Unemployed Lawyers and Law Students: Is Your Résumé Why You Don't Have A Job?

So lawyers, if you’ve recently been laid off or have been out of school for over a year without a job, it’s probably time to look at your résumé and take out any reference to the fact that you’re, you know, “dynamic.”

Sure, you might be. But so is everyone else. And, more importantly, nobody cares anyway.

LinkedIn’s analytics team reviewed 85 million LinkedIn profiles and came out with a list of the most “clichéd and overused” phrases found on people’s resumes.

As they succinctly say, “You know what they are — those ambiguous ones that really don’t tell you anything.”

Here are the 2010 top 10 buzzwords used in the U.S., according to them….

1. Extensive experience
2. Innovative
3. Motivated
4. Results-oriented
5. Dynamic
6. Proven track record
7. Team player
8. Fast-paced
9. Problem solver
10. Entrepreneurial

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Which means the fact that you’re a problem-solving, innovative, dynamic team player, with extensive experience and a proven track record of motivating fast-paced entrepreneurs, is entirely useless in bed to the HR person looking at your résumé.

Those words don’t add any additional value. They’re empty and sound like you’re padding your profile because you don’t have any real or substantive attributes to speak of. And worse, you look like you don’t even have access to a good thesaurus.

Of course, the fact that nobody’s hiring is probably why you have to pad your résumé in the first place. But, if you haven’t had any “real work” — well, go out and get some. Volunteer, intern, or give free legal advice at the local crackhouse (the crackheads are unlikely to report you for unauthorized practice of law or sue you for malpractice).  That’ll look better on your resume than the proven track record you’ve amassed in the fast-paced World of Warcraft.

And if not, the McDonald’s down the road is always looking for team-players. Can anybody say “Would you like fries with that?”

So LinkedIn has given us a list of the most trite words and phrases on résumés in general. Feel free to identify the most overused words and phrases on lawyer résumés, in the comments.

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(I’ll get you started: analytical.)

P.S: If the phrase “social media expert” doesn’t make it on next year’s list, I’ll be damned.

Did you use one of these 10 most overused buzzwords in your LinkedIn profile this year? [LinkedIn Blogs]