Use strong action verbs to describe your accomplishments from current and previous roles. Action verbs to enhance your resume when promoting yourself, you must express your skills, assets, experience, and accomplishments in an active voice which is in an easy, straightforward and economical manner. Literary essay report or persuasive essay that refers to an experts opinion or research studies. Verbs which are used to mention to save company time or money. Power words and action verbs give your resume or story life. Here are five such power words that may intrigue hiring. Use peek, glance, stare, glare, gape, observe, or some other verb that portrays the exact behavior. While the english language can be wonderfully rich, the same 2025 action verbs dominate 95% of job search applications. This list is provided to help you get started and is not an allinclusive list of great verbs to use. Using action verbs that are unique and powerful can increase your chances of capturing the attention of an employer and moving to the next step in the hiring process. Accomplishment, creative, communication, helping, instructional, leadership, organizationdetail, research, technical. Adjectives for resume include resumable, resumptive, resumed and resuming.
Use action verbs in resumes to describe all skills, accomplishments, and responsibilities. Feb 06, 2018 a lot of wellmeaning people will suggest you should use action verbs. Usually you can use a stronger more compelling verb. So take that same resume from okay to great by replacing those simple, boring phrases with some punchpacking, meaningful verbs. Strong action verbs use this list of strong action verbs to diversify, strengthen, and individualize your resume language. Dec 08, 2017 resumes are a lot like this situation, except that the words youre choosing are being put into competition with everyone else submitting a resume for the same position. When youre writing a resume, you have to describe the things you do and things youve done. Be concise, use past tense verbs, avoid first person pronouns i, me, my. How to use strong verbs for resume and cover letter.
Strong verbs are action verbs that are specific and easily visualized by the reader. This easy switch adds color while removing fluff in your writing. Power verbs for your resume getting results example. Sometimes we see resumes use words like handled when describing an action. Find the right words in this list of relevant synonyms for your book, title, or blog. Something to keep in mind power words, action words, action verbs, and so on are synonyms. Jul 28, 2020 you can include power words throughout your resume, including in your job descriptions, resume summary statement, and your cover letter. In some cases though, the action verb used in the sentence is overused or vague that it doesnt do your achievement justice. How to effectively use resume action words topresume. If youre not sure where to insert power words in your resume and cover letter, highlight each verb and find a strong synonym to replace it from the above lists.
Make use of a few common words, along with strong phrases that will catch the eyes of hiring managers. Listed below are common action verbs to use when writing resumes and examples of how to you may use them in your resume. Find 31 ways to say resume, along with antonyms, related words, and example sentences at, the worlds most trusted free thesaurus. Review this list of possible synonyms categorized by the skills employers seek. List of action verbs and keywords to use in resumes and cover letters when applying for jobs. However, it is often difficult to think of good verbs. Resume and cover letter action verbs the balance careers. The gap between overused and vivid action verbs for resume. Use the action verbs list above as a resource to find such words, and help you avoid weaker ones. Apr 16, 2019 heres how we define strong verbs vs weak verbs.
Strong resume adjectives are a great way to highlight and emphasize your experience. Choose a strong verb from the following lists to replace the more neutral verbs in the passage. Your resume must grab the hiring managers attention within the first 10 seconds, or it will likely get tossed. Jul 17, 2019 what are resume action verbs and keywords. Nov 27, 2017 words that imply strong developer of people if youre working to land a leadership role, a key aspect of your job will likely involve inspiring and developing teams and the people on those teams. Resume action words are creative and powerful verbs that you should use on your resume to make it stand out. Action verbs use them in your resume you should use. Feb 21, 2018 resumes and cover letters a resume is a brief, informative summary of your abilities, education, and experience.
By using action verbs, your resume is more likely to bypass the ats and land in the hiring managers inbox. Here are a few examples of passive resume sentences. This book is a verb thesaurus comprising a collection of verbs that challenge, encourage, lead, and inspire. Strong action verbs college of education university of. Synonyms for words commonly used in resumes ability aptitude. Leadership skills administered analyzed appointed approved assigned attained. A resume thats chockfull of phrases like responsible for, participated in, or contributed to isnt the worst thing on earth, but it doesnt say what you actually did in your job. Scan the resume for these warning signs and replace passive resume writing with more active verbs and sentences. Lots of resume bullet points start with these words, so youre guaranteed not to.
It should highlight your strongest assets and skills, and differentiate you from other candidates seeking similar positions. This list of strong action verbs is a handy reference to use when a better word is needed. The list is organized in sections to help you locate the best words. So, hopefully you now agree that action verbs are pretty important. When youre writing a resume, remember that a strong resume has strong words. Youll want to identify keywords in the position description for each opening and use those same words, framing them with strong action verbs, to capture the readers attention.
Avoid introductory phrases such as, duties included, responsible for. Want to boost your chance of being called in for an interview. Dec 17, 2020 in a resume, action verbs are used to highlight your skills, experience and accomplishments. Remember to vary the words that you userepeating the same word even power words leads to a dull reading experience and will turn off the hiring manager. Before submitting your resume, go over the job listing and choose action. Check out the list below, and get ready to make your resume way more. They are specific, clarify your contributions and bring a confident tone to your resume. The 10 strongest action verbs for a perfect resume. A 20 percent revenue growth was realized in our department over two years. Perhaps you would like to add some of your own strong verbs to the lists. Increased student participation by 25% over a 6month period accomplished constructed ensured hastened minimized reduced losses achieved contributed excelled heightened modernized rejuvenated added delivered expanded improved obtained renovated. Sometimes, you can get stuck using the same verb such as multiple times when it is better to mix up statements with other similar verbs. So the main thing you need to remember when it comes to strong verbs vs weak verbs is how specific it is.
List at least 10 strong verbs for each of the activities below. Action verbs and high impact phrases using action verbs will demonstrate to an employer that you took action, produced results, and contributed. Youve probably read or heard it before, but its worth saying again. For the employer, keywords are the terms that hiring managers use to screen resumes and cover letters to find applicants that are a good fit for a job. Jan 12, 2020 using power verbs is a prerequisite for a jobwinning resume. No matter what duty or accomplishment youre trying to show off, weve got just the resume action verb for you. Weak, vague or overused verbs can actually diminish the excellent work you did at your last job, so choose action verbs that more accurately reflect what you do. Each word has specific usage patterns that are unique to its meaning. Resume power verbs with synonyms action verbs for statements. Most bullet points on resumes start with the same words, to the point that they lose their efficacy. Although it alone will not get you a job or internship, a good resume is an important element toward obtain. In order to present your talent in the company, employees use verbs where they used to be costeffective and efficient hiring managers lookout for exceptional resumes that show their costeffective and efficient manner in their team to show the way you saved your team, these powerful verbs can be utilized to make your resume. Jul 01, 2020 the applicant also includes the strong verb communicating, which is among the most common resume keywords recognized by corporate applicant tracking systems ats.
The top power words and buzzwords to use in your resume. Describing your skills with strong action verbs select strong, active verbs from the list below to describe your skills on your resume and cover letter. Indeed, in some verbs, the authors military background shines through. Finding the right word out of thin air is a typical problem for professional writers, let alone people trying to write resumes. Always begin the descriptions of your experience with. Only use the verbs youre familiar with unless you take the time to examine the definition in the dictionary. To engage your readers, you must spice up your resume by highlighting strong action resume verbs that bring your background to life. Action verbs are powerful and persuasive verbs that help your accomplishments stand out in your resume. We all have access to the same 26 letters in the alphabet and all the words in the dictionary. For example, the verb were grown comprises two words, meaning that it is in the passive voice. Synonyms for words commonly used in resumes ability aptitude capability adopt use utilize employ apply mobilize exert restore revive. Begin each descriptive section with an action verb.
Next time you update your resume, switch up a few of those common words and phrases with strong, compelling action verbs that will catch hiring managers eyes. Use present tense verbs for current positions and past tense verbs for previous positions. Using active verbs will improve your resume and letters. By using a compelling action verb, you can catch the recruiters eye and paint a vivid picture of how you are the best candidate. This will give your resume an instant boost and ensure employers take notice of your valuable experience. They increase the strength of your writing, and help you make a strong. If you use resume action verbs to strengthen concrete examples of your accomplishments rather than to hide your weaknesses, your resume will immediately make a better case for your hireability. This article will provide a full list of adjectives to describe food.
If it were in the active voice, it would have only. Lets say someone else applying for the job has the exact same work experience, education heck, lets say you even have the same name. List of action resume verbs and synonyms to those common action verbs that can be used in your resume to diversify the statements. Dec 03, 2020 rather than leave you wondering what success verbs might be, im providing you a list of 25 success verbs you can use for the 25 bullets on your resume. Having a list of strong resume words to reference will help you add. Appearance resumes are professional correspondence. Use resume action words when listing your accomplishments. A great revision strategy is to look for ways to make verbs more descriptive. The body job descriptors use action words in short, clearly written phrases, complete sentences are not necessary.
Strong verbs show the reader those movements and behaviors. Start bullet statements with action verbs that describe. Demonstrate a strong ability to strengthen costprofit ratios demonstrate sound cost effectiveness develop strong cost control measures to ensure desired results maintain effective cost control exercise appropriate cost control effectively identify areas needing cost reductions. From the job seeker perspective, keywords are the words job seekers use to search for available positions. Weak verbs are the basic forms of a specific action, like walked or ran. We dont find ten hut, check fire, carry on, march, and fall out. Limit to one or two pages printed on 8 12 x 11 bond paper using high quality printer with familiar fonts times, palatine, etc. Apart from the usual wordings which the hiring managers have heard all the time, getting a little more creative with powerful verbs can make your resume look special. Strengthen your resume when writing your resume, use the power verbs below to begin each of your bulleted statements. This is a good example of using resume words in a work experience bullet because the candidate. Action words to use in your resume and interview answers. Students can keep these sheets in their writers journal or notebook. Lets glimpse through a few powerful verbs that will make your resume awesome.
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