300+ Resume Action Words to Help You Stand Out from the Rest

Action verbs, like its name, help you to identify things you are doing in your life. You can use action words to tell that you are making a project with your current company, work with your group well or participate in different kinds of organizations. These are the typical action verbs you would see in everyone’s resumes. They are normal, and maybe boring in the eyes of the HR manager who has been scanning hundreds and thousands of resumes all day.

So, how do you make your resume more attractive and eye-catching? Let's start by throwing these normal action verbs away and start inputting strong action verbs in the resume!

Action verbs are words that describe our actions, which are undeniably presented in every activity in our life at all times. 

Some people get confused between action verbs and linking verbs. Linking verbs only connect a subject to the information, and linking verbs does not describe any action. In writing a resume, action words play a more important role than linking verbs. The use of action verbs in resume writing will help you describe your work experiences more clearly. Meanwhile, action words also help you be more concise when describing your experiences.

Action verbs not only tell us what we did but also how we did that particular action. You worked well and utilized great teamwork skills with your partners on a project, but what if we want to put this experience in the resume that you made? The answer is by using resume action verbs.

Example:

"Collaborated with 4 people in developing a new UX design project for ABC project."

Action words are presented mostly along with your Work Experience, Organizations, or Achievements sections in your resume, and they present your accomplishments from your previous jobs or titles. Past tense action verbs indicate that you have done those works well and produced good results, which is why they are extremely important to be presented in your resume!

Resume verbs or CV buzzwords are everywhere. From the hundreds and thousands of words it is important for you to know about which of them are overused, so you may want to avoid some of those overused resume buzzwords.

Do you think they are too familiar in your eyes? Yes, most people including you might have placed at least one of these ten keywords in your resume. Although they super resume buzzwords, they are very overused. So, how about some a bit less common, but still useful resume buzzwords?

Ten are not enough action verbs for a resume? Of course! How can ten be enough when you have dozens of accomplishments that need to be highlighted in your resume? 

Strong Team Player Action Verbs

Management and Leadership Action Verbs

Creative Action Verbs List

Goal-Oriented Resume Buzzwords

Technical Resume Verbs

Finance Action Verbs for Resume

Marketing and Sales Buzzword for Resume

Administration and Secretarial Action Verbs

Communication Power Verbs for Resume

Have you found your desired action verbs? Then, the next step is placing them in your resume. Some of you might be still a bit confused on how to place them in the right way. Remember these tips below when placing your powerful resume verbs in.

Tip 1: Action verbs are more powerful than adjectives in resumes

If you have placed a chosen powerful verb to be in your resume work experience section, don’t add another adjective inside that sentence. Adjectives are overthrown by any powerful verb you chose, so pick a powerful verb and don’t double it with adjectives.

Tip 2: Choose your action words based on desired job descriptions

There are so many great power action verbs out there. When you can’t choose the perfect action words, look at your wanted job description and tailor your action verbs according to keywords in the employers’ requirements.

Tip 3: Pick the most appropriate resume buzzwords for your summary and work experience section

Picking the coolest resume buzzwords is not enough for your summary and work experience section. You must also place the most correct and appropriate action words matching your experiences. Don’t write “commanded your teammates” while you have only collaborated with them. Always be alert with your choices!

Tip 4: Avoid generic action verbs and passive voice

Remember the overrated action buzzwords? Most of these overrated action buzzwords happened because they are too generic or general among job seekers. Most people can cooperate well with their team or tell their job hunters that they are motivated for the job. This means you should be different from them and find your perfect customized and categorized action verb.

An appropriate action word should be used in an active voice, meaning that you have to say goodbye to your passive voice. You have worked to create a project in your previous job, not the project was created by you. This is the perfect active voice to be used!

Tip 5: Try various action verbs and avoid repeating them

As you have hundreds and thousands of action verbs to pick, therefore, try not to use the same one repeatedly. There are many ways to tell that you are a perfect team player, such as joined or participated. And there are also different ways to say you are a good leader, such as encouraged or instructed. Make sure to pick the perfect action word for your resume.

Now you can easily fit your missing action words into your resume! Action words are your center player in resume wording, so keep them tailored perfectly to your work experiences and resume summary sections.