The 10 most common words Americans use on their resume – and which ones they are spelling wrong

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – A new study by QRFY, has revealed the most overused words on resumes, with ‘responsible’ coming out on top.

  • ‘Responsible’ is the most overused word on Americans’ resumes, featuring in more than 5.1 million resumes.

  • ‘Profesional’ was the most common misspelling among resumes, followed by ‘organized’ and ‘environment.’

  • The study used Indeed’s Resume Search to find the most common words that feature in resumes updated in the last six months.

QR code generator QRFY, compiled a list of 50 commonly used resume words and phrases, and then ran each of these through Indeed’s Resume Search, to find which featured the most across resumes updated in the past 6 months.

According to the study, ‘Responsible’ has a significantly high usage rate, appearing 349% more frequently than any other words on the list, while also being the most-used word on resumes in each individual state.

The second most-common word according to the study, was found to be ‘organized’ which featured in 3,864,497 resumes. A crucial skill employers seek in today’s dynamic job market, it reflects the need for individuals who can manage workload, deadlines, and resources effectively.

Closely following in third is ‘social’ which featured in 3,491,557 resumes, highlighting the importance of building and leveraging professional networks.

‘Trained’ placed fourth being used 2,952,148 times, while ‘Leader’ ranks fifth featuring on 2,330,139 resumes, according to the study.

The 10 most-overused words and phrases on resumes:

Rank

Word/phrase

Number of resumes updated within the last six months that used the word/phrase

1.

Responsible

5,146,386

2.

Organized

3,864,497

3.

Social

3,491,557

4.

Trained

2,952,148

5.

Leader

2,330,139

6.

Proficient

2,201,793

7.

Motivated

2,200,863

8.

Exceptional

1,905,296

9.

Experienced

1,787,354

10.

Friendly

1,770,814

The 10 most commonly misspelt words and phrases on resumes

As well as looking at which words are the most overused, the analysis also looked at the most misspelt words on resumes, according to the study.

‘Professional’ was the most commonly misspelt word, which was found to be spelt as ‘profesional’ on 38,697 resumes within the past 6 months, with a number of jobseekers forgetting the crucial double ‘s’.

The second most misspelled word according to the study, was ‘organized’, which saw 20,260 resumes adopt the UK spelling of the word, ‘organised’ which uses an ‘s’ rather than a ‘z’.

Following in third, was ‘enviroment’ rather than ‘environment’ which cropped up in 14,770 resumes, and missed the ‘n’ from the word. In fourth was the misspelling of ‘management’ as ‘mangement’ which misses out the letter ‘a’ and featured in 9,354 resumes.

The fifth most misspelled was the word ‘receive’, where people often transposed their vowels instead spelling it as ‘recieve.’ 9,354 resumes failed to follow the rule of ‘i’ before ‘e’ except after ‘c’ with this word, according to the study.

Rank

Misspelling of word

Correct spelling of word

Number of resumes updated within the last six months that used the word/phrase

1.

Profesional

Professional

38,697

2.

Organised

Organized

20,260

3.

Enviroment

Environment

14,770

4.

Mangment

Management

10,277

5.

Recieve

Receive

9,354

6.

Independant

Independent

7,087

7.

Knowlege

Knowledge

3,316

8.

Confidant

Confident

2,594

9.

Seperate

Separate

2,465

10.

Focussed

Focused

2,272

Speaking on the findings, Marc Porcar, CEO of QRFY who carried out the study, commented:

“For those seeking career advancement, better work-life balance, or simply wanting a change of role, using the right language on your resume is crucial if you want to impress potential employers. If you’re using the same old buzzwords as everyone else, it can often feel difficult to stand out from the crowd.

AT&T, other cellular providers see significant outages

“Job seekers should aim instead to offer specific examples of when they have demonstrated a certain characteristic, rather than just saying they are ‘organized’, for example. Doing so evidences to a potential employer that you can back-up these claims with previous work experience, which should help you stand out from other candidates, who may not have been as thorough.”

The 20 most overused words:

Rank

Word/phrase

Number of resumes updated within the last six months that used the word/phrase

1.

Responsible

5,146,386

2.

Organized

3,864,497

3.

Social

3,491,557

4.

Trained

2,952,148

5.

Leader

2,330,139

6.

Proficient

2,201,793

7.

Motivated

2,200,863

8.

Exceptional

1,905,296

9.

Experienced

1,787,354

10.

Friendly

1,770,814

11.

Fast-paced

1,701,821

12.

Skilled

1,636,246

13.

Team player

1,596,853

14.

Creative

1,503,845

15.

Successful

1,456,502

16.

Bilingual

1,451,423

17.

Focused

1,381,508

18.

Driven

1,355,376

19.

Reliable

1,336,700

20.

Hard-working

1,269,563

The 20 most commonly misspelled words

Rank

Misspelled Words

Number of resumes updated within the last six months that used the word/phrase

1.

Profesional

38,697

2.

Organised

20,260

3.

Enviroment

14,770

4.

Mangment

10,277

5.

Recieve

9,354

6.

Independant

7,087

7.

Knowlege

3,316

8.

Confidant

2,594

9.

Seperate

2,465

10.

Focussed

2,272

11.

Tought

1,239

12.

Sucessful

934

13.

Prefered

657

14.

Experianced

574

15.

Publically

538

16.

Refered

498

17.

Prepration

311

18.

Andd

226

19.

Definately

106

20.

Noticable

81

You can find more information right here: https://qrfy.com

Sources: preply.com, theladders.com, monster.com, indeed.com, staffingadvisors.com, recuiteze.com, businessinsider.com, huffingtonpost.com, wordsrated.com

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