Tips for Action Words

Resume action words are the words that are used to replace the passive statements in resume like "responsible for" or "duties included". Keeping in mind that your resume will be read for very short time by the employer, you need to highlight your details using these appropriate action words. These action words are used to express your job duties in past. Employer can easily scan your resume by viewing these action words. Following are some important guidelines to use action words to grab recruiter's attention and win an interview.

The action words in your resume highlight your involvement in your achievements. These action words hold the interest of the reader in your resume and encourage him/her to spend more time on reading the information and convince him/her about your suitability for the job. The action words or power words in resume activates your dull resume by setting your skills on fire, giving your academics power and authority. Power words are important in your resume since they show to your potential employer what actions you have taken in your previous jobs. Employers hire you to do any particular job, so explain him what you have done in past in reference to your skills and experiences with action words. You should also find the right word to describe the skill to stand out above the competition and land a job interview.

Following are some tips for making proper use of the action verbs to highlight your skills and qualities in the resume.

Tips to Write Action Verbs in Resume:

• It is very much important to use the action verbs in your resume. Action words make your resume and easy to read and it can be easily scanned by the employers for power words.
• Before writing the resume, create the list of the words that best describes your job duties. Including these power words in your resume will present your action taken to solve the particular problems and queries in your past jobs.
• You can use the well prepared list of the action words that will suit your work roles and help you in job search documentation. Examples of most searched action words in resume are optimized, accelerated, reduced, accomplished, achieved, compiled, spearheaded, completed, maintained, managed, organized, and updated.
• The example of an action word is explained below. The below statement is from the manager's resume saying,

  - Responsible for improved productivity in engineering group.
  The above statement does show the involvement of the candidate in management process but it is a passive statement not describing much about candidate's team management skill. Instead, we can use the statement using action verb as follows

  - Led the engineering group to improved productivity.
  Making use of the action word "led" shows more involvement of candidate in accomplishments.

• The action verbs differ with the varying work fields. They are different for the management resume and technical resume. First know which action words best suits to describe your achievements and use them accurately in your resume.

The above guidelines to use action words to grab recruiter's attention will help you to make effective use of these verbs in your resume to highlight your skills and accomplishments and get noticed by the employer.