INSIDE THE 
NEWS + ADVICE
120 Powerful Resume Words to Get A Cleared Job
Some of the issues I encounter when reviewing job seekers’ resumes are descriptions loaded with subjective language, misleading inclusivity, or passive language.
Examples are:
Performed flawlessly – subjective, provide results instead of an adjective.
Responsible for the managing of contracts – Managed contracts is active, but also tell me what you accomplished with that responsibility.
Hand-picked to be (insert job title) – It’s important to know that you were selected for the position (which I frequently see on transitioning military resumes), but what did you accomplish?
Or the job seeker adds filler terms or unnecessary words or phrases such as:
In order to
Responsible for
Oversight in the area of
Subject to all the policies and procedures of
These filler terms and stock phrases clog your resume and don’t communicate your talents, skills and abilities to the recruiter.
Even worse, the job seeker provides minor details about job tasks or talks about what the company does versus what they accomplished as a cleared job seeker. A resume is supposed to be first, a synopsis of a job seeker’s most vital achievements in the described position and second, a teaser for the hiring manager to entice them to bring in the job seeker for an interview.
Resumes are shorthand descriptions of metrics-based achievements for the employer. Don’t regurgitate the ad words in the resume. Keep the wording rich. Make one word equate to two, three, or four words or a whole paragraph. Use powerful action verbs to start a resume accomplishment statement. Describe in one word what hiring managers can interpret (reading between the lines) as a paragraph of job related description. The rich power words should be followed with a brief description linked with a metric to ‘show, not tell.’
Recruiters love these rich capability descriptions, and get excited about the metrics. The resume provides a visual image of the job seeker working hard, getting tasks accomplished, as well as showcasing just how well they achieved those responsibilities. All without telling, but showing what they they did for current or past employers.
Use power words and verbs in the next revision of your resume. Crush the wording down to a minimum and save your white space to talk about how wonderful you are as a cleared professional.
| Power Words |
Insinuation, Implication, and Assumption in Context |
|
| Absorbed | able to see where duplicity occurs and analyze where company assets can be better applied with less man-hours or increased productivity, as well as reducing redundancy; took over a duplicative department / staffing; reduced excess | |
| Accelerated | able to creatively speed up processes or productivity | |
| Achieved | accomplished unique goals versus fulfilling rote tasks | |
| Adapted | the ‘same old’ didn’t work anymore, so you moved it up a notch with new tricks or techniques improving productivity or revenue (or decreased overhead); ‘out-of-the-box’ thinking | |
| Advanced | moved (the company) forward in a positive direction achieving strategic objectives and/or goals | |
| Announced | lead or teamed with public relations and marketing to launch new products or services | |
| Appraised | supervised others or procedures where you were the subject matter expert | |
| Assessed | able to analytically look at multiple viewpoints for advantages and disadvantages to the company | |
| Assigned | shouldered new or addition tasking or you supervised others with new job responsibilities | |
| Attained | department or division was able to achieve a milestone based on efforts and supervision/leadership of team | |
| Attracted | marketing efforts brought in additional revenue | |
| Balanced | problematic issues were addressed, solutions found, and resolution created – diplomatic capability | |
| Bargained | saved money or reduced costs within department, division, or company by achieving better contracts | |
| Beneficial | actions and decisions were of a positive nature to co-workers or to the company | |
| Benefited | the company or a part of it moved in a positive direction financially or productivity-wise | |
| Bolstered | exponential improvements to upcoming positive growth that was increased with more involvement | |
| Boosted | revenue or productivity was increased with a ‘swift kick in the you know what’ to get it going again | |
| Budgeted | in charge of money, a position of trust and capability of analysis in financial planning and fund disbursement | |
| Built | you planned, organized, and managed an element for the first time within the organization | |
| Closed | a negative gap or continuous loss was stopped, dammed, or prevented; or plans that were on hold were completed | |
| Collaborated | showcases ability to get along with others, teamwork | |
| Comply | awareness of existing demands or situations; ability to follow instructions or lead others to complete mandated tasks | |
| Conceptualized | thinking out of the box and creatively to resolve or solve concerns or issues creating negative impact on the business | |
| Critiqued | provided feedback and guidance to subordinates: offered constructive ideas to co-workers/supervisors | |
| Delegated | undertook a leadership position to direct and guide others | |
| Demonstrated | provided documentation or proof of capability for work-related responsibilities | |
| Designed | using experience and creativity, provided a solution for a | |
| Detected | awareness of potential issues, hazards, or liabilities to the business that others missed in the past | |
| Developed | capability of building a program, training curriculum, project, from start to finish in a timely manner | |
| Directed | able to delegate tasks to one or more and provide guidance and oversight to accomplishing responsibilities | |
| Efficient | productive without wasting resources, assets, or manpower | |
| Enhanced | took something that was good and made it better | |
| Enriched | added or evolved something to make it produce more revenue, easier to use, more powerful, or reduce man hours | |
| Exceeded | when perfection is demanded, went beyond the ceiling of acceptability | |
| Excelled | when tasked, provided solutions or completion within deadlines far above the minimum standards | |
| Financed | enabled funding for projects | |
| Forecasted | analyzed and projected actions or future business activities to plan for positive or negative outcomes | |
| Formulated | analyzed and developed a way to help others solve a problem, conduct future planning, or provide preventative actions | |
| Fulfilled | capable of completing work, orders, tasks, responsibilities | |
| Generated | produced income, funding, task fulfillment, and positive outcomes | |
| Granted | as the point of contact and decision maker | |
| Guided | delegated actions, provided oversight and leadership | |
| Handled | able to accomplish or complete depth and breadth of tasking and responsibilities within acceptable timelines | |
| Helped | capable of assisting others in addition to primary or secondary job parameters | |
| Hosted | managed a unique set of circumstances, for a varied group size of co-workers or external clients | |
| Implemented | can take a plan and put it in action for positive end-game | |
| Improved | foresight to see potential improvements, and took action to get the improvements completed | |
| Increased | improved revenue or productivity | |
| Influenced | able to communicate in ways that influences others | |
| Initiated | capable of starting actions without reluctance | |
| Innovated | thinks creatively to find unique solutions | |
| Instituted | understands environment and capable of analyzing / starting improvement projects or programs | |
| Integrated | capable of blending, melding, or molding multiple states of existence into a more productive alternative | |
| Introduced | brings in new processes, technology, or procedures to improve work flow or revenue | |
| Investigated | analytical mind with ability to ask for details and obtain results using diplomatic methods and unbiased viewpoints | |
| Justified | intelligently capable of explaining or providing valid points for a decision or action | |
| Lead / Led | able to manage or supervise others in a fair, unbiased manner | |
| Listed | able to get documentation into recognized forums (public or private) | |
| Logged | documentation is available to prove that tasks and responsibilities have been achieved | |
| Maintained | able to sustain momentum or completion of tasks | |
| Managed | leadership qualities with supervisory tasks | |
| Maximized | able to expand the productivity or positive aspects | |
| Measured | analytical skills ensure required metrics | |
| Mentored | capability of training and guiding others to additional work or life skills | |
| Multiplied | increased assets or capabilities with exponential results | |
| Negotiated | able to resolve concerns, obtain approval, influence others | |
| Observed | able to see viewpoints of other’s work | |
| Obtained | capability of attaining assets where others may have failed or creative ways of funding or finding alternative solutions | |
| Operated | carried out responsibilities within a unique set of parameters | |
| Organized | has the capability to plan systematically | |
| Oversaw | has the ability to macro or micro manage without overstepping boundaries at the optimum amount of supervision | |
| Persuaded | able to convince others to perform delegated tasks or responsibilities in a diplomatic or tactful manner | |
| Planned | analyze / outline procedures in a logical manner | |
| Positivity | ensure that environment is motivated | |
| Presented | capable of training, mentoring, preparing to convince, and speak in front of others | |
| Programmed | manage programs and ability to logically set up steps of progression | |
| Projected | able to look into the future to predict actions, business environment, revenue, or assets based on current environment | |
| Promoted | others saw the potential and provided greater responsibilities | |
| Provided | work output enabled others to complete or perform their tasks and responsibilities | |
| Qualified | education and training enabled additional task accomplishments | |
| Quantified | able to analytically compile and provide metrics for work results | |
| Quoted | part of sales team enabling revenue stream | |
| Ran | describes actions that resulted in positive work outcome | |
| Reacted | able to provide actions to certain events as they happen | |
| Recommended | subject matter expertise used within the business environment | |
| Recovered | saved money or prevented losses or waste | |
| Reduced | identifies excess; analyzes and plans actions to eliminate | |
| Refine | can take low-level states and improve upon them | |
| Reinstated | able to put measures, policies, or procedures back into place | |
| Rejected | analytical capabilities allows identification of negative impacts upon business | |
| Responsible | sole person in charge for completing actions, goal setting, and reaching objectives for specific tasks, responsibilities | |
| Retained | observations and SME opinion ensures positive impact environment remains a status quo | |
| Revamp | creative thinking enables positive improvements | |
| Saved | capable of retaining projects / programs when assets are devalued or removed | |
| Scheduled | time management skills enable work productivity | |
| Screened | talented at filtering through elements to identify best options | |
| Secured | obtained funding, assets, or man-power that ensured business success | |
| Segmented | analysis ensured projects, programs, or assets were separated into more productive units | |
| Simplified | deconstruct a cumbersome asset and broke down the elements to more user-friendly environment | |
| Skilled | has the year of hands-on experience that enables completion of tasks and responsibilities with best practice decisions | |
| Solved | problem solver | |
| Spearheaded | leadership capabilities | |
| Streamlined | able to deconstruct programs or projects into simpler elements | |
| Strengthened | provided insight, assets, ideas to improve current elements | |
| Supported | work and responsibilities enabled others, subordinates or supervisors, to better complete their work parameters | |
| Sustained | enabled the status quo by performing to minimum or higher standards | |
| Taught | training, mentoring, or developing curriculum to improve understanding, skills sets, and work environment | |
| Trained | teaching others new skills sets or providing review of past learning | |
| Translated | enable better communications of language, understanding, or protocol to ensure better business interactions internally or externally | |
| Triumphed | enabled the business to win valued awards, business, contracts, or improved revenue against competitors | |
| Troubleshot | problem solver | |
| Tutored | mentoring co-workers one-on-one to ensure business best practice and skill sets | |
| Uncovered | analysis ensured potential issues were exposed and resolved before liabilities occurred | |
| Unified | brought opposing elements together in a diplomatic meeting of the minds in opinion | |
| United | brought competitive elements together to work in conjunction with each other for elevated business productivity | |
| Updated | added new elements that provide better, more modern, productivity | |
| Upgraded | enabled older ‘legacy’ systems, projects, or programs to improve in business environment for greater productivity or revenue | |
| Validated | enabled confirmation of business statistics, planning, reports, special projects, or data | |
| Viewed | reliable observer of processes or procedures | |
| Witnessed | observed unique or vital event affecting business | |
| Worldwide | familiarity with international business community | |
Dawn Boyer is a career services coach, social media management, human resources, and business development consultant. Follow Dawn on Twitter @Dawn_Boyer.
Dawn,
This list of action words for resume enhancement is very informative. Thanks,
Leon
Leon, I’m glad you found them helpful. Good luck with your search. Dawn
Do you have this table in a downloadable format?
Informative. Thank you.