Strong Action Verbs to Boost Your Resume in 2024
Action verbs can transform your resume from bland to impactful. This article explores how powerful verbs showcase achievements, emphasize skills, and help your resume stand out to potential employers.
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What Are Action Verbs?
Action verbs are powerful words that convey actions, adding energy and impact to your resume. They make your achievements and experiences more dynamic and engaging.
Using strong action words on your resume is essential for highlighting key skills, accomplishments and your professional background.
Our certified career experts have carefully compiled lists of impactful resume verbs tailored to different roles, industries, skills, and achievements, helping you stand out and accelerate your path to getting hired.
Strong Action Verbs for Your Resume by Type
Find our favorite leadership, accomplishment, communication and creative action verb examples to help you kickstart your resume.
Action verbs to describe leadership skills
- Administered
- Advocated
- Advanced
- Aided
- Arranged
- Appointed
- Assembled
- Assessed
- Assigned
- Assisted
- Budgeted
- Chaired
- Coached
- Counsel
- Cultivated
- Delegated
- Developed
- Directed
- Empowered
- Enabled
- Energized
- Established
- Executed
- Demonstrated
- Diversified
- Handled
- Headed
- Hired
- Guided
- Initiated
- Launched
- Lobbied
- Mentored
- Operated
- Orchestrated
- Overhauled
- Oversaw
- Piloted
- Planned
- Produced
- Programmed
- Scheduled
- Spearheaded
- Supervised
- Supported
Action verbs for job accomplishments
- Aligned
- Attained
- Bolstered
- Consolidated
- Developed
- Devised
- Doubled
- Discovered
- Engineered
- Enhanced
- Established
- Facilitated
- Familiarized
- Formulated
- Furthered
- Handled
- Implemented
- Improved
- Inspired
- Invented
- Merged
- Organized
- Outlined
- Patched
- Prioritized
- Regulated
- Recruited
- Regulated
- Reorganized
- Repaired
- Resolved
- Restructured
- Restored
- Revised
- Simplified
- Streamlined
- Strengthened
- Verified
Action verbs to describe communication
- Advised
- Approved
- Answered
- Clarified
- Collaborated
- Contracted
- Contributed
- Corresponded
- Counseled
- Edited
- Educated
- Encouraged
- Demonstrated
- Diagrammed
- Fostered
- Guided
- Helped
- Hosted
- Illustrated
- Informed
- Inspired
- Instructed
- Mobilized
- Modified
- Motivated
- Originated
- Persuaded
- Proofread
- Recommended
- Reviewed
- Supported
- Taught
- Trained
- Translated
Action verbs to describe career experience
- Accomplished
- Advanced
- Appointed
- Authorized
- Chaired
- Created
- Delegated
- Developed
- Devised
- Directed
- Earned
- Eliminated
- Enhanced
- Established
- Exceeded
- Founded
- Generated
- Headed
- Invented
- Increased
- Initiated
- Led
- Managed
- Navigated
- Originated
- Outperformed
- Oversaw
- Performed
- Planned
- Presided
- Produced
- Reached
- Restored
- Secured
- Strengthened
- Succeeded
- Surpassed
- Targeted
- Won
Action verbs to describe creativity
- Acted
- Adapted
- Authored
- Brainstormed
- Built
- Crafted
- Created
- Composed
- Conceived
- Curated
- Customized
- Designed
- Displayed
- Drafted
- Founded
- Ideated
- Inspired
- Navigated
- Planned
- Shaped
- Strategized
- Transformed
- Unified
- Volunteered
Best Action Verbs for Top Jobs + Examples
We created the following curated lists of strong action verbs based on popular career paths, along with examples of these power words in action.
Action verbs for sales jobs
You can review these sales resumes for additional examples of compelling action verbs. Action verbs examples in a sales work history:
- Identified an underserved market and generated new monthly customer revenue of $2,000-$5,000.
- Continuously reviewed market trends and analytics to anticipate customer needs, price schedules and discount rates.
Consider using the following list of strong resume action verbs below for your next sales resume:
- Adapted
- Advanced
- Advised
- Anticipate
- Automate
- Clarified
- Converted
- Closed
- Demonstrated
- Deployed
- Designed
- Devised
- Enhanced
- Facilitated
- Guided
- Generated
- Informed
- Implemented
- Negotiated
- Networked
- Persuaded
- Pinpointed
- Planned
- Regulated
Finance action verbs
Visit our accounting or banking resume examples to see these practical finance descriptions.
Action verbs examples in a finance work history:
- Worked with internal support staff to audit and analyze potential acquisitions in the trust and real estate planning, investment management, life insurance and brokerage markets.
- Optimized auditing filing and approval process to reduce analysis standstill and project wait times by over 62%.
- Acquired
- Administered
- Advanced
- Amplified
- Assessed
- Audited
- Calculated
- Capitalized
- Centralized
- Chaired
- Charted
- Closed
- Consolidated
- Developed
- Devised
- Directed
- Discovered
- Evaluated
- Established
- Executed
- Forecasted
- Formalized
- Formulated
- Gained
- Generated
- Implemented
- Incorporated
- Increased
- Instituted
- Launched
- Managed
- Maximized
- Measured
- Merged
- Modeled
- Navigated
- Negotiated
- Operated
- Orchestrated
- Partnered
- Pitched
- Planned
- Projected
- Quantified
- Reduced
- Restructured
- Saved
- Secured
- Signed
- Sourced
- Stimulated
- Sustained
- Upsold
- Yielded
Marketing action verbs
View our sample marketing resumes to see how fellow marketing professionals use the suggested action verbs:
Action verbs examples in a marketing work history:
- Implemented new marketing campaigns across multiple customer-facing channels, including print, video, and the newly branded company website, to increase brand awareness and site traffic.
- Collaborated with SEO to audit and optimize existing web pages, increasing organic search traffic by 72% and netting a $1.2 million profit in six months.
- Audited
- Aligned
- Analyzed
- Cultivated
- Conceptualized
- Designed
- Developed
- Engineered
- Forecasted
- Formulated
- Generated
- Identified
- Implemented
- Improved
- Interpreted
- Launched
- Marketed
- Maintained
- Negotiated
- Optimized
- Orchestrated
- Overhauled
- Planned
- Projected
- Produced
- Promoted
- Redesigned
- Remodeled
- Researched
- Revitalized
- Solved
- Standardized
- Spearheaded
- Updated
Action verbs for research jobs
Consider using the following action verbs for your research resume. You can find additional examples of these terms in these helpful medical or science resume samples.
Action verbs examples in a research work history:
- Developed experimental design and characterization of a series of non-steroidal selective glucocorticoids for pharmaceutical purposes.
- Wrote and revised standard lab procedures for various projects to minimize contamination and lost data.
- Assembled
- Audited
- Automated
- Built
- Calculated
- Charted
- Compiled
- Computed
- Detected
- Diagnosed
- Evaluated
- Experimented
- Extracted
- Formulated
- Initiated
- Inspected
- Integrated
- Interpreted
- Invented
- Mapped
- Measured
- Modeled
- Organized
- Peer-reviewed
- Projected
- Planned
- Programmed
- Quantified
- Regulated
- Researched
- Reviewed
- Solved
- Studied
- Summarized
- Systemized
- Tested
Customer service action verbs
Try using any of the following resume action verbs for customer service gigs. You can see some of these terms in action with the following customer service or food service resume examples.
Customer service resume examples of action verbs include:
- Served as liaison between on-site sales staff and regional managers to ideate and promote seasonal products and meet weekly sales goals.
- Processed and placed weekly product replacements as needed and scheduled sufficient staff to unpack and organize the inventory.
- Adjusted
- Altered
- Arranged
- Assisted
- Counseled
- Encouraged
- Facilitated
- Fashioned
- Fulfilled
- Guided
- Helped
- Influenced
- Measured
- Motivated
- Promoted
- Proposed
- Provided
- Referred
Key Takeaways
- Action verbs give your resume the energy and confidence to stand out in a repetitive job market.
- Strong action verbs replace overused descriptions to highlight your skills, achievements and unique qualifications.
- Strategic use of unique but job-relevant action verbs can improve the persuasiveness of your resume.
FAQ
What are 20 action verbs?
Here are 20 strong action verbs to boost your resume:
- Achieved
- Analyzed
- Coordinated
- Designed
- Developed
- Directed
- Enhanced
- Facilitated
- Generated
- Initiated
- Implemented
- Improved
- Negotiated
- Organized
- Optimized
- Resolved
- Spearheaded
- Streamlined
- Supervised
- Transformed
What are examples of weak or overused action verbs?
We briefly mentioned how overused action verbs can lose meaning and effectiveness over time. Try to avoid the following list of overused verbs because they’re common and mildly passive:
- Assisted
- Did
- Handled
- Helped
- Led
- Made
- Managed
- Responsible for
- Participated in
- Worked
What is a good list of action verbs for students?
As a current high school student or recent graduate, writing a resume can be difficult when you have little to no work experience. However, most hiring managers understand you’re a new job seeker. As you can see with these student resume samples, the following action verbs help you describe your academic accomplishments and transferable skills.
- Assisted
- Collaborated
- Coordinated
- Created
- Designed
- Organized
- Planned
- Presented
- Tutored
- Volunteered
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[182 Resume Action Verbs to Help You Stand Out]
Last edited by: Ami Icanberry, CPRW, Manager, Content Editing - October 28, 2024
Gabriela Barcenas
CPRW, Content Writer IIGabriela is a Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW) and career adviser. With 10 years of digital media experience and five years of resume writing expertise, her publication history includes fashion, education, travel, social justice, equitable design and career advice.
