15 CV words to avoid, and what to write instead

Why these words don’t work

Anyone can write “hard-working”. A recruiter can’t check it, and nearly every other CV says it too, so it adds nothing. CV reviewers on Reddit and recruiter guides keep pointing to three groups: clichés, weak phrases that hide what you did, and words that make a CV sound AI-written.

The rule for all of them: show, don’t claim. Replace the word with a short example, ideally with a number.

Clichés that tell an employer nothing

1. Hard-workingInstead: “Covered extra shifts through the Christmas rush and kept the stockroom on target.”
2. Team playerInstead: “Worked with 3 nurses to cut the clinic’s waiting list from 6 weeks to 3.”
3. Results-drivenInstead, show a result: “Raised repeat bookings by 15% in a year.”
4. Detail-orientedInstead: “Checked 200 invoices a week with no payment errors in 2025.”
5. Self-starter, motivatedInstead: “Set up the shop’s first online order form on my own initiative.”
6. PassionateInstead, show what you did about it: a course, a project, a side role.
7. Excellent communication skillsInstead: “Answered around 80 calls a day for 4 doctors.”
8. Proven track recordInstead, give the record itself: what, how often, how much.
9. Dynamic, think outside the boxInstead, describe the new idea and what it changed.

Weak phrases that hide what you did

10. Responsible forThis says what the job was, not what you achieved. Instead: “Ran the booking system for 4 doctors and cut missed appointments by about a third.”
11. Helped with, assisted, contributed toThe reader can’t tell what part was yours. Instead: “Trained 3 new receptionists on the booking system.”
12. Dealt with, various dutiesEvery job like yours involves this. Instead: say what you were good at, or what you were trusted with.

Words that sound AI-written

Recruiters now say they can spot CVs rewritten by AI tools, and these words are common tells. One or two on their own are fine. Several together make a CV read like everyone else’s.

13. SpearheadedInstead: “Led” or “Started”, followed by what happened.
14. Leveraged, utilisedInstead: “Used”. Then say what for.
15. Synergy, cutting-edge, robustInstead, name the actual thing: the tool, the process, the result.

A good test: would you say the sentence out loud to someone in an interview? If not, rewrite it the way you would.

What to keep

Not every common word is a problem. Plain verbs like “ran”, “built”, “trained”, “cut” and “fixed” are good, because they lead straight to what you did. And skills that are real requirements for the job, such as “stock control” or “Excel”, belong on your CV if you have used them. Show where.