50 Action Words to Strengthen Your Resume 

You might not be aware of it, but every word on your resumes counts. Recruiters, especially those from big companies, only spend 6 seconds to scan each of the thousand resumes they get. This is the reason you shouldn’t mince words on your resume and use strong resume action words instead. 

In a sea of competition, how do you stand out? To make sure that you get the attention of employers and recruiters, swap common words and phrases with these action words for resumes. Read on to learn how you can make an impression telling your story to potential employers.

Why Resume Action Words Make a Resume Stronger 

Imagine yourself being a recruitment manager, and every day, you’re given a massive stack of resumes to review. How long do you think you can stand reading phrases and words such as responsible for, qualifications include, and so on and so forth? Then you see one that uses neither of these but makes quite an impact. 

Hiring managers read and get bored by the template words on resumes they get daily. When you use strong action words, these get noticed instantly. When you write a resume that’s geared towards winning the job, it’s highly likely that you’ll get notified. 

50 Resume Action Words You Should Be Using Right Now 

Here are some of the most overused and boring words and phrases and the action words that you can use to replace them: 

“Contributed to”  

The terms Assisted, Helped, Participated in, Contributed to won’t help much in showing how significant your contribution is to a particular project or task. Some jobs require team efforts, and showing how well you participated in it can help make your resume stand out. Indeed, conceit won’t get you the job, but selling yourself short isn’t also a good thing. 

To brighten up your resume, replace dull words and phrases with these powerful action words: 

• Advised
• Advocated
• Analyzed
• Created
• Facilitated
• Fine-tuned
• Iterated
• Optimized
• Resolved
• Shaped 

“Responsible for” 

Describing your work can be impactful if you avoid phrases such as Responsible for, Responsibilities included, Familiar with, Duties included, and many similar others. Recruiters know that you performed a job; that’s a given, but seeing your accomplishments can make a difference. The terms above show what you did but not how you did them. 

To show the recruiter how well you did your duties or why you’ll do it better than the others, use these resume action words: 

• Brainstormed
• Deployed
• Forecasted
• Improved
• Inspected
• Interpreted
• Modeled
• Overhauled
• Reduced
• Wrote 

“Aimed to” 

Your primary purpose for sending your resume is for the hiring manager to see your accomplishments and how you can bring that to the company. Aimed to, Attempted, Tried to, and Made an Effort to can all sound boring and may border on being fatal. You could be construed as failing in your work. 

If you didn’t achieve anything in a task given to you, why highlight it? Although letting them know of your failure can mean integrity, you can do this in a way that would benefit you. Use these resume action words instead: 

• Automated
• Built
• Documented
• Identified
• Monitored
• Predicted
• Restructured
• Revamped
• Tested
• Tracked 

“Worked on” 

Another boring phrase to avoid along with Made, Did, Worked with. These terms do nothing to showcase your abilities and talents. They won’t show any value that you imparted in the project or task; rather, recruiters will see you as someone just coasting along. 

A big part of marketing ourselves to potential employers mean you have to make them see you in the position you’re applying for. To make them visualize you as the perfect fit for the job, use these strong action words on your resume: 

• Coded
• Configured
• Debugged
• Designed
• Developed
• Engineered
• Formulated
• Implemented
• Programmed
• Redesigned 

“Managed” 

The word Managed isn’t all that bad per se, but to make your resume pop out, you need to do better. This is one of those words that hiring managers always see on resumes, so it’s a good idea to use stronger verbs. Also, Led, Coordinated, Handled should be avoided, why? 

Your leadership experience should prompt the recruiter to hire you, but using these terms is a downplay to your skills. Revamp your resume to include descriptive words that are powerful and compelling such as these: 

• Championed
• Directed
• Drove
• Executed
• Guided
• Orchestrated
• Oversaw
• Owned
• Pioneered
• Spearheaded 

Additional Resume Action Words To Use 

If you feel that the resume action words above aren’t enough to describe your work history, here are additional words to use. A good tip is that if you’re not familiar with the term, don’t use it. You want to send out a clear representation of you, not someone who uses big words but have no understanding of them. 

• Accelerated
• Co-authored
• Collaborated
• Eliminated
• Ensured
• Established
• Generated
• Initiated
• Instructed
• Introduced
• Jump-Started
• Launched
• Maintained
• Maximized
• Minimized
• Motivated
• Secured
• Simplified
• Targeted
• Upgraded 

A Few Tips on Writing a Resume that Gets Attention 

A powerful resume is one that uses strong action words, shows accomplishments, specifies the results, and shows the impact it caused. Include a detailed description of the actions you took and how the company benefitted from it. Add industry-specific terms where needed so hiring managers can visualize you in the position you’re applying for. 

What you write in your resume is essential, but how you write it can mean getting hired or getting ditched. Avoid using vague terms that don’t paint a clear picture of what you can do. Include as many of the words listed above as you possibly can. 

Final Thoughts 

The skills and experience you present to a potential employer can be more impressive if done with thought and care. Using strong action verbs on your resume can genuinely help you get that dream job. It shows creativity and attention to detail that will say a lot about you as an employee.

Making yourself stand out from the crowd can be difficult, but that doesn’t mean it’s unachievable. Replacing some words can add magic to your resume, knowing what to avoid can significantly help as well.