Indian professionals feel less strategic, more skilled: Study

Mumbai: The words 'strategic', 'excellent', and 'certified' have dropped off the list of words used to describe professionals in 2017 according to a recent study. A LinkedIn buzzwords study has found that the words 'strategic', 'excellent' and 'certified' have dropped off the top 10 in 2017 in India, while 'skilled' has entered the list for the first time this year and is in the top three both here, and globally. 

LinkedIn analysed the most popular words across over 45 million member profiles in India for this study. Words 'oriented' and 'innovative' are also new entries to this year's list, it added. "The Indian job market continues to be fiercely competitive, and now backed by rapid technological advancement across industries, we are also witnessing skills disruption," LinkedIn communications head for India Deepa Sapatnekar said.

"Our Buzzwords data also corroborates that Indian professionals are keen on highlighting their experiences and skills over personal qualities to gain a competitive advantage over other candidates," she added. Interestingly, recruiters are also using keywords to identify candidates, so professionals should use the right words to bring them closer to the right job. 

This year's buzzwords India data revealed that the word 'experienced' has moved from the ninth spot to the first spot compared to last year. The emphasis on the words 'experienced' and 'skilled' over 'certified' also highlights that recruiters are looking for talent with years of practical experience within a role, and not necessarily only for talent that is academically certified, it added.

The word 'passionate' has also gradually been dropping the ranks, from number two (in 2015) to number five (in 2016) to number six this year, and the word 'excellent' has also dropped off this year's list completely, indicating that personal qualities may not be enough to land a dream job.

The change in vocabulary showed that Indian professionals are keen on using specific and simple words to describe what they are good at and are deploying ways to quantify the use of broader terms.