How to use action verbs well
A good bullet follows a simple pattern: verb + what you did + how or for whom + the result. The verb sets it in motion; the result is what makes it worth reading.
Weak
Responsible for handling vendor payments and maintaining records.
Strong
Cleared a 3-month backlog of 400 vendor invoices in 5 weeks and set up a weekly payment run that kept it at zero.
Four rules cover most of it:
- Past tense for past jobs, present tense for your current one. “Manage a team of 8” in your current role; “Managed a team of 8” in the one before. Achievements already finished in your current job can be past tense too.
- One verb per bullet, at the start. “Led and managed and coordinated” is three verbs doing one job.
- Vary them. If five bullets in a row start with “Managed”, the reader stops noticing. Use the lists below to find an alternative.
- Pick the most accurate verb, not the grandest. “Supported” is fine if you supported. Overclaiming with “spearheaded” is the fastest way to get an awkward interview question.
Leading people and projects
Leadership
Led, directed, headed, supervised, mentored, coached, delegated, motivated, mobilized, recruited, hired, unified, guided, chaired, championed.
Led a 9-person support team across two shifts, coaching 3 new hires to full productivity in 6 weeks instead of the usual 10.
Managing projects and work
Managed, coordinated, planned, organized, scheduled, prioritized, executed, delivered, oversaw, orchestrated, launched, completed, implemented, rolled out, steered.
Coordinated the move of 3 warehouses to a new inventory system, delivering on time and with no missed shipments during the switch.
Building, creating and improving
Creating something new
Built, created, designed, developed, established, founded, introduced, initiated, invented, pioneered, set up, wrote, produced, drafted, formulated.
Set up the company's first returns process for online orders, now handling 1,200 returns a month.
Improving what exists
Improved, streamlined, simplified, redesigned, revamped, modernized, upgraded, refined, restructured, standardized, automated, overhauled, consolidated, transformed, strengthened.
Automated the daily stock report with a Google Sheets script, saving the store team about 4 hours a week.
Saving time, money or effort
Cut, reduced, saved, lowered, decreased, eliminated, shortened, minimized, trimmed, recovered, renegotiated, avoided, prevented, conserved.
Renegotiated 6 courier contracts, cutting delivery costs 14% with no change in delivery times.
Growing results, selling and persuading
Growth and results
Increased, grew, raised, boosted, expanded, doubled, tripled, accelerated, achieved, exceeded, surpassed, generated, won, earned, outperformed.
Grew the clinic's monthly appointments from 600 to 950 in a year through a referral program and Google Business reviews.
Selling and persuading
Sold, closed, negotiated, pitched, persuaded, convinced, secured, acquired, converted, upsold, cross-sold, prospected, retained, renewed.
Closed $900,000 in new annual contracts in 2025, 124% of target, mostly from accounts I prospected myself.
More sales bullets are in the sales representative resume example.
Analyzing, researching and communicating
Analysis and research
Analyzed, assessed, evaluated, investigated, researched, measured, modeled, forecast, audited, diagnosed, identified, mapped, quantified, tested, surveyed.
Analyzed 2 years of churn data in SQL and identified 3 early warning signs, now used to flag at-risk customers each week.
Communication
Presented, wrote, edited, published, briefed, reported, explained, documented, translated, publicized, authored, communicated, corresponded, summarized.
Presented monthly performance reviews to the regional director, replacing a 30-slide deck with a 1-page dashboard.
Working with others
Collaborated, partnered, liaised, consulted, advised, facilitated, mediated, aligned, contributed, supported, assisted, united, cooperated.
Partnered with the product team to rewrite 40 help articles, cutting “how do I” tickets by a fifth.
Helping customers, teaching and caring
Customer service and support
Resolved, assisted, served, answered, handled, troubleshot, de-escalated, responded, welcomed, advocated, followed up, satisfied, retained.
Resolved 50+ customer queries a day across phone and chat, keeping CSAT at 93% over 18 months.
Teaching and training
Trained, taught, educated, instructed, onboarded, tutored, demonstrated, enabled, upskilled, assessed, developed, prepared.
Trained 25 new hires on the billing system with a half-day workshop and a cheat sheet now used across 4 branches.
Healthcare and care work
Administered, monitored, treated, cared for, triaged, assessed, counselled, documented, educated, stabilized, rehabilitated, screened.
Monitored and cared for 6–8 post-surgical patients per shift on a 30-bed surgical ward, with zero medication errors in 2025.
See the registered nurse and teacher resume examples for complete pages.
Office, finance, technical and creative work
Organizing and administration
Organized, arranged, filed, maintained, processed, recorded, tracked, cataloged, updated, compiled, distributed, scheduled, booked.
Organized travel and calendars for 3 directors, booking 120+ trips a year within the travel budget.
Finance and accounting
Reconciled, budgeted, audited, forecast, allocated, calculated, filed, invoiced, balanced, projected, valued, appraised, controlled.
Reconciled 14 bank accounts monthly and cut the month-end close from 8 working days to 5.
Technical and engineering
Engineered, programmed, coded, deployed, configured, debugged, integrated, migrated, optimized, architected, maintained, scaled, secured, installed.
Migrated 12 services from on-premise servers to AWS, cutting hosting costs 30% and deploy time from 2 hours to 15 minutes.
Creative and design
Designed, illustrated, photographed, filmed, edited, composed, conceptualized, branded, styled, animated, curated, crafted.
Designed a new brand identity for a café chain, used across 5 outlets, packaging and social media.
Weak phrases to replace
Some openings make every bullet sound like a job description. Swap them for a verb that says what you actually did.
| Instead of | Try | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Responsible for | Managed, owned, ran, led | Ran the weekly payroll for 80 staff |
| Helped with | Supported, contributed to, assisted | Contributed 4 of the 10 modules to the new app |
| Worked on | Built, developed, delivered, wrote | Built the checkout page for the new site |
| Handled | Resolved, processed, managed | Processed 300 claims a month |
| Was involved in | Took part in, co-led, joined | Co-led the annual stock audit |
| Did | Completed, performed, carried out | Completed 40 site inspections a quarter |
| Duties included | (delete it and start with a verb) | Trained, scheduled and supervised 6 drivers |
Paste a weak bullet into the free resume bullet point generator. It rewrites it three ways with stronger verbs and leaves [brackets] where your numbers go.
Action verbs for students and new graduates
Projects, internships and college roles need verbs too. These fit work that happened outside a job: built, designed, researched, analyzed, organized, presented, led, coordinated, volunteered, raised, won, tutored, published, prototyped, tested.
Weak
Was part of the team that organized the campus hackathon.
Strong
Coordinated logistics for a 2-day hackathon with 2,500 visitors, managing 18 volunteers and $15,000 in vendor payments.
For more on writing projects and activities as experience, see our guide on how to write a resume with no experience and the internship resume example.
Mistakes to avoid
- Thesaurus verbs. “Spearheaded”, “orchestrated” and “synergized” in every bullet sound inflated. Use one or two strong verbs where they are true; let the rest be plain.
- Verbs without results. A strong verb followed by a duty (“Led daily meetings”) is still a duty. Add what changed.
- Mixed tenses within the same job, unless you separate ongoing work from finished achievements on purpose.
- Starting with “I”. Resumes drop the pronoun: “Built…”, not “I built…”.
- Passive voice. “Sales were increased by 20%” hides who did it. “Increased sales 20%” doesn't.
Verbs also help applicant tracking systems a little: many job posts use verbs like “manage”, “analyze” or “design”, and using the same ones where accurate makes the match clearer. Check yours against a real job post with the free ATS checker, and see our guide on tailoring your resume to a job description for the rest.