How Action Verbs Can Improve Your Resume

Are you looking to supercharge your resume but just don't know how? You could enlist the help of a certified resume writing professional to get you started, or you could try it on your own.

If you want to try it on your own, one great tip to consider is adding action verbs to your resume. They not only add life to the document, they also show that you're acting on your duties rather than reacting to what you were told.

Feeling a little confused right now? Well, read on to learn more...

Action Verbs Show that You've Actually Done Something

When writing a resume, it's easy to get into the habit of writing job descriptions that start with "responsible for" or "duties included." However, this is an easy way out and only tells the story of what someone assigned for you to do. The truth is, you did something on your job every day (well, hopefully you did). So by only noting what someone asked you to do, you don't disclose whether you actually did what you were told.

This is where action verbs come in. By starting your sentences with words like "managed," "wrote", "collaborated," or "demonstrated" to name a few, you tell the reader what you accomplished in your day, whether you were told to do it or not. This helps you in two ways. First, it shows the hiring manager what goals you accomplished that you may have been asked to do and second, it shows what you may have initiated on your own.

Action Verbs Make the Resume More Interesting

Just as action verbs and descriptions make a novel more interesting, these same uses of the English language help to improve the readability of your resume. Who doesn't love an action novel - or movie for that matter? So the more details that you can add that show you've been moving and shaking for your last employers, the better your chances are of convincing future employers that you can do the same thing with them.

Action verbs have long been recommended for use in resumes and are something to strongly consider in yours. The more time and effort you put into showing you accomplished something in the past, the more hiring managers will believe you can accomplish something with them.