Where business cards and CVs used to suffice, LinkedIn has now taken over. The past few years have seen the professional networking platform elevate to a prominent status. Having a LinkedIn profile will soon be as necessary as having a Facebook profile. But like those early days of Facebook, there’s going to be some growing pains involved. You know what I’m talking about. The run of terribly edited DPs in negative filters. Essays upon essays of cringe heavy updates.
LinkedIn is currently still a text driven site. So words will obviously have a heavy impact on whoever is lurking on your profile. Words will define who you are to potential employers, and maybe even make or break potential job opportunities. And it goes without saying some words will be more overused than others. Some words are going to naturally lose some meaning.
Here are ten words you should avoid having on your profile:
Leadership
Your leadership skills should be evident in the success of projects you’ve run. Don’t go out of the way to explain it. In the words of Tywin Lannister, any man who must say ‘I am king’ is no true king.
Expert
This is another nothing word that means squat unless you’ve got the credentials and track record to back it up. And at that point, you won’t need to say you’re an expert. It’ll just be known.
Specialised
Think about it. What’s specialised about a skill? If each skill is independent and unique from one another, what makes is any more special? Scrap it out.
Strategic
Strategic has become the common synonym to dress up whatever has been structured. And frankly, if what you’re undertaking isn’t structured, then it shouldn’t be mentioned. Strategy is always a given. Exception: strategic was in your former title.
Passionate
You should hope that you’re passionate about what you’ve taken part in. On a personal note, this is one of those words that seems like it’s more at home on a dating profile than a professional networking site. Even then, it’ll elicit an eyeroll or two.
Creative
This one is equal parts vagueness/bullshit word, equal parts the rationale for ‘passionate’. How do you quantify creativity? Similar to ‘strategic’, unless you yourself were in a position where ‘creative’ was a part of the title, it shouldn’t be applied to describe yourself.
Motivated
Using ‘motivated’ is like the adult equivalent of that one kid in class that tells the teacher he’s trying his best, despite everyone witnessing him eating crayons, throwing rubbers out the window, and pulling the hair of other kids.
Driven
See above.
Focused
As opposed to unfocused? Delete it.
Experienced
LinkedIn is essentially an online resume. Everything you detail is an experience. The common theme here is some phrases are redundant given the context.
