CV clichés and buzzwords, and what to write instead
A replacement table for the phrases every recruiter has read a thousand times.
A cliché on a CV is a claim the reader cannot check and has seen many times before. “Excellent communication skills” is not false; it is just empty, because every applicant writes it. The fix is almost always the same: replace the adjective with the evidence that would make a reader conclude it on their own.
The rule: show, don’t claim
If you write “detail-oriented”, the reader has to take your word for it. If you write “Checked 1,200 supplier invoices a month with no payment errors found in the annual audit”, they reach “detail-oriented” themselves, and believe it.
So for each cliché, ask: what did I do that proves this? Write that instead.
The replacement table
| Cliché | Why it fails | Write instead (example) |
|---|---|---|
| Hard-working | Everyone says it | “Covered a second store for 3 months during a vacancy while still hitting targets at the home store.” |
| Team player | Unverifiable, and says nothing about your role in the team | “One of 4 analysts who rebuilt the monthly sales report; wrote all the data checks.” |
| Excellent communication skills | One of the most common phrases on CVs, and proved by nothing | “Wrote the customer guide to the new billing system, sent to 18,000 account holders.” |
| Detail-oriented | A claim the CV’s own typos can disprove | “Kept a 99.7% accuracy rate on 400 prescriptions checked a week.” |
| Self-starter / self-motivated | Vague | “Set up the team’s first shared knowledge base unprompted; 30 articles in 6 months.” |
| Results-driven / results-oriented | A claim about results with no result | Any one real result, with a number. |
| Passionate about… | Hard to show on paper | What you did about it: a course, a project, a volunteer role. |
| Go-getter / dynamic | Sounds like a job advert, not a person | Delete. |
| Think outside the box | A cliché about avoiding clichés | The unusual solution you found, in one line. |
| Proven track record | “Proven” with no proof | The record itself: “Hit quarterly target 7 quarters in a row.” |
| Works well under pressure | Every job claims to have pressure | “Ran the till and kitchen pass alone on Saturday nights, up to 150 covers.” |
| Strong work ethic | Unverifiable | Reliability evidence: attendance, cover shifts, longevity, promotion. |
| Synergy / leverage / best-in-class | Business jargon that obscures meaning | Plain words: “worked with”, “used”, “the best in the region”. |
| Responsible for | Describes a duty, not what you did | A verb: led, ran, managed, owned. See action verbs. |
| Various / a range of / numerous | Vague quantity | The number: “6 departments”, “14 suppliers”. |
| Successfully (as in “successfully delivered”) | If it failed you wouldn’t list it | Delete the adverb, add the result. |
| Seasoned professional | Says only that you are not new | Years and specialism: “12 years in commercial property law.” |
| Go above and beyond | Cliché of effort | The specific extra thing you did. |
| Fast learner | Everyone says it | “Learnt Python on the job and automated the weekly stock report within 3 months.” |
| Thought leader / guru / ninja / rockstar | Self-awarded titles | Talks, articles or training you actually delivered. |
Buzzwords versus keywords
Not every industry term is a buzzword. If a job ad asks for “stakeholder management”, “safeguarding”, “Agile” or “IFRS”, those are keywords: named skills, methods or standards the employer is looking for, and they belong on your CV if you genuinely have them. The difference:
- A keyword names something specific and checkable (a method, tool, qualification, regulation).
- A buzzword is a vague quality or a fashionable phrase (“synergy”, “dynamic”, “innovative”).
Use the job ad’s keywords honestly, with evidence attached; see job ad keywords. Cut the buzzwords.
Where clichés hide
- The summary. The most cliché-dense part of most CVs; the CV summary guide has a formula that avoids them.
- The skills section. A list of soft skills (“communication, teamwork, leadership, time management”) reads as filler. Prove soft skills in your bullets and keep the skills section for things that are checkable. See the skills section guide.
- The first word of bullets. “Responsible for” and “Duties included” are clichés of structure.
- Cover letters, where “I am writing to apply for…” is fine, but “I am a passionate, driven individual…” is not.
A five-minute edit
- Search your CV for the words in the left column of the table above.
- For each one you find, write one line answering “what did I do that proves this?”
- If you can answer, replace the cliché with that line.
- If you can’t answer, delete the cliché. A shorter CV with evidence is stronger than a longer one with claims.
Tip: Ask a friend to read your summary and underline anything they could also say about themselves. Whatever they underline is generic.
The builder flags common clichés in your summary and weak openings in your bullets as you type. It does not rewrite them for you; the evidence has to come from you.
Watch out: Do not swap one cliché for a rarer synonym. “Assiduous” for “hard-working” is still a claim with no proof, and now it also sounds odd.
Next: give your bullets stronger openings with the action verbs lists, or rework your profile with the CV summary guide.