Top 10 Most Overused Career Buzzwords
If your goals include making changes on the career front, a good place to start is your LinkedIn profile.
LinkedIn recently published its lists of the top ten “Most Overused Buzzwords” – and the top of the ‘Top 10’, globally, is the word ‘motivated’. If you’re ‘motivated’ in your LinkedIn profile, you’re in good company with a hefty percentage of the 332 million other LinkedIn users. The nine additional most overused words/phrases used in LinkedIn profiles around the globe are:
- Passionate
- Creative
- Driven
- Extensive experience
- Responsible
- Strategic
- Track record
- Organizational
- Expert*
* LinkedIn also published a U.S. version with the same words except, instead of ‘expert’ it includes the phrase ‘problem-solving’.
Now you may say, “But these are the best words that describe what I do and who I am!” If they are, that’s a good thing – and more power to you! It’s an even better thing, however, to bring a fresh approach to your LinkedIn profile – leaving the well-worn words by the wayside and finding more descriptive alternatives.
In her blog post on the topic, Catherine Fisher, LinkedIn Career Expert, says that avoiding overused words and clichés is important if you want to stand out from the crowd. “Plan to banish trite buzzwords,” Fisher says. “Think about your professional brand and how you want to brand you.”
Fisher explains that, instead of going to the thesaurus and replacing a word like ‘motivated’ with another lackluster adjective, it’s more effective to illustrate how you’ve been motivated. Fisher poses the questions, “How did your motivation ultimately drive business results? Has your motivation helped champion a program?” She says that prospective clients, employers and recruiters want you to show them through accomplishments rather than tell them with a couple of buzzwords in your summary. Fisher explains that you can increase your profile’s appeal by including uploaded examples of your work (ie: video links, PDF’s) as an effective way to demonstrate your motivation and showcase all that you’ve achieved.
I encourage you to explore LinkedIn and compare profiles – noticing those you find engaging and attention grabbing and those you find to be boilerplate/run-of-the-mill. You can use the best of what you discover as a springboard to build your own unique LinkedIn profile that’s eye-catching, fresh, vivid and personal – and that doesn’t have those pesky buzzwords.
Share the news that your updated LinkedIn profile is free of buzzwords on social media at #nobuzzwords.
