You know the kind. “Self-starter.” “Team player.” “Highly motivated.” “Experienced.” “Passionate.”
A prospective employer takes these as a given. They’re not looking for employees who are not highly motivated, self-starting team players with experience who are passionate about what they do. It’s the minimum bar to entry.
What’s more, when your resume is filled with these kinds of buzzwords, it makes it sound like you don’t have a lot of actual experience to talk about. That’s a waste of time for everyone involved. And even when it’s accurate, it doesn’t say much about you and who you are.
Instead, highlight what you’ve actually done. For example, if you’re good at team building, talk about the size of the team you built or how many employees reported to you. In general, specific is better than general and there’s nothing more general than meaningless resume-speak.