10 LinkedIn Buzzwords To Avoid Using

These days there is 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. You can link with old work colleagues without worrying that they might see photos of you drunk. They can write shining reviews about how wonderful you were to work with, and prospective employers can gain a better idea of what you are like as a person than a CV alone offers.

Sadly, the same problems that many employers lament about peoples CVs still exist on LinkedIn. The same boring LinkedIn buzzwords are being used with no real benefit to either the job-seeker or the employer. Below is a list of the words and phrases guaranteed to convince prospective employers that you are completely unimaginative.

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. You could’ve just as easily have been responsible for a £2 billion rise in profits as a nuclear meltdown. It doesn’t indicate success or failure. Change passive phrases into decisive, active verbs like “led” or “efficiently managed”.

8. “Goal-oriented”

This is vague and bland. You are not a football player. And if you were, your manager would assume that you were goal orientated. This goes without saying.

2. “Perfectionist”

This word is a nice way to say you are difficult, high maintenance or nit-picking. Basically a nightmare to work with.

1. “Creative”

Are you a “creative” and “hard working” job applicant? You’re also “predictable,” like the myriad of other applicants out there who splash “inspirational” buzzwords throughout their CV, LinkedIn and job applications in order to seem “inventive.”

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.

See all 10 buzzwords and the complete Careerealism article