How To Effectively Use Action Verbs in Your Resume?

To grab the attention of a potential employer, almost every word on your resume needs to be impactful. Since ineffective words and overused cliches can give your CV a poor or unoriginal impression, they may make it less likely that you will be hired. 

The best method to highlight your professional accomplishments, strengthen your CV, and stand out is to use the best action words for your resume—words that explain what a topic is doing.

What Are Action Verbs In A Resume?

Verbs that express an event or action are called action verbs. Your abilities, successes, and experience can all be highlighted in a resume. These words help anyone transform sentences in their resume from passive voice to active. 

It not only makes your resume stronger and more persuasive but also more reachable. Also, it makes things more clear and precisely describes what you do.  

How To Choose The Right Action Verb

There are several action verbs, but not all of them are appropriate for a resume. So, choose strong action words for your resume by following the instructions here:

Find & Locate Your Industry-Specific Keywords

Recognizing that some keywords are intended solely for particular sectors is important. Enhancing your hard skills and job experience is easier by choosing the appropriate action verb for the sector. It aids in proving to your recruiter why you are qualified for the position. 

Look For Active Verbs That Emphasize Your Soft Skills

When hiring, recruiting managers closely evaluate the candidate’s soft skills. It tells them how interactive and communicative you are. Judging your soft skills, they get an idea of your leadership potential, accomplishments, and teamwork abilities. So, use active verbs that best emphasize your soft skills in the resume. 

Choose Highly Communicative Active Verbs

A resume should be concise but effective. A recruiter may only study and evaluate your resume for a brief period of time after seeing it. They are seeking particular keyword and skill combinations. So, it’s important to choose phrasing that clearly conveys your expertise. 

Do Not Repeat The Same Active Verb Again 

There are a ton of action verbs to pick from. A portion of your resume may seem repetitive if you use the same verb throughout. Without oversimplifying it, using a range of action verbs can help make your resume more interesting. 

How Often Should Action Verbs Be Used?

When looking for action words to use on a resume, avoid stuffing. Don’t stuff your resume with too many action verbs. It can lessen the effect your resume makes instead of enhancing it. 

Make sure that your sentences are clear and successfully convey your argument, and limit the number of action verbs you utilize in each sentence to no more than two. In place of paragraphs, your resume should have bullet points. It aids in concision and draws attention to the crucial keywords. 

Your qualifications are clear to everyone who scans your resume. Don’t use the same terms repeatedly when utilizing action verbs in your resume. This might also convey that you sincerely attempted to write an excellent resume suitable for the job in question. 

How To Use Action Verbs In A Resume

Using action verbs correctly can frequently reduce your work’s requirement for passive voice. To use action verbs in your resume, follow these steps:

Step 1: Go For The ‘Verb Test’

Make sure to use assisting verbs when you are writing your resume. Helping verbs are those verbs that are frequently used in a phrase to introduce a second verb.

Step 2: Leverage The ‘By You’ Test

The ‘by you’ test is a way to determine whether a statement has a passive voice. Try putting “by you” after the verb when you read a sentence. Your sentence uses passive voice if it’s still grammatically correct. 

Examples Of Action Verbs In Sentences. Here are a few instances of sentences that incorporate action verbs: 

• Developed customer success management, planned on emphasizing retention and cross-selling, and implemented key account management. 
• Handled the two Salesforce instances’ integration when the company acquired the international business. 

You want to maximize every word on your resume because such a limited amount of real estate is available. Using action verbs will make your writing active (and professional!) on your resume, making your application stand out from the competition. 

FAQs

How can professional action verbs enhance your resume?

When communicating knowledge to another reader, action verbs assist in making an effect. The reader can comprehend what is going on thanks to the action verbs. Action verbs make the application package stand out from other entries when utilized in a resume or cover letter.

Can you repeat action verbs on a resume?

According to most resume writers, redundancies are the main reason why a resume fails. Never repeat an action verb in a resume; the same rule applies to all other terms.

What are the successful action verbs?

Your resume achievements should include success verbs like “increased,” “decreased,” “improved,” and “reduced.”