When you're applying for jobs, it's not the amount of experience on your resume that counts; it's how you write about your accomplishments that makes the difference. A well-written, impactful resume can catch a recruiter's eye and help give you an edge over other job applicants. Bullet points highlighting your achievements are an excellent way to pack a lot of information into bite-sized chunks that are easy for a hiring manager to skim through.
Your resume's bullet points should start with strong action verbs. Action verbs, like "Created" or "Implemented", immediately tell a recruiter your involvement in your accomplishments. Strong, unique action verbs show hiring managers that you have held different roles and skill sets, and makes your resume more impactful.
To help your resume pack the most punch, choose precise action verbs to describe the role you played in each achievement. The strongest verbs are unique and specific -- not vague or cliche. Overused expressions such as "responsible for" will make a recruiter's eyes glaze over, and worse, they don’t provide much information about what you actually accomplished. Verbs like "Pioneered" or "Launched" are more clear and vivid, and help you sound more confident.
Choose a category to see relevant action verbs
We've worked with 20+ hiring managers to curate 200+ effective action verbs. Just choose a category that best matches the kind of experience you're trying to convey, we'll show you the verbs you should use.
Strong Accomplishment-driven Action Verbs
Use accomplishment-driven verbs to talk about all types of professional achievements. These verbs are unique and clear, but they’re not exclusive to any particular industry; they can be applied to a wide range of experiences and people.
Examples in action
Promoted within 12 months due to strong performance and organizational impact - ahead of schedule by 12 months
Doubled new user acquisition from 10-15 users to 20-25 through the implementation of new marketing strategies focused on online advertising and improving the company's web presence, social media, and search engine optimization.
Introduced new backend project management system; achieved a 90% reduction in client complaints
Expanded community outreach program using targeted campaigns, driving a 60% increase in new leads
These examples lead with strong verbs to highlight specific, measurable accomplishments.
Action verbs to demonstrate communication skills
When you want to demonstrate your ability to convey ideas or work on a team, consider leading with communication-centric verbs. Although communication is a “soft” skill, it can still achieve tangible results -- focus on those in your bullet points, especially if you’re targeting a job where you’ll be working with people a lot.
Examples in action
Liaised with marketing to drive email and social media advertising efforts, using predictive modeling and clustering, resulting in a 35% increase in revenue
Acted as key contact for issue resolution and customer advocacy, reducing issues and complaints by over 45% .
Proposed new marketing initiative, focused on digital campaigns, that generated $500k of additional yearly revenue
Facilitated employee mentoring program; increased new hire retention rate by 50%
Examples like these show the type of communication skill that you used as well as the outcome that each one had.
Action verbs to describe your entrepreneurial experiences
If you want to bring your entrepreneurial skills to the forefront, start out with strong verbs that show your initiative and ingenuity. These verbs can be helpful when talking about business ideas you’ve launched or projects you’ve conceived.
Examples in action
Coordinated a team of four developers and two designers to implement and launch online marketplace that connects students with tutors, within 6 months
Developed a travel and lifestyle blog generating 30k+ unique users per month; weekly newsletter has 20k+ subscribers
Founded a tech startup for online education; partnered with 50 education companies in the first year of business
Developed and executed long-term business plan; grew customer base by 1000% over 5 years
These types of accomplishments aren’t ones you’d see on a typical resume -- so if you’ve got this type of experience, don’t hide it! It’ll help you stand out from the crowd.
Action verbs to highlight Management and Executive skills
Being a manager or executive requires a specialized skill set and plenty of experience. To show that you’re the right one for the job, choose verbs that showcase abilities such as planning, evaluation, and delegation.
Examples in action
Managed a 5-member cross-functional (product, engineering, sales, support) team and coordinated with six senior business partners toward the successful launch of an e-commerce platform
Created five-year transformation strategy covering marketing and product initiatives: strategy approved by Board of Directors and achieved 10% growth vs. -5% trend
Managed opening of new store that generated $500K in profits in its first quarter
Chaired customer service committee; raised standards of service and improved customer ratings by 80%
Management and executive roles are often competitive -- having concrete examples to show what you’ve achieved in similar roles could be crucial to getting the job.
Action verbs and words for leadership and mentorship experiences
If you have experience in leading and mentoring, opt for collaborative verbs that show how you inspire and bring out the best in others. Your ability to nurture others and encourage their growth is a great strength to possess, and will likely make a strong impression on a hiring manager.
Examples in action
Organized 3-day big data conference with 150+ attendees; curated agenda, promoted event, secured attendance, coordinated event logistics, and liaised with speakers and sponsors; generated $45K revenue
Led training and peer-mentoring programs for the incoming class of 25 analysts in 2012; developed and maintained training program to reduce onboarding time for new hires by 50%
Coached individual employees on sales skills; increased department revenue by 30%
Taught workshops on team building and cooperation; improved team productivity by 50%
Verbs such as “coached” and “taught” show how you led others to achieve the concrete results that you discuss in the bullet points.
Action verbs to demonstrate your research skills
For more research-based and analytical experiences, pick verbs that demonstrate how you gather, assess, and interpret information. While research and analysis often happen “behind the scenes”, they can still have a significant impact on a business.
Examples in action
Implemented crash reporter and used findings to fix three biggest causes of crashes; fixes reduced customer support calls by 30%
Conducted 25+ user-testing focus groups leading to 3 new product features in 6 months
Collected data on user experience; made improvements to software and increased usage by 70%
Investigated major security breaches in network; set up new firewall with 99% efficacy in blocking future breaches
With these examples, potential employers will see not only how you gathered information, but also how you used it to make a difference.
Action verbs that show how you solved problems
Problem solving skills are essential, but can be hard to quantify. To highlight your abilities in this area, choose verbs that describe what specific action you took to find a solution to a problem.
Examples in action
Spearheaded redevelopment of internal tracking system in use by 125 employees, resulting in 20+ new features, reduction of 20% in save/load time and 15% operation time
Facilitated continuous interaction between users, development and QA teams throughout the SDLC, resulting in a 95% testing success rate.
Resolved hundreds of client escalations, leading to a 40% increase in client retention
Coordinated and led company-wide environmental initiative; attracted over 50 employees to contribute to the initiative
Wherever possible, specific examples are always better than vague generalities. Simply saying you have “strong problem solving skills” sounds nice, but provides little information.
Action verbs which demonstrate how you improved existing processes
Although closely related to problem solving abilities, process improvement skills are a bit more specific. When talking about your work on business processes, use verbs that show how you’ve enhanced those processes to make them more efficient or effective.
Examples in action
Proposed and implemented major strategy change to eliminate packaging - passing savings to our producers and customers and saving 55% on manufacturing costs
Optimized financial reporting process by upgrading accounting system to more robust solution; doubled process efficiency and reduced errors by 25%
Redesigned protocol for handling workplace sexual harassment incidents; improved employee satisfaction ratings by 60%
Streamlined assembly line process, leading to a 60% increase in worker efficiency
These examples demonstrate how you took action to improve an existing process, what the outcome was, and how it positively impacted the business.
Action verbs that are effective for financial or numeric-heavy roles
When you want to highlight your financial or accounting experience, industry-specific verbs such as “budgeted” or “balanced” show that you are knowledgeable in this area. Recruiters for these types of jobs may want to see that you have developed skills such as balancing books or making financial projections.
Examples in action
Optimized $100MM+ retail company's advertising spend by media type through multivariable regression analysis; exceeded target growth by 15%
Generated Excel models which produced risk-weighted composite valuation scores of country and sectors based on 10+ quantitative signals, including X and Y.
Audited company spending over a 1-year period; reduced unnecessary expenses by $200K per year
Modelled projected growth over 5 years; recommended new marketing strategy that grew business by 300%
Because finance is a niche industry requiring specific skills and training, it’s best to stick with verbs (and accomplishments) that are specific to this field.
Action verbs for design and creative professions
If you’re a creative professional, you’ll want to showcase your skills at developing ideas and bringing them to fruition. Choose verbs that show how you conceptualize new projects, give them structure, and eventually execute them.
Examples in action
Designed online customer support center comprising of a self-service knowledge base and interactive chat; reduced customer support calls by 45%
Analyzed $800K of monthly marketing spend data to optimize audience, creative and copy of campaigns; increased conversion by 12% MoM and decreased cost per acquisition by 35%
Designed new user interface for company app using Sketch and Figma; led to 50% higher click-through rate
Created line of smartphone accessories in team of 5; sold $50,000 in accessories in just the first year
Verbs like “designed” and “created” tell recruiters that you conceived a new idea that positively impacted your company.
Action verbs for all kinds of administrative or detail-oriented roles
Administrative and clerical work comes with its own set of skills such as organizing, compiling, and recording information. Use specific verbs such as these to explain what you accomplished in past jobs.
Examples in action
Designed and implemented a process to streamline employee timesheets using Google Forms, eliminating the need for manual handwritten timesheets and resulted in a 10 hour per week time saving
Created knowledge base of 80 internal resources, improving employee onboarding and reducing time spent per project on administrative tasks by 40%
Organized and digitized attorney case files to make them searchable; saved at least 20 hours per week
Monitored inventory of needed supplies and ensured no shortages; resulted in no supply shortages compared to six shortages the previous year
When applying to be an office assistant or clerk, examples like these show that your efforts have contributed to the success of companies you’ve worked for.
Action verbs for engineering resumes
Much like financial positions, engineering and technical jobs are highly specialized. If you’re seeking one of these positions, you are best off using specific industry-related vocabulary to describe your skills and underscore your level of experience.
Examples in action
Overhauled the company's website by increasing graphics usage by 50% and mobile responsiveness by 100%; generated 70% more leads via email capture forms, reduced bounce rate by 20%
Conceptualized, redesigned, and presented enhancements to the data warehouse and stored SQL procedures, leading to 100x increased query performance (double digit minutes to milliseconds)
Engineered database infrastructures for high-profile clients; increased querying and processing speeds by up to 25%, resulting in a predicted increase in revenue of $25K
Developed and implemented heavily parallelized algorithms to resize and watermark 5MM+ images of different sizes using Amazon EC2
When looking for work in the tech industry, it’s important to include examples like these as proof of your technical mastery.
Examples of action verbs
Let's look at some examples of the action verbs above, and how they're used in practice.
How to structure your resume bullet points
Here are two frameworks to keep in mind when writing your bullet points. Notice how we start with an Action Verb, briefly describe the task and finish with the impact we had.
Here's another similar framework. The difference here is we start with the impact we had - in this case, it's a reduction in customer support calls. Both frameworks are equally effective.
For more sample bullet points, visit Sample Bullet Points
Conclusion
Finding the words to tell your story can be a challenge, especially on a resume. But taking the time to choose the perfect verbs to illustrate your skills and experience can take your resume from good to outstanding -- and that edge may be just what you need to start landing the jobs you really want.
FAQs
What are weak action verbs in a resume?
Weak action verbs are those that are generic and don't effectively describe your role. Common examples of such words include 'Assisted' and 'Worked with'. Words like these are too generic and often make genuine achievements sound insignificant. After all, recruiters want to know what you actually did, and weak verbs like 'Assisted' tell recruiters you did not take an active role in the work - you just 'assisted' or 'worked with' people, without any real accomplishment.
Stronger words like 'Developed' and 'Implemented' are more descriptive and effectively demonstrate your contribution in your achievements.
What are some good action verbs?
- Accelerated
- Overhauled
- Created
- Spearheaded
- Initiated
- Awarded
- Conceptualized
- Directed
What are some strong action verbs?
- Overcame
- Tripled
- Pioneered
- Launched
- Increased
- Introduced
- Attained
- Promoted
Top 200+ Action Verbs
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