6 Worst Attributes You Can Give yourself in a CV

The problem with most of us is that we love ourselves, sometimes too much.
This love tends to be all-encompassing, which means that we often try and encompass everyone else with this self-love.
We fail to realize, however, that sometimes we can sound a little too wonderful and this can put off potential employers. We may also use words that in some cases mean slightly less than we'd like them to. Especially when we're presenting ourselves on a CV.
Below are the 6 worst attributes you can give yourself in a CV. Please check them against your own CV profile. Just in case you think you're that wonderful.

1. VISIONARY. What are you, a clairvoyant? Someone with special powers? Iron man? You probably think that you are. However, one part of vision is envisioning what others will think of your self-attribution. Describing yourself as a visionary in a CV is telling other people (read employers) that you're more existentially exalted than they are. That isn't very visionary.

2. INSPIRATIONAL LEADER. Who said so? Do you have a list of those you have inspired? You're going to tell me that all those people who have signed your recommendation letters actually have the merest tinge of objectivity? Or are you going to tell me that they recommended you because you asked for it? That wasn't very inspired of you.

3. SUCCESSFUL. I've noticed this word couple of times in CVs. I think it's somehow sneaked in there by the typist. Or, may be it is  an inspiration to the candidate. Especially when they need to remind themselves that they're successful. They worry that they're not. They also need to believe that other people are failures.  You might have scored those straights As and graduated with a first class honors, but success and failure are movable beasts. As words of self-description, they actually mean nothing. Except in your shrink's office.

4. THOUGHT LEADER. Someone in marketing must have invented this one. Does it mean: "My thoughts are better than yours?" Does it mean: "People can't wait to hear the next thing that comes out of my brain?" Or might it signify: "I'm trying to make myself sound important here and I hope I get away with it."?

5. CONCEPTUAL THINKER. Please forgive me for asking, but what does this mean? Does it mean that you have a grasp of mental concepts? Doesn't everyone, at least to some extent? Are you trying to say that you have lots of ideas? Or that you think in ideas? Or that when you think you don't just think of ice cream and butterflies and sunny days? Could it be that you're saying that you had no idea what to write and this sounded good?

6. PURPOSE-DRIVEN. I worry. You're driven by a purpose, as opposed to a whim? But what if your purpose is whimsical? What if your purpose is money? Is that a good thing or a bad thing? I went to a thesaurus, fascinated by what might be the opposite of purpose. I was given "aimlessness," "neglect" and "oversight." You're telling me you're not driven by aimlessness? OK. So you wrote that on purpose?