The Words Hiring Managers Love and Hate to See on a Resume

30 seconds. That’s all it takes for some hiring managers to decide yes or no on candidates when reviewing resumes.

A new survey from CareerBuilder shows one in six hiring managers spends 30 seconds or less, on average, reviewing resumes. And 68% spend less than two minutes. That’s not a lot of time to leave a strong impression, so job seekers better make every word on their resume count.

Using the right language on a resume is key to gaining or losing the attention of hiring managers, here’s what the survey found:

Top five terms not to use on your resume:

1. Best of breed: 38%
2. Go-getter: 27%
3. Think outside of the box: 26%
4. Synergy: 22%
5. Go-to person: 22%

Top five terms to use to describe your experience:

1. Achieved: 52%
2. Improved: 48%
3. Trained/Mentored: 47%
4. Managed: 44%
5. Created: 43%

CareerBuilder commissioned Harris Interactive to conduct the poll online among 2,201 hiring managers to find out what they like to see and the words they avoid on resumes.