The words that work on a CV, and the ones to delete today

6 minute read · Updated 2026-09-01

Two CVs can describe the same job and read completely differently. The difference is almost never vocabulary size. It is whether the sentence contains something that happened.

The delete list

These appear on most CVs, which is exactly why they carry no information:

• Hard working, reliable, punctual. Everybody writes them, including the people who are none of the three.
• Team player. Show it: "covered two shifts a week for a colleague on long term sick for four months".
• Passionate about. Save it for something you would do unpaid.
• Results driven, proactive, dynamic. Corporate filler.
• Responsible for. The most damaging of all, because it describes the job description rather than you. Anybody in that seat was responsible for it.
• Excellent communication skills. Demonstrated by how the CV is written, or not at all.
• References available on request. Assumed. It is a wasted line.
• Curriculum Vitae as a heading. They know.

The replacement, in one move

Start with a doing word, add what happened, add a number:

Before: "Responsible for driving lorries and delivering goods to customers."
After: "Ran a 44 tonne artic on tramping work, six drops a shift across five sites, four years with no infringements."

Before: "Responsible for the care of residents."
After: "Cared for 14 residents on a dementia unit on nights, lead carer on shift twice a week, trained three new starters on the Care Certificate."

Before: "Worked in a busy kitchen."
After: "Ran the larder section for 120 covers on a Saturday, ordered stock for the section and cut waste by about a fifth over a year."

Doing words that earn their place

ran, built, cut, trained, delivered, loaded, repaired, installed, supervised, scheduled, resolved, audited, reduced, introduced, recovered, maintained, planned, sold, produced, saved.

Notice that none of them are impressive words. They are plain words about things that happened, which is the whole trick.

Where to find your numbers

Most people say they have none. You have more than you think: how many drops, covers, residents, calls, units, sites, people trained, vehicles, square feet, months without an incident, percentage of stock accuracy. An honest approximation with "about" in front of it is fine and nobody will quibble.

One warning

Everything you write has to survive an interview. If a bullet says you cut waste by a fifth, be ready to say how. Nothing sinks a good candidate faster than a claim they cannot stand behind for two sentences.

Test yours in our free CV check: it flags the empty phrases and tells you whether your bullets contain any numbers at all.