Want to know one thing that professional resumé writers do for you?
They use Action Verbs.
An action verb is a single word you use to describe your experience, that places direct emphasis on the result or accomplishment of that responsibility.
I get asked a lot, “Connel, how do I showcase my achievements in my experience? How can I quantify it?”
By forcing yourself to use action verbs to describe each and every responsibility in your resumé, you will automatically be forced to write your experience in a way that impresses a recruiter and hiring manager.
Want some examples of action verbs?
Well, you can easily be overwhelmed if you Google for them. There are some articles titled “400+ action verbs”.
I’m assuming you’d like a list that’s more easy to manage, and confident that it’s the right choices that grabs a manager’s attention.
Fortunately, our friends are CareerBuilder did a survey of the top 15 actions verbs that managers prefer to see. Here is the list:
Achieved: 52 percent
Improved: 48 percent
Trained/Mentored: 47 percent
Managed: 44 percent
Created: 43 percent
Resolved: 40 percent
Volunteered: 35 percent
Influenced: 29 percent
Increased/Decreased: 28 percent
Ideas: 27 percent
Negotiated: 25 percent
Launched: 24 percent
Revenue/Profits: 23 percent
Under budget: 16 percent
Won: 13 percent
So when writing your resumé experience section, force yourself to start each responsibility with one of the above words.
For example, instead of stating “Responsible for scheduling meetings with project stakeholders”, you can state “Improved project collaboration and stakeholders engagement by scheduling meetings with project stakeholders.”
See how that’s more impactful?
Yes, it will take a little effort to force your writing to comply with these action verbs, but the results will be a resumé that gets shortlisted for the interview.
So isn’t it worth it?
