You know you need a great resume when you apply for a new job, whether you’re looking for part-time work or seeking a high-level position. Resumes feature short, simple sentences, but this economy of words means you need to make strong word choices, so employers can identify what makes you stand out from other applicants.
These word choices should include buzzwords — active keywords that describe your abilities, experience, and accomplishments. Buzzwords create strong sentences and draw the attention of hiring managers. They help sell you as the top candidate, as your best attributes will be highlighted on your resume.
Many buzzwords remain important regardless of when you revamp your resume to apply for a job. There are trends in buzzwords too. As you update your resume, it is important to know which buzzwords to avoid. Some words are industry-specific, while others can work across careers.
Target Buzzwords to Your Experience and the Job
Your word choice says a lot about you, so break out that thesaurus. Are you a team player? Are you focused and determined? Do you communicate effectively? Do you have management experience? All of these are great qualities, but everyone makes similar claims on their resumes, so you have to stand out.
As you write about yourself, choose strong buzzwords that display your strengths, accomplishments, and achievements. Examples include:
Lead. Synonyms for lead are execute, initiate, spearhead, and orchestrate.
Manage. Pilot, supervise, and guide also work well.
Create. Being more specific, you can include words like design, pioneer, and formulate.
Improve. Usage of this word depends on the specific role. Other options include boost, expand, and amplify.
Research. Study, analyze, and explore also show off your knowledge.
Write. Depending on your writing position, you can use publish, verbalize, or brief.
Achieve. For greater specificity, you can use attain, surpass, or reach.
Communicate. Good synonyms include liaise, mediate, and convey.
Your accomplishments in previous positions are important, as they demonstrate your experience relevant to the job you’re applying for currently. Your personality and individual skills are also important, especially if you write a functional resume rather than chronological. These may be specific to your industry or more general to show that you’re engaged and dedicated.
Buzzwords to describe yourself include:
Self-starter. Describe yourself further as zealous, motivated, and inspired.
Go-getter. You can also label yourself as ambitious, passionate, and industrious.
Detail-oriented. This may mean you’re analytical, systematic, or meticulous.
Proficient. Not only are you good at something — you may be adept, effective, or experienced.
Results-driven. This could mean you’re purposeful, committed, or efficient.
Dynamic. You could also be agile, versatile, or diligent.
Innovative. Your creativity could extend to being groundbreaking, resourceful, or even shrewd.
Strategic thinker. This could mean you’re also logical, focused, and perceptive.
Using a thesaurus, brainstorming, or asking friends or colleagues to describe you can help you find better buzzwords to highlight your great qualities. It is important to avoid hyperbole on a resume. Using specific, action-oriented buzzwords can help employers understand how you might fit into the job based on your targeted understanding of your attributes and leading industry language.
Bad Buzzwords Are Overused and General
Unique, targeted buzzwords that reflect your abilities and the job posting will show a potential employer that you’re serious about a position at their company, or in their industry. Weak, overused language is okay in the first draft of your resume, but your second draft should show that you’ve thought about yourself and the job, done some research, and made personalized word choices.
It is also important to keep up with out-of-date buzzwords. Maybe these were good choices a few years ago, but the following words are too overused now, and hiring managers are more likely to throw your resume out when they see them.
These buzzwords were fine the first few times, but too many advice columns have forced this lingo into the general population.
While there are some recommended buzzwords out there, it’s better for you to stand out by choosing your own active voice, action verbs, and strong descriptions. What words do you like best? Include those on your resume in place of the overused, unpopular buzzwords, and you will likely garner some interest.
The Active Voice Makes You the Center of Attention
The University of Wisconsin's Writing Center states that you must always try to use the active voice. This is especially true when writing concise, but descriptive sentences in a document like a resume. Examples of the active voice include:
The dog bit the man.
The reporter claims the council must stay on budget.
In literature, there is nothing wrong with the passive voice. It might even enhance your cover letter. However, avoid using it in your resume since it uses too many words and normally requires too much space. Examples of passive voice include:
The man was bitten by the dog.
The council was told to stay on budget by the reporter.
If you’re writing about your previous job experience, for example, the active voice is more functional than the passive voice.
Passive: Team leadership was executed.
Active: Spearheaded team to complete demanding project.
When you read your descriptions of your past work, education, skills, and experience, be sure you sound like you take charge. These skills and experiences did not happen to you. Instead, you made them happen. This shows recruiters that you take responsibility for your own path, and you can manage any tasks a new job may throw at you.
Buzzwords in Your Resume Make You Shine
Writing or rewriting your resume not only demands creativity in how you describe yourself; it also requires adjustment depending on how many positions you apply for. If you’re applying for one job you find fascinating, then one resume makes sense; however, if you’re looking at several jobs across a career field, you should consider tweaking your language to suit each job.
Your resume needs to show who you are, but it also needs to reflect that you have read the job listing created by the company and the hiring manager. For example, if you say that you are meticulous and focused, but you use words that do not suit the specific industry, a hiring manager will not agree with your personal assessment of yourself.
Still, start with one resume that will become the foundation for all your job applications. Specific buzzwords for your experience, your skills, and your past work should not change too much. When you find how you want to describe these areas, finding synonyms that work for a specific position becomes simpler.
