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Resumé Action Words
As you prepare yourself for the job hunt, you'll hear again and again that it is absolutely critical to have a well-written resumé. However, that advice presupposes that you know a well-written resumé when you see it.
What does a well-written resumé mean? How can you determine whether your resumé is written in a tone and style that employers will respond to positively? Synthesizing your educational achievements, years of professional experience, and numerous qualifications you have acquired over the years into one to two pages is not an easy task. Every phrase or statement has to convince your potential employer that you are the best candidate for the job. One important tool for the task is the action or power word.
Action words, or power words, are keywords (verbs) that add strength and positive implication to your job responsibilities or qualifications. When you submit your resumé to your potential employer, there are two scenarios that will occur. First, someone will run your application through a computer program which searches your resumé for key terms the employer is looking for. If your resume contains those key words, it will be pulled aside for further review by an actual human being. Alternatively, a hiring manager, or most often a human resources associate, will receive a stack or resumés and eyeball scans through them to pick out a small number that stand out from the rest, again based on certain key words. It should now be clear why these action words are critical to your success in job hunting.
When listing your employment history, each job's responsibilities should be listed in bullet point form, with each statement starting with an action word. Using power verbs or phrases will indicate to your employer that you are driven by action and results, and that you can effectively articulate your professional experience (thus, showcasing your communication skills).
Here is a small sample of action words:
- created
- developed and implemented
- managed
- delivered
- designed
- facilitated
- negotiated
- coordinated
- budgeted
- acted
- communicated
- consulted
This is a very short sampling of action words you may want to use. On the Internet you can find many resources containing extensive listings of action words or phrases. Don't just use them at random: do some research and use only those terms that are relevant to your field. If you don't have a good sense of the terminology common in your field, take a look at samples of resumés by professionals in your industry. Review those resumés for ideas on how to list your responsibilities. However, don't copy whole passages from those resumés. You want your resumé to be unique to you, not cribbed from someone else
Don't fall into the trap of using the same action word over and over. It makes your resumé sound droning, and thus boring. If you have managed multiple projects, you may want to be a bit more specific about your role in each so that you can start each description with a different verb. For example, maybe you were the communication liaison in one project, while you were the project manager for another task. Begin the first bullet point with "communicated," and the second bullet point with "managed." Again, don't just grab words at random, as if you'd swallowed a thesaurus. Be aware of the connotations of the words that you are using and consider their value in your resumé. However, don't go wild when picking a variety of terms to describe your experience. Poorly-chosen terms may change your role or your responsibilities.
If you need further inspiration or want a better sense of what your field is looking for, you can find key action words in job descriptions. Review your resumé against a job description you're particularly interested in to help you identify action words that the employer uses, which you can in turn use to customize your resumé or cover letter to that specific job.
Always make sure that you are consistent in the way you list all of your responsibilities and qualifications and focus on actions and results. By doing so, you are guaranteed to create a winning resumé that will get you noticed.
