It’s in your best interest to avoid the cliche words that HR managers see way too often on resumes. Expand your vocabulary and think of more creative ways to to describe yourself even if the description of the following phrases are accurate.

The five things you should never put on your resume are

Salary

Whether or not money is your main motivator, avoid mentioning this until you’ve scored the interview and the interview has progressed to an advanced stage where you are confident you have a shot at scoring the job. Bringing up talks of salary too early can prevent the employer from contacting you for an interview.

Your goal

The company already knows your goal. Your goal is to score the job you’re interviewing for.

Use your time wisely to tell the interviewer about yourself in a professional capacity, your past success and what skills you used to achieve that.

I am a hard worker

This doesn’t tell the HR manager anything about you, and is vague and ambiguous. This only makes you seem generic and of course your intention here is to stand out. Keep the message about your skills (what you can do) and past achievements (what you have done) instead of describing your personal traits.

Did you deliver a project way ahead of timelines? What about exceeding a sales stretch target? Any awards for good work? Now is a great time to mention it.

Generic business idioms

Experienced? Core-competencies? Teamwork? Thought-leader? Thinking outside the box?

Avoid using overused business terms when possible even if accurate. Telling your interviewer that you believe in teamwork does not have the same impact as ‘successfully worked along with sales team to exceed annual stretch targets’.

Reference Available Upon Request

Either put your references in, or leave them out entirely.