Effective Phrases and Words to Use in Your CV
The words and phrases in your CV can either put you in the running for the job, or count you out. With more companies using ATS (application tracking systems) to review CVs, it’s valuable to think carefully about the phrases and keywords to include in your application. In this article, we discuss how to include useful and impactful keywords in your CV, to maximise your chances of success.
Key Phrases for CV
Many employers now using ATS software to scan and review applications before a human even lays eyes on them, making the importance of keywords and phrases greater than ever. Keywords make it far more likely to pass through the ATS stage and have your application reviewed by an actual person.
Thankfully, there are ways to understand which keywords and phrases can help you pass the ATS stage of a job application. Employers usually include most of the keywords they want from applicants in the job description. As such, this gives you a great place to start when working out which words and phrases to include in your CV.
Take a look at the sections below to understand how to decide which keywords and phrases to include in your CV:
How to choose the right words for impact?
The main objective of your CV is to make an impact with employers and convince them to interview you. As such, you’ll want to create a positive first impression and get straight to the point. Use keywords for your CV to make it concise and impactful, maximising its effectiveness, while keeping your word count to a minimum.
Writing long, highly descriptive sentences in your CV won’t help it pass through an ATS stage. It probably won’t help your chances of impressing an actual employer either. Hiring managers simply don’t have time to read through long and detailed CVs. Make your sentences short and to the point, avoiding opinion or commentary wherever possible. Use bullet points to help you remain disciplined in what you include, and what you omit.
For example:
Instead of: ‘I worked for a major national recruitment consultancy and managed a team of 12 consultants, helping to position candidates in entry-level marketing roles. In my role, I successfully increased retention rates from 64% to 85%’...
…write: ‘Managed a team of 12 recruitment consultants, increasing retention rates of junior marketing placements from 64% to 85%’.
Demonstrating achievement through phrases
Quantifying your achievements is one of the keys to a successful CV. If you can show the impact you’ve made, providing evidence in the form of figures and data, you’re much more likely to convince employers that you’re right for the job. When you write about your work experience, it’s not enough to simply explain your duties and everyday responsibilities. Back up each responsibility and activity you highlight on your CV with evidence of the impact you made and the contribution to successful outcomes.
Writing phrases and bullet points that demonstrate your achievements with evidence can help to prove your skills and your worth. It’s easy to write out a list of skills and duties, but backing them up with evidence can set you apart from other candidates.
For example:
Instead of: ‘managed customer service department, helping to build positive customer relationships and resolve disputes’...
…write: ‘managed customer service department, responding to customer complaints and resolving disputes, with a 94% customer satisfaction rating (increase of 12%)’.
Action verbs to highlight accomplishments
Action verbs are a great way to emphasise your skills and achievements in your CV. Rather than simply listing your responsibilities and skills, use action verbs to show their impact. In your work experience section, start each bullet point with a verb that proves a skill listed in the job description. These can help your CV to pass through ATS stages and catch the eye of recruiters and hiring managers.
Using actions verbs can also help you to foster a sense of success on your CV. Carefully select action verbs that highlight your achievements without making you appear arrogant or boastful.
Here are some action verbs for your CV to make a positive impression, highlight your key skills and demonstrate your impact:
Leadership skills:
- Managed
- Led
- Coached
- Trained
- Negotiated
- Directed
Communication skills:
- Collaborated
- Communicated
- Liaised
- Partnered
- Presented
- Facilitated
Teamwork:
- Contributed
- Participated
- Collaborated
- Balanced
- Encouraged
- Fostered
Problem-solving/adaptability:
- Analysed
- Resolved
- Improved
- Implemented
- Optimised
- Developed
Achievements:
- Completed
- Delivered
- Awarded
- Increased
- Exceeded
- Achieved
How to make your CV ATS-friendly?
There are two main ways to make your CV ATS-friendly, and more likely to pass through this stage of the application process. The first way is to make the content of your CV as relevant as possible to the job description. Make yourself familiar with the job description and the skills and duties listed as ‘required’, ‘essential’ and ‘desirable’. When writing your CV, identify keywords and use language that mirrors the job description.
Identifying job description keywords and incorporating them into your CV is a skill that improves with practice. The more job descriptions you read, the better you’ll become at identifying keywords to include in your CV. The first place to start is with lists of skills and qualifications, as these are likely to include the most important keywords. Look out for words and phrases that are repeated throughout the job description, as well as company or industry-specific words and phrases. Also look out for quantifiable data such as key performance indicators, budgets, revenue targets, size of teams, and so on.
If you want help identifying relevant keywords, you could also use AI assistants and chatbots. Copy and paste the job description into an AI assistant and ask it to identify the most relevant keywords. This can give you a strong foundation on which to build your CV.
The second way to make your CV ATS-friendly is to take care with the layout, structure and format of the document. A CV with clear headings and sections that follow a standard structure is likely to be easier for an ATS software to scan. It’s also best to use a clear, readable font and make sure the margins and spacing of the document create plenty of space and don’t crowd the text. Save your CV as a PDF format, and if given the choice, save it in the format that optimises accessibility, rather than for printing.
Expert tip:
Carefully select keywords and action verbs for your CV, but don’t over-use them. You only need to prove each skill or experience once, so change up your keywords and phrases throughout your document. Use keywords and action verbs that are listed in the job description, as these are most likely to prove you can do the job.
Using phrases to make a CV stand out
It can be useful to think of your CV as a marketing material to help ‘sell yourself’. Adopting this approach may help you select words and phrases that will make a bigger impact with employers. Like any marketing material, you’ll want your CV to stand out from its competitors. This means that you’ll also want to find words for your CV that make it persuasive, convincing and different from the rest.
The words and phrases in your CV will differ according to the job, level and industry sector. Words that make your CV stand out from the crowd are known as ‘power words’. Their ‘power’ is that they make your achievements appear more impressive to the reader. Below you can find some examples of CV power words for various job types and sectors:
Sales marketing and customer service:
- Delivered
- Achieved
- Accomplished
- Built
- Generated
Creative roles:
- Collaborated
- Created
- Developed
- Showcased
- Visualised
Technical roles:
- Devised
- Designed
- Engineered
- Programmed
- Upgraded
Project management:
- Facilitated
- Managed
- Established
- Delivered
- Launched
Human resources:
- Supervised
- Administered
- Documented
- Processed
- Procured
Tailoring your keywords to a job
One of the most important and effective things you can do to improve your CV is to tailor it specifically for each application. HR managers and recruiters are often inundated with applications for every vacancy. As such, most employers simply don’t have the time to read every CV they receive in depth, so it’s crucial to make an instant impact with your document.
Industry research suggests hiring managers only spend six to eight seconds, on average, reading your CV before deciding whether you make the cut. In most cases, you’ll only have the attention of the reader for a matter of seconds before they decide whether you might be good enough, or you’re definitely not good enough for the job. Because of this, it’s essential to focus on keywords when you write your CV, and make sure your document contains as many relevant phrases and keywords as possible.
The most effective keywords for your CV will depend heavily on your industry sector, experience levels and the job you’re applying for. Review the job description carefully before you write your CV to pick out the most crucial keywords for your CV. Below you can find some examples of keywords for different professions and sectors:
Business, law and finance:
- Analysis
- Auditing
- Budgeting
- Strategy
- Forecasting
- Reporting
- Consulting
Customer and client services:
- Customer-facing/client-facing
- Supervising
- Sales
- Key performance indicators (KPIs)
- Customer relationships/client relationships
Media and marketing:
- Account management
- Adobe Creative Suite
- API
- Networking
- Client services
- Content
- CRM
- Engagement
IT, software and web development:
- Algorithms
- Workflows
- UI/UX
- CAD
- Programming languages
- Architecture
- Frameworks
- Graphic design
"Use keywords to make your CV concise and impactful, maximising its effectiveness, while keeping your word count to a minimum."
Incorporating keywords and phrases into your CV
There are various ways to incorporate CV keywords and phrases for maximum impact with the reader. You’ll want your CV to include keywords and phrases throughout, including in your CV summary, your work experience section, your education and your skills section.
There are two key things to remember when using keywords and phrases, that will help you to leave a strong impression in each section of your CV:
- Start each bullet point or sentence with a strong action verb or a key skill
- Provide evidence to support the use of each keyword or phrase
Here are some example bullet points that demonstrate these two principles to maximise the impact of keywords on a CV:
Entry-level candidate:
- Provided part-time store management in a weekend supervisory role, leading sales team to achieve at least a 12% year-on-year increase in sales across three consecutive years.
Mid-level candidate:
- Partnered with internal colleagues and suppliers to deliver bespoke bookkeeping services to a portfolio of 18 clients, managing budgets exceeding £5,000,000.
Senior candidate:
- Negotiated a departmental budget increase of 24%, facilitating transition to a remote-first, flexible working arrangement and increasing staffing from 35 to 50 employees, while reducing staff attrition rates by 18%.
Sales and marketing roles:
- Achieved a 37% increase in gross profit margin across a portfolio of 11 major clients, combining new business worth £1.1 million with a 22% uplift in repeat business, increased product lines and improved account management practices.
Tech roles:
- Collaborated with a close-knit scrum team to deliver efficient product development and updates, reducing downtime by 13% and coding errors by 22%, resulting in a 21% overall increase in sprint efficiency.
Healthcare jobs:
- Delivered critical care to ICU patients, managing a team of 12 specialist nurses to monitor, assess and treat patients with various life-threatening conditions, achieving an ‘outstanding’ CQC rating.
Administrative positions:
- Supported a team of 12 senior managers and directors with everyday administrative duties, including correspondence, diary management, minute-taking and bookkeeping activities.
Business and finance roles:
- Produced financial reports and budget forecasts for regular board meetings, providing detailed financial analysis and insights to ensure regulatory compliance while developing models to increase profit margins by up to 20%.
Avoiding overused CV words and phrases
It can be a challenge to avoid cliché and keep your CV fresh and engaging for the reader. However, if you allow overused CV words and phrases to creep into your CV, you’re likely to lessen the impact of your application and damage your chances of success.
To avoid falling into the trap of cliché, keep your CV as specific as possible, with examples of your impact and achievements throughout. Use clear, well-defined terms and phrases that demonstrate your skills, rather than vague platitudes that could apply to any candidate.
Here are some of the most overused CV phrases, together with some alternative keywords that might make a stronger impact:
‘Team player’
Teamwork is a highly valuable skill for most jobs, but employers will expect you to do more than simply tell them that you work well in a team. You’ll need to demonstrate your teamwork skills by showcasing examples of successful collaboration, and how it led to positive results or outcomes.
Some words and phrases to use instead of ‘team player’ include:
- Collaborator
- Supportive
- Cooperative
- Team-focused
‘Hard-working’
Being hard-working is a prerequisite for any job, so listing this on your CV will likely make no impact on your chances of success. However, if you want to particularly highlight the extra effort and commitment you make in your work, add examples of times when you’ve gone the extra mile, and the impact it’s made.
Some words and phrases to use instead of ‘hard-working’:
- Committed
- Industrious
- Diligent
- Tenacious
- Dedicated
‘Results driven’
This is another CV platitude that is ultimately meaningless unless you provide evidence. Show examples from your career that demonstrate your focus on achieving and exceeding targets, with real data and metrics to support it.
Some words and phrases to substitute instead of ‘results driven’ include:
- Goal-oriented
- Motivated
- Outcomes-focused
- Successful
- Achieved/accomplished
‘Independent worker’
A common CV cliché is to state how comfortable you are working in a team, or independently. In reality, this phrase has limited impact because it fails to identify an actual skill or strength that employers could use to assess your suitability. Choosing between ‘team player’ and ‘independent worker’ also risks limiting your options, as most jobs require a combination of the two. Instead, be more specific about your style of working.
These alternative words and phrases cover similar themes that employers might find more valuable:
- Self-motivated
- Proactive
- Adaptable
- Flexible
- Self-directed
‘Strong communicator’
Strong communication skills are a highly valuable commodity in the job market, but showcasing your communication skills in your CV can be problematic. It’s often difficult to provide firm examples of your communication skills, so instead, break down your communication skills into their different components and provide examples of each.
Alternative words and phrases to ‘communication skills’ include:
- Negotiation skills
- Presentation skills
- Active listening
- Conflict resolution
- Relationship building
Dos and Don'ts of selecting phrases for your CV
Follow these quick tips to make sure you select the most effective keywords and phrases for your CV:
- Choose sector-specific and skills-related keywords: tailor your keywords to reflect the skills and experience mentioned in the job description. Different sectors and job titles can require entirely different skills and experience, and your keywords and phrases should reflect this.
- Adapt your CV to mirror the job description: if your job title is slightly different to the job title advertised, but it’s essentially the same job, adjust it so it matches the language in the job description and helps you to pass the ATS stage. For example, your title could be ‘Customer Relationship Manager’ and the job advertised may be ‘Client Relationship Manager’.
- Save some space for unique personal qualities: while it’s essential to use keywords from the job description, try to also save some space to mention some personal skills and qualities that are unique to you. These can help differentiate you from other candidates.
- Use a professional CV design: a clean, subtle CV design with a clear structure and layout can help your keywords and phrases to stand out. CVwizard has various CV templates to help your CV make a lasting impression.
- Use clichés: Avoid falling back on clichés and meaningless business jargon in your CV. These can really harm your chances. Some phrases and words not to use in your CV include ‘team player’, ‘hard worker’ and ‘self-motivated’.
- Stuff keywords: You only need to mention each keyword once in your CV, to prove you have the skill or experience required for the role. Stuffing your CV with keywords and repeating the same words and phrases can make your CV seem insincere.
- Repeat the same action verbs multiple times: Similar to keyword stuffing, repeating the same action verbs and power words multiple times can harm your CV. Choose a different action verb each time to show a range of skills and experience.
Key Takeaways for Words and Phrases to Include in Your CV
Your CV gives you a brief window of attention from hiring managers and employers, so make it count. Using keywords and phrases from the job description can help you pass the ATS stage and get your CV reviewed by an actual decision maker. Hold the attention of the reader by making sure your CV includes all the keywords and phrases necessary to prove you can do the job. You can also make a positive impression by using a professional CV design, such as those offered by CVwizard. Sign up today to start creating your winning CV.
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