Words to Add and Exclude from Your Resume

TL;DR

Think of your resume like a ledger. Every word either adds value or quietly costs you. Data shows 48% of hiring managers discard resumes missing the right keywords, while resumes with quantified achievements get roughly 40% more interview invitations. This guide covers exactly words to add and exclude from your resume, organized side by side, so you can see what's earning its place and what's just taking up space.

Every resume is a balance sheet, whether you think of it that way or not. Some words are assets, they add real information a recruiter can act on. Others are liabilities, they take up space without telling anyone anything useful.

Most resumes are unbalanced. They're full of the second kind and light on the first. This guide walks through words to add and exclude from your resume, one column at a time, so you can see exactly where your own document stands.

The Ledger, Explained

Before the word-by-word breakdown, here's why this framing matters. Studies show 48% of hiring managers discard resumes that lack the specific keywords they're scanning for, that's the "add" side failing you. Meanwhile, a large-scale resume review found that 36% of resumes contain no measurable metrics at all. That's the other half of the same problem: vague, unquantified language quietly draining value from an otherwise solid document.

Fix both sides, and the data backs up the result: resumes that quantify achievements with real numbers get roughly 40% more interview invitations than ones that don't.

Column One: Words to Add

These are the entries that build real value on your resume.

Add: Strong, Specific Action Verbs

Instead of: "Was responsible for," "helped with," "worked on" Add: Led, delivered, streamlined, negotiated, restructured, increased

These verbs do actual work. They tell a recruiter what happened, not just that you were nearby when it happened. This is the core of best resume words to use advice that goes beyond generic lists, the verb needs to match a real action you actually took.

Add: Numbers, Wherever You Genuinely Have Them

Instead of: "Managed a team" Add: "Managed a 9-person team", or better, "Managed a 9-person team, increasing output 22% over one year"

Numbers are the single highest-value entry you can add to any resume line. They turn a vague claim into a specific, credible one.

Add: Exact Keywords From the Job Description

Instead of: A close synonym or your own internal jargon Add: The precise terms used in the posting, if it says "stakeholder management," use that exact phrase, not "worked with various people"

This matters for two audiences at once: the ATS scanning for a keyword match, and the human recruiter who reads the posting right before your resume and notices the alignment. This is what genuine words to include on a resume guidance should focus on, matching the actual language of the role, not a generic vocabulary list applied to every application equally.

Add: A Clear, Specific Job Title (If It's Accurate)

Instead of: A vague internal title that means nothing outside your company Add: The closest standard industry equivalent, noted alongside your actual title if needed

Recruiters and ATS systems both search by standard role titles. An unusual internal title, listed with no context, can quietly hide relevant experience from both.

Column Two: Words to Exclude

These entries take up space without adding real information, the liabilities on your resume ledger.

Exclude: Generic Self-Description With No Evidence

Cut, or replace with evidence: "hardworking," "team player," "detail-oriented," "dynamic," "passionate," "results-driven" (when no actual result follows it)

These are exactly the kind of cliché language every recruiter has read hundreds of times. The problem isn't that they're false, it's that they carry zero information on their own. Everyone claims them, so nobody notices them anymore.

The fix isn't just deletion. Replace the trait with the proof. Instead of claiming "detail-oriented," describe the specific process improvement or error-catch that demonstrates it.

Exclude: Vague Duty Statements

Cut: "Responsible for various administrative tasks" Cut: "Involved in several projects"

These phrases describe presence, not contribution. If you genuinely can't remember or quantify what you did in a role, that's a sign the line needs research and a real rewrite, not a vaguer version to paper over the gap.

Exclude: Outdated or Overused Filler Phrases

Cut: "References available upon request," "Objective: seeking a challenging position," "Highly motivated self-starter"

None of these add information a recruiter needs. The first is assumed by default. The second wastes space stating the obvious. The third is another version of the unproven trait problem above.

Exclude: Excessive Jargon With No Context

Internal acronyms, tool names, or process language specific to one company, used without any explanation, can confuse a recruiter outside that organization, even if it once meant something impressive internally. If a term needs your old company's context to make sense, either explain it briefly or cut it.

Why the Recruiter and the Software Both Care About This Balance

This is where resume vocabulary dos and don'ts stops being a style preference and becomes a functional issue. The job description keywords you add help you clear the software stage. The evidence-backed language you use after that helps you clear the human read that follows.

Get the balance wrong in either direction, and the resume fails differently. Too few real keywords, and the ATS may never surface your resume at all. Too much vague, unproven language, and even a human reader who does open it skims past without remembering anything specific.

A Simple Self-Audit

Run this check on your own resume before your next application:

1. Highlight every instance of "responsible for," "helped," or "worked on." These almost always belong in the exclude column.

2. Circle every number on the page. If there are fewer than one per role, that's a clear opportunity to add.

3. Search for the buzzword list above, hardworking, team player, dynamic, passionate, and either cut or replace each one with actual evidence.

4. Compare your resume's language against your target job posting. If key terms from the posting are missing entirely, add them where genuinely accurate.
   

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the most important words to add and exclude from your resume? Add specific action verbs paired with real numbers and exact job description keywords. Exclude vague duty statements, unproven self-descriptions like "hardworking" or "team player," and outdated filler phrases like "references available upon request."

Is it ever okay to use words like "passionate" or "dedicated" on a resume? Only if immediately followed by evidence. "Passionate about customer service" alone adds nothing; a specific result that demonstrates that passion does.

How many keywords from the job description should I actually include? As many as are genuinely accurate to your experience, there's no fixed count, but missing the core 5–10 terms in a posting is a common reason resumes get filtered out before a human ever reads them.

Does removing buzzwords actually make a measurable difference? Indirectly, yes. It's less about the words themselves and more about what replaces them, specific, quantified evidence consistently outperforms generic trait claims in real hiring outcomes.

Should I use different words for every resume I send out? The core language should adapt per job posting, especially your keyword matches and top achievements. You don't need to reword everything, but your summary and most relevant bullets should shift to match each specific role.