I think I knocked upon a hornet’s nest with a question I posted on LinkedIn asking what the buzz words are of today and what have become obsolete. I went on to ask what are those words that you’re just sick to death of reading or hearing. One of the most obvious places that people get “found out” using words that have a hollow ring to them are in resumes. I suppose it is really easy to notice this because if you’ve been in a position to hire people over the past couple of years then, likely as not, you’ve seen a lot of resumes come across your desk/PC. A professional resume writer/speaker/trainer responded to the question with these terms that drove him absolutely bonkers:

* Hard working
* Perfectionist
* Team player
* Self starter
* Results-oriented

If you or someone you know are guilty of have any or all of these descriptions on your resume then short of taking you out back and making you pick a switch, go over your resume with a clear head and find better ways for describing yourself. A good resume writer should be able to help you come up with some great adjectives to amplify what you’ve done without restating the obvious.

Trust me, I know that I use a bevy of cliches and word phrases so much that since tackling this subject I’ve become highly sensitive to this character defect o’ mine. If you’re like me, use my errors to get you to the place where you can recognize your own (you know, sometimes it is just easier to see the broccoli hanging between the teeth of someone else than to recognize it hanging somewhere in our own).

Those of us who use the net, read articles on the web, blog and/or banter amongst our friends in social networking sites are receiving, albeit skimming, a lot of information very rapidly so it’s easier for us to filter out repetitive words and phrases more easily than ever before and to discern which ones we trust and which ones are just total B. S. What this means is that now however we are using our words, we are now being called more than ever before to use those words that truly describe who we are or what we believe in or what we have done as honestly as possible.

It’s kind of funny now that I’m thinking about it because it’s like this huge group of humanity are in many ways trying to connect to each other in more ways than we ever have before (to become that wonderful “ONE” with each other) but that individuation need that many humans seem to have is yelling at the top of its lungs to be seen and heard in the middle of billions of words and voices.

Ya just gotta love us one and all. We’re just so dang cute out here in the big wide world trying to figure it all out! Go forth and use your words so that their signature tells others who you are and what you are about.