Resume Synonyms for Participate

Want another word for Participate to use on your resume? Our team's compiled the most effective action verbs and synonyms you can use instead of the overused resume phrase, "Participate".

Kimberley Tyler Smith Author Photo
Compiled by: Kimberley Tyler-Smith
Senior Hiring Manager
20+ Years of Experience

Applicants use the word 'Participate' in their resume to emphasize that they'll succeed at any position they get hired for if given the opportunity. Companies want to hire people willing to participate, as it gives them a sense of the commitment employees will put into their work.

While 'participate' is a good word to indicate that you have a collaborative team mentality, it doesn't show how effective you are. This makes it a weak verb—it creates doubt about your abilities and doesn't convey the extent of what you did. Everyone participates in something, but not everyone achieves success.

If you want to use the verb participate, reword your experience to explain your role in the activity and offer evidence of having done it well. Also, use it in the past tense ('participated') unless you're talking about an ongoing role. For example, using action verbs such as 'Aided' or 'Excelled' to describe your experience helps to define your actions and accomplishments more strongly.

Weak verbs should be avoided to ensure you're communicating accurately and effectively—they do not draw the recruiter's attention to what you did in your past job. These verbs are more effective if replaced with different power verbs.

I've compiled some synonyms you can use instead of Participate on your resume, followed by real examples I've written for clients (feel free to use them!).

Resume Synonyms for Participate:

  • Aided
  • Collaborated
  • Combined
  • Communicated
  • Concurred
  • Coordinated
  • Excelled
  • Teamed
  • Tracked
  • Selected
  • Routed
  • Ordered
  • Pooled
  • Procured
  • Retrieved
  • Synchronized

How to replace Participate with a stronger action verb:

Let's look at examples of how you can remove and replace the overused phrase, Participate, with a stronger synonym and alternative that is more effective at highlighting your achievements.

Before: Weak example using Participate

Participated in a number of reporting tasks and helped speed up the preparation time of key reports

After: Using a stronger synonymDeveloped and implemented new customer reporting and on-boarding paperwork for internal functions, reducing preparation time of standard new client by 75%.

Replacing Participate with Contributed

Before: Participate

Participated in brainstorming sessions for marketing ideas.

After: ContributedContributed to brainstorming sessions and developed an effective marketing campaign that boosted product sales by 35%.

In the revised version, the candidate shows their contribution in a more specific way, indicating their active role in a successful marketing campaign. The stated increase in sales as a result of their work provides concrete proof of their effectiveness.

Tip: I've prepared a ton of additional examples for you to give you inspiration. Please click on any of the following to expand and see real examples of how I've rewritten client bullet points.


How to use these synonyms in practice

We've put together an infographic to give you more examples of how to put this into practice. Note the use of strong action verbs instead of words like Participate.


More resume bullet point samples that use strong synonyms

How to use Founded on a resume:

Founded ReferRoom to organize social events for 500 young professionals, and grew it to $20k/year revenue and $8k/year profit..

How to use Led on a resume:

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%.

How to use Prepared on a resume:

Prepared a 100 page pitch book summarizing findings and presented analysis to managing directors.

How to use Interviewed on a resume:

Interviewed future end users in London and New York daily to identify and analyse the inefficiencies in the existing manual process of bulk updating customer details.

How to use Coordinated on a resume:

Coordinated a team of four developers and two designers to implement and launch online marketplace that connects students with tutors, within 6 months.

How to use Reduced on a resume:

Reduced time to render the video by 75% by implementing prediction algorithm and delayed graphics.


Frequently Asked Questions

What is another word for Participate on a resume?

Instead of passive phrases like Participate, use other words like Selected, Teamed, Communicated, Procured, Aided or Pooled. Using these verbs will help your accomplishments and bullet points stand out on your resume.

What are other words for Participate on a resume?

You can say Ordered, Concurred or Combined instead of Participate.


Get a free resume review: Find out if your action verbs are strong enough.

As a next step, I'd recommend going through each of your resume's verbs and improving each one with stronger action verbs. The most effective way to do that is by uploading your resume to tool below. It'll tell you which parts of your resume need work, so you can improve them before a recruiter rejects you for them.



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