On a train trip to north Wales in the summer, I visited Portmeirion, the Italian-style village designed and built by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis and used as the set for the 1960s’ cult TV series ‘The Prisoner’.

One of the oft-quoted lines from the series is from “Number Six” played by Patrick McGoohan: “I am not a number, I am a free man.”

The line came to mind during my latest career transition advice session.

We had been asked to rewrite our CV to highlight our career achievements using action words.

I went along with the exercise – up to a point, Lord Copper.

After I had listed an achievement starting with the word “developed”, I was advised by one of the career coaches to add “successfully” at the start.

I immediately objected. Of course it was successful. Otherwise I wouldn’t be mentioning it among my career achievements. Why would I list something which had been a flop?

I was told this would add impact and would help to quantify the results to a future employer.

Again I objected. How could any employer differentiate between candidates when they were all using the same buzzwords and business jargon (there are several other words beginning with ‘b’ which also came to mind)?

I was told these keywords are being used by Applicant Tracking Systems as a form of electronic sifting long before CVs or cover letters get anywhere near a human being or the person doing the hiring.

Maybe that’s where I’ve been going wrong all this time. By being honest and using plain English rather than bigging up my achievements and playing the game, I’ve ended up on the discard pile time after time.

So do I go along with the rules as set out by others or do I stay true to myself? When you’ve spent a lifetime wading through jargon and writing accessible copy, it doesn’t come naturally to obfuscate and homogenise.

Whatever happened to individuality and personality? Is the recruitment process now just a matter of speaking the right language?

If a company is looking for a “highly-motivated individual with a proven track record of successful implementation of business change systems”, do I simply put on my CV that I’m a “highly-motivated individual with a proven track record of successful implementation of business change systems” in order to get through the electronic gatekeeper.

Or do I stick with my Number Six beliefs: “I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own!”

Maybe the fantasy of The Prisoner has become fact and this is the modern world of employment.

As The Admiral said in the series: “We’re all pawns, my dear.”