2,000 Recruiters Say They'll Throw Your Resume Out If You Use Any of These 10 Phrases

Ladders reported on the hiring boom being tracked by various career experts. Before you start firing off your resume, be sure to check out a report from the New College of Humanities.

The institution conducted research comprised of 2,000 recruiters and job seekers in order to determine the phrases that sink a potential candidate’s chances of landing a gig the most. The authors narrowed the list down to a concise 10 items.

Top 10 phrases you don’t want to include on your resume:

1. “I know how to work hard”
2. “I work well under pressure”
3. “I work independently”
4. “I am effective at solving problems”
5. “I know how to work in a team”
6. “I am proactive”
7. “I am a good communicator”
8. “I’m good at listening”
9. “My writing skills are excellent”
10. “I’m enthusiastic”

As you can see, clichés are a major detriment during the hiring process. Although more than 59% of recruiters said that they hate coming across grammatical and typographical errors (no matter how small), a greater majority said that they hate reading hackneyed expressions even more.

“When you’re writing your resume, you should constantly be thinking, “Is that relevant, and does it position me as a good fit for the job?” The first step is to avoid vague buzzwords, like “hardworking,” “motivated” and “driven,” jobs reporter, Michael Page writes.

“Regardless of how true these maybe, find an original way to represent your goals and motivations. A recruiter or hiring manager may only spend a few moments looking at your resume – so repeating phrases they’ve read a hundred times over will not impress them. Relevance and personality are key.”

To Pages’s point, only 1 out of every 5 employers featured in the analysis said that they have the patience to finish a resume all the way to the end. In fact, an overwhelming majority said that they generally make their decision about an employee roughly 60 seconds into reading one.

The candidates queried confessed to peppering their resumes with “white lies” to catch a recruiter’s attention as early as possible.

These lies include adding years to their previous place of employment, (1 in 12 people), adding responsibilities to past positions (1 in 20), and lying about their hobbies (11%).

The same report identified informal language as another pet peeve of job recruiters. Nicknames and emojis were basically deathblows, with 40% of recruiters confessing that they disregard resumes outright if they spot them.

— CW Headley

What's your no. 1 piece of resume advice? Leave your answer in the comments to help other FGB'ers.

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This article originally appeared on Ladders.