype words like superstar on their resume.

The people who used those words were either new grads who had poor guidance from their college career counselors, or else delusional adults who had no business applying for the roles they were sending resumes out for. It’s a common problem in todays work enviroment. As this article describes, along with gramatical errors, being less than professional is also something to be cautious off.

Obvious Ones ( Computer, Phones, Etc…)

The next set of phrases and words to skip are the obvious ones. You don’t have to list that you know how to work a computer (yes, people still list that) or that you can answer a phone.

It’s basically understood that people are computer literate if they are applying for a role that requires it. However, if you are someone who has never held an office job and only done manual labor, then it would be important to list some sort of education, training program, or certificate class that will convey that information.

I have seen some articles online suggesting that you skip and don’t include things like MS Office, or Excell or the other common Microsoft programs. Well, that’s a mistake. As someone who has actually worked in recruiting, I can say with confidence that it’s a huge mistake.

The ATS system will simply hide your resume from recruiters doing searches if you don’t have any of those words. Most companies require the applicant to have MS Office experience, so it makes sense to list that on a resume.

While people who know MS Office think that everyone knows it, the truth is that there are large segments of the job seeking population who have no experience working with it. So, it is a necessity. You have to list MS Office. You should add Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook to be safe, but at the minimum you should list MS Office on your resume.

Personal Details

Here’s a general area that you need to avoid. No one cares about your personal mental health issues (and yes, people do list them on their resume). Also, you shouldn’t mention that you’re a single parent, or that you’re a recovering drug addict, or that you are neuroatypical, or list anything else that makes you stand out in a way that could be considered a negative to an employer. These are huge resume red flags.

Remember, when you’re submitting a resume, unless you are dealing directly with a diversity recruiter or a diversity hiring manager, you need to keep all personal issues out of the picture.

Normally hiring managers who are simply tasked with hiring talent do not care about your personal life. In fact, if you bring up your personal life in any way it’s bound to be a negative. So, just keep it professional and do not list anything that can draw attention away from your professional accomplishments.

Guy, Gal, Lady, Dude….

This dovetails with the personal information, but it’s more in line with the slang component. There is no issue with listing your preferred pronouns. That’s a very popular item, especially on LinkedIn. However, being too casual with it can throw off some people

Most people use He/Him or She/Her or They/Theirs etc…. If you choose to list your preferred pronouns, then that’s great. However it’s advisable to steer away from slang: dude, for instance isn’t professional and will strike many hiring managers and recruiters as unprofessional.

In closing, I advise people to use professional language when writing a resume. And be professional. That means keeping personal anecdotes and everything that’s not relevant to the job at hand off the resume. The less distraction the more likely it is that you’ll get a call back from a recruiter.