The most overused phrases in job postings
Three in four job postings contain at least one cliché. Of 73,121 English-language postings, 75.4% use one or more of 46 stock phrases, and 22.0% say "passionate". The ones people complain about are rare: "rockstar" appears in 25 postings and "like a family" in 15.
By OfferMagnet · · 6 min read
The short answer
- of postings contain at least 1 of 46 clichés (55,127 of 73,121)
- 75.4%
- say "passionate" or "passion for", the most common cliché (16,096 postings)
- 22.0%
- say "fast-paced" (12,463 postings); on startup boards it is 18.7%, on Workday 10.6%
- 17.0%
A quarter of postings (26.3%) stack three or more clichés. The famous red-flag phrases are nearly extinct in this data: "wear many hats" is in 0.3% of postings, "rockstar" in 25, "work hard, play hard" in 12, "ninja" in 10 (we read all 10: 8 name the Ninja build tool or Binary Ninja).
The phrases that survive are the respectable ones: passionate, innovative, fast-paced, cutting-edge. They sound like a description and carry almost no information. Our counts are a floor, because we read only the first 4,000 characters of each posting.
Our list of clichés, by system
| Phrase | All postings | Startup boards | Workday |
|---|---|---|---|
| passionate / passion for | 22.0% | 21.9% | 21.6% |
| innovative | 17.2% | 14.7% | 23.8% |
| fast-paced | 17.0% | 18.7% | 10.6% |
| cutting-edge / state of the art | 12.4% | 10.6% | 10.3% |
| dynamic | 10.9% | 11.5% | 9.3% |
| strong communication skills | 10.3% | 10.5% | 9.7% |
| world-class | 9.4% | 10.6% | 5.7% |
| proven / strong track record | 8.7% | 10.3% | 4.8% |
| detail-oriented / attention to detail | 8.3% | 8.7% | 7.9% |
| competitive salary / pay / compensation | 8.3% | 7.1% | 6.9% |
| high-performing | 5.8% | 6.5% | 5.5% |
| high-growth | 5.4% | 7.5% | 0.8% |
Workday, where large employers post, leans on "innovative" (23.8%, against 14.7% on startup boards). Startup boards lean on "fast-paced" and "high-growth": the latter appears in 7.5% of their postings and in 0.8% of Workday's.
| Phrase | Greenhouse | Ashby | Lever | Workday |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| fast-paced | 20.2% | 17.9% | 9.6% | 10.6% |
| world-class | 9.8% | 15.2% | 5.1% | 5.7% |
| high-growth | 6.9% | 11.5% | 1.5% | 0.8% |
| thrive in ambiguity | 2.9% | 3.9% | 0.5% | 0.5% |
| unlimited PTO | 2.2% | 3.0% | 1.2% | 0.0% |
| other duties as assigned | 1.9% | 0.0% | 0.1% | 3.0% |
| Any of the 46 | 79.4% | 74.7% | 46.7% | 72.3% |
| Postings read | 33,753 | 11,379 | 4,190 | 14,607 |
The real top 20 phrases (not our list)
A curated list only finds what we thought to look for, so we also counted every three- and four-word phrase and ranked them by how many postings contain them. Unfiltered, the top is boilerplate: "years of experience" (25.5%), "the ability to" (20.3%), "an equal opportunity employer" (12.4%). We removed legal and pay-disclosure text, degree requirements, benefits and section headers ("about the role", "what you'll do"). This is what is left.
| # | Phrase | Postings | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | track record of | 10,378 | 14.2% |
| 2 | work closely with | 9,886 | 13.5% |
| 3 | ability to work | 6,435 | 8.8% |
| 4 | partner closely with | 6,187 | 8.5% |
| 5 | experience working with | 5,255 | 7.2% |
| 6 | around the world | 5,130 | 7.0% |
| 7 | strong understanding of | 4,964 | 6.8% |
| 8 | build and maintain | 4,806 | 6.6% |
| 9 | shape the future | 4,711 | 6.4% |
| 10 | deep understanding of | 4,609 | 6.3% |
| 11 | hands-on experience with | 4,480 | 6.1% |
| 12 | demonstrated ability to | 4,421 | 6.0% |
| 13 | written and verbal | 4,413 | 6.0% |
| 14 | proven ability to | 4,362 | 6.0% |
| 15 | attention to detail | 4,302 | 5.9% |
| 16 | end to end | 3,898 | 5.3% |
| 17 | working knowledge of | 3,882 | 5.3% |
| 18 | with cross-functional teams | 3,814 | 5.2% |
| 19 | collaborate closely with | 3,467 | 4.7% |
| 20 | develop and maintain | 3,429 | 4.7% |
The real top 20 is mostly workplace grammar, not hype. "Closely" alone appears in four of the twenty: work, partner, collaborate (and "working" closely with, just below the cut). "Shape the future" (6.4%) and "around the world" (7.0%) are the closest to pure marketing.
Red flags vs. just filler
A word count cannot tell you whether a job is bad. What follows is opinion, labeled as such, on top of the counts above.
- Opinion: filler. Passionate, innovative, cutting-edge, dynamic, strong communication skills. Nearly a quarter or more of all postings say them, on every system. A phrase that common cannot separate one employer from another.
- Opinion: read the sentence. Fast-paced and high-growth are usually code for "things change and the team is small". That is information if you want it and a warning if you do not. Startup boards say fast-paced about twice as often as Workday does (18.7% against 10.6%).
- Opinion: a real flag, if you see it. "Like a family" (15 postings) and "work hard, play hard" (12) are directional only at this size, and the matches we read were mostly about family-owned or family-focused firms. Seeing either in a posting is a prompt to ask about hours.
- Fact, not opinion: "competitive salary" is not a pay figure. 6,043 postings use it, and 41.6% of those (2,515) also show a dollar amount, against 14.2% (9,550 of 67,078) of postings without the phrase. Pay-transparency laws seem to push the phrase and the number onto the same posting. The number is the part to look for.
- Fact: the old-school ones barely exist. "Rockstar" in 25 postings (we exclude Rockstar Games), "guru" in 27, "ninja" in 10 (8 of them a software tool). The cliché you were warned about is not the one you will meet.
What we counted
OfferMagnet reads postings from company careers pages and job boards, including Greenhouse, Workday, Ashby and Lever. We took postings first seen between 19 September and 30 October 2026, de-duplicated by posting ID (87,308), and set aside the three employers with the most postings (8,238).
- English-language: the first 1,500 characters have at least 40 words and a high share of common English words (the, and, of, to, you, our, will...) compared with French, German and Spanish ones. Postings under 300 characters are dropped (2,806). 3,143 non-English postings were removed. That leaves 73,121.
- Cliché list: 46 phrases, each matched by a case-insensitive word-bounded pattern that allows hyphens and common variants, such as "fast paced", "rock star" or "passion for". A posting counts once per phrase however often it uses it.
- Startup boards are Greenhouse, Ashby and Lever. Workday is Workday alone. Cells under 20 postings are called directional.
- N-grams: all 3- and 4-word sequences, counted by the number of postings containing them. We then removed boilerplate by pattern (equal opportunity, pay ranges, degrees, benefits, section headings) and overlapping variants.
What to do with this
- Skip the adjectives, read the verbs. The useful part of a posting is what you will build, own or maintain, not "dynamic" or "innovative".
- Treat fast-paced as a question for the interview. Ask what changed on the team in the last quarter.
- Look for a number, not "competitive". If there is no pay figure, ask for the range before you spend time on the process.
- Do not mirror the clichés in your resume. Your resume should say what you did. "Passionate self-starter" is in the posting 22.0% and 2.8% of the time, and in too many resumes.
- Match on the nouns. Tools, domains and outcomes in the posting are what a screen looks for, so those are what your resume should echo.
FAQ
›What is the most overused phrase in job postings?
Of 46 phrases we counted, "passionate" (including "passion for") is the most common at 22.0% of 73,121 English postings. "Innovative" is next at 17.2% and "fast-paced" at 17.0%.
›Do job postings still say rockstar or ninja?
Rarely. "Rockstar" appears in 25 postings and "ninja" in 10, and 8 of those 10 refer to the Ninja build tool or Binary Ninja.
›Is "fast-paced" a red flag?
It is a signal, not proof. 17.0% of postings use it: 18.7% on Greenhouse, Ashby and Lever, and 10.6% on Workday. Treat it as a prompt to ask about workload.
›Does "competitive salary" mean the pay is good?
It tells you nothing by itself. 8.3% of postings use it, and 41.6% of those also show a dollar figure, against 14.2% of postings without the phrase.
›What are the most common phrases once boilerplate is removed?
"Track record of" (14.2%) and "work closely with" (13.5%) lead the n-gram count. Most of the top 20 is workplace grammar, not hype.
Method and sources
- Source: OfferMagnet's own index of public job postings (87,308 unique, first seen 19 Sep to 30 Oct 2026). 73,121 remain after removing the top 3 employers by posting count, postings under 300 characters, and non-English text.
- Cliché share = postings whose first 4,000 characters match the phrase's word-bounded, case-insensitive pattern (hyphens and common variants allowed), divided by postings in the group. Counts are a floor.
- N-grams: 3-4 word sequences counted by document frequency over all 73,121 postings; boilerplate (equal opportunity, pay ranges, degrees, benefits, section headers) removed by pattern and overlapping phrases collapsed.
- "Dollar figure" = a $ amount with thousands separators, a $NNk amount or an hourly rate. We report counts of postings, not people. No applicant or customer data is used.