Resume action verbs
174+ strong verbs to open your bullet points, sorted by the kind of work they describe. Tap a verb to copy it.
Leadership
Running teams, projects or initiatives
Achievement
Hitting targets and winning results
Growth & improvement
Making something bigger, faster or better
Cost & efficiency
Saving money, time or effort
Building & creating
Starting or making something new
Technical
Engineering, IT and data work
Analysis & research
Investigating, measuring and deciding
Communication
Writing, presenting and persuading
Collaboration
Working across teams and partners
Customer & sales
Clients, accounts and revenue
Organization & operations
Planning, scheduling and running processes
Teaching & people development
Training, hiring and developing others
Find weak openers in your bullets
Paste your bullet points, one per line. Lines that lean on duty phrases like “responsible for” are flagged so you can swap in a verb from the list above.
Your flagged lines will appear here.
Want full rewrites? The bullet point generator turns duties into achievement lines.
How to use action verbs well
- Pick the verb that matches the result. “Reduced” for costs and time, “Grew” for revenue and audiences, “Built” for things that didn’t exist before.
- Follow with scope and outcome. “Led a 6-person team” says more than “Led a team”, and “…that shipped two weeks early” says more still.
- Mirror the job ad’s verbs where true. If the ad says “manage vendor relationships”, “Managed 14 vendor relationships” matches the wording a recruiter may search for.
Questions people ask
What are action verbs on a resume?
Verbs that open a bullet point and say what you did: Led, Built, Reduced, Negotiated. They make each line about an action and its result instead of a job duty.
Should resume verbs be past or present tense?
Past tense for previous roles and completed achievements; present tense for ongoing duties in your current job. Be consistent within each role.
What words should I avoid on a resume?
Phrases that describe duties rather than results, such as “responsible for”, “helped with”, “worked on” and “duties included”, plus clichés like “team player” and “results-driven” that anyone can claim.
Can I repeat an action verb?
Try not to use the same opener more than twice on a page. Repetition reads as a template and wastes a chance to show range.