Action verbs for a resume are the first words of your bullets, and the right one tells a reader what kind of work you did before they read the rest of the line. The list below has 150 of them, grouped by what each verb proves: that you built something, led people, improved a result, analyzed a problem, sold, or kept operations and customers running. Each group comes with sample before and after bullets, so you can see the verb doing its job. Further down are the verbs to retire and a method for borrowing the posting's own verbs without copying it. The list uses US spelling. The page that currently ranks first for this search is a UK CV guide, updated 16 June 2026, and it spells "analysed" and "utilised", which looks off on a US resume.
The 150 verbs on one page
This table is the printable version. Pick the row that matches what the bullet is meant to prove, then pick the most precise verb in it.
| What the bullet proves | Verbs |
|---|---|
| You built or created something (25) | Built, Created, Designed, Developed, Engineered, Launched, Established, Founded, Programmed, Prototyped, Authored, Drafted, Produced, Assembled, Implemented, Configured, Deployed, Installed, Integrated, Instituted, Introduced, Composed, Formulated, Initiated, Devised |
| You led people or work (25) | Led, Directed, Managed, Supervised, Coached, Mentored, Trained, Hired, Recruited, Delegated, Coordinated, Orchestrated, Oversaw, Chaired, Headed, Mobilized, Guided, Onboarded, Aligned, Championed, Convened, Facilitated, Steered, Unified, Represented |
| You improved a result (25) | Increased, Reduced, Cut, Raised, Grew, Accelerated, Shortened, Improved, Streamlined, Simplified, Automated, Consolidated, Optimized, Upgraded, Modernized, Redesigned, Restructured, Standardized, Eliminated, Doubled, Lowered, Saved, Recovered, Strengthened, Expanded |
| You analyzed or researched (25) | Analyzed, Assessed, Audited, Calculated, Measured, Modeled, Forecast, Quantified, Tested, Evaluated, Investigated, Researched, Surveyed, Mapped, Benchmarked, Diagnosed, Identified, Interpreted, Validated, Verified, Reconciled, Examined, Experimented, Synthesized, Traced |
| You sold or won business (20) | Sold, Closed, Negotiated, Secured, Won, Prospected, Pitched, Generated, Converted, Renewed, Upsold, Cultivated, Partnered, Persuaded, Acquired, Retained, Marketed, Promoted, Sourced, Booked |
| You supported customers or users (15) | Resolved, Troubleshot, Repaired, Restored, Fixed, Responded, Escalated, Advised, Counseled, Educated, Documented, Served, Answered, Triaged, Clarified |
| You ran operations (15) | Scheduled, Planned, Organized, Processed, Maintained, Monitored, Tracked, Inventoried, Procured, Allocated, Budgeted, Administered, Dispatched, Prepared, Compiled |
Three rules make the list work:
- One verb per bullet, at the front. The verb carries the claim. Anything before it ("Was part of a team that...") delays it.
- Match the verb to your real role. If you contributed to a launch someone else led, "Built the pricing page for" is true and "Led the launch of" is not. An interviewer will ask about the verb.
- Follow it with an object and, when you have one, a number. Verb, what you did it to, what changed. The verb alone proves little.
Why the verb matters
The first word of each bullet is where a reader starts, so it sets up the whole line. Career centers agree on the basic advice. Vanderbilt University's Action Verbs and Phrases guide says action verbs show an employer "that you took action, produced results, and contributed", and tells readers to avoid passive phrases such as "skills included" and "responsible for". Harvard's Office of Career Services lists "Using passive language instead of action verbs" among its top five resume mistakes, next to "Not demonstrating results".
There is also harder evidence that the quality of resume writing changes outcomes. In a randomized field experiment by Wiles, Munyikwa and Horton, NBER Working Paper 30886, nearly half a million jobseekers on an online labor market were split into groups, and those who got algorithmic writing assistance on their resumes "were hired 8% more often". The authors found no evidence that employers were less satisfied with the people they hired, which suggests the clearer writing helped employers judge ability rather than hiding it. That experiment tested writing help in general, not a verb list. Still, it is the best evidence available that how you phrase what you did is not cosmetic.
The verb also decides what the rest of the bullet has to prove. "Managed" promises people or a budget. "Built" promises an artifact. "Reduced" promises a before and after number. Picking the verb first forces you to supply the evidence it implies.
Verbs that show you built something
Use these when the bullet's point is that something exists because of you: a product, a process, a document, a program. Prefer the most concrete verb. "Built", "Programmed" and "Drafted" are physical and specific. "Developed" and "Created" are fine but vaguer, so pair them with a precise object.
All bullets in this post are invented samples, not real people's resumes.
| Before | After |
|---|---|
| Worked on the new onboarding flow for the mobile app. | Built the three-screen onboarding flow for the iOS app in Swift, shipped in a two-week sprint. |
| Responsible for the employee handbook. | Drafted a 40-page employee handbook covering leave, expenses and remote work, adopted company wide. |
| Helped set up the warehouse scanners. | Configured and deployed 25 handheld scanners across two warehouses, replacing paper pick lists. |
"Founded", "Established" and "Instituted" are for things that did not exist before: a club, a team, a recurring program. Use them once or twice at most; they lose force when every bullet starts a new initiative.
Verbs that show you led
Leadership verbs say who or what you were in charge of, so they need a scope: how many people, which project, what budget. Without the scope, "Led" reads like a title claim.
| Before | After |
|---|---|
| Team lead for the support team. | Led a team of six support agents across two shifts, covering 1,200 tickets a month. |
| Did training for new hires. | Trained 14 new hires on the billing system and wrote the one-day course they took. |
| In charge of the vendor relationship. | Managed the relationship with the company's payroll vendor, including the annual contract review. |
Not all leadership is management. "Coordinated", "Facilitated", "Convened" and "Aligned" fit people who led without authority: running a cross-team meeting, getting three departments to agree on a launch date. "Mentored" and "Coached" work for senior individual contributors. "Hired" and "Recruited" are underused and specific; if you interviewed and selected people, say so.
Verbs that show you improved results
These are the strongest verbs on a resume because they promise a measured change, and they are the weakest when the number is missing. "Increased sales" with no figure invites the question of how much.
| Before | After |
|---|---|
| Improved the month-end close process. | Shortened the month-end close from eight days to five by automating three reconciliations. |
| Worked to reduce customer churn. | Reduced monthly churn from 3.1% to 2.4% by adding a cancellation survey and save offer. |
| Made the report faster. | Cut the weekly sales report's run time from 40 minutes to 4 by rewriting its SQL queries. |
If you do not have an exact number, use one you can defend: a range, a count of things, or a before and after state ("from a shared spreadsheet to a tracked queue"). Do not invent precision. The person interviewing you may know the real figure.
"Streamlined", "Optimized" and "Simplified" are popular and vague. They read much better when the next words say what got simpler and by how much.
Verbs for analysis and research
Analysis verbs prove you can think with data or evidence. The precise ones ("Reconciled", "Forecast", "Modeled", "Audited") tell a hiring manager exactly which skill you used; "Analyzed" on its own does not.
| Before | After |
|---|---|
| Analyzed data for the marketing team. | Modeled customer lifetime value by acquisition channel in Python, which shifted 15% of paid budget to search. |
| Did research on competitor pricing. | Benchmarked pricing for 12 competitors and presented a tiered plan that leadership adopted. |
| Checked accounts every month. | Reconciled 30 general ledger accounts monthly and traced a recurring $8,000 variance to a duplicate vendor record. |
Finish analysis bullets with what happened because of the analysis: a decision, a change, money found. Analysis that changed nothing is hard to claim credit for.
Verbs for sales, support and operations
These roles are measured closely, so the verbs should be followed by the metric the role is judged on: quota, revenue, renewals, resolution time, accuracy, on-time rate.
Sales and business development. "Closed", "Won", "Renewed" and "Negotiated" are about outcomes. "Prospected" and "Pitched" are about activity, so pair them with a result.
| Before | After |
|---|---|
| Responsible for new accounts in the Northeast. | Closed 22 new accounts in the Northeast territory, reaching 118% of annual quota. |
| Handled renewals. | Renewed 41 of 45 enterprise contracts up for renewal and upsold 9 to the premium tier. |
Customer support. "Resolved", "Troubleshot" and "Triaged" beat "Handled" and "Assisted", which say a customer was present but not what you did for them.
| Before | After |
|---|---|
| Assisted customers with technical issues. | Resolved an average of 45 tickets a day with a 92% satisfaction score on post-ticket surveys. |
| Answered questions about billing. | Documented the 20 most common billing questions as help articles, which cut repeat tickets on those topics. |
Operations and administration. "Scheduled", "Procured", "Budgeted" and "Dispatched" are plain and specific, which is what operations hiring managers want to see.
| Before | After |
|---|---|
| Took care of office supplies and orders. | Procured supplies for a 60-person office within a $2,500 monthly budget. |
| Did the scheduling for drivers. | Scheduled and dispatched 18 drivers daily across 120 delivery stops. |
Before and after: the pattern behind every rewrite
Every "after" bullet above is built the same way, and you can apply it to any line on your resume:
- Delete the job description phrase. "Responsible for", "Duties included", "Worked on", "Tasked with".
- Ask what you did to the thing. Built it, fixed it, sold it, cut its cost? That answer is your verb.
- Name the object precisely. Not "the process" but "the month-end close".
- Add the result. A number, a scale, or what changed because of you.
- Read it as an interviewer would. If the next question would be "what did you personally do?", the verb is still too big or too vague.
A full worked rewrite, from one weak bullet to a strong one (sample):
- Draft 1: "Responsible for social media."
- Draft 2: "Managed social media accounts." (verb added, still no object or result)
- Draft 3: "Managed the company's LinkedIn and Instagram accounts, posting five times a week." (object and scale)
- Draft 4: "Grew the company's LinkedIn following from 2,000 to 9,500 in a year with a five-post weekly calendar." (the verb now matches the result, and the activity becomes the method)
The best verb often only shows up at the last draft, once you know what the bullet proves.
Verbs to retire
These words are not forbidden, but each one tells the reader less than the verb it replaces.
| Retire | Why | Try instead |
|---|---|---|
| Responsible for | Describes a duty, not an action or result. Vanderbilt's guide names it. | The verb for what you did with that duty |
| Duties included, Tasked with | Same problem: a job description, not an accomplishment | Lead with the most impressive duty as a verb |
| Worked on, Was involved in | Hides your part in the work | Built, Tested, Drafted, Analyzed |
| Helped, Assisted with | Says someone else did the main work | Supported is honest if true; otherwise name your piece |
| Handled | Says the work passed through you | Resolved, Processed, Negotiated |
| Utilized, Used | Puts the tool first and the result nowhere | Name the tool inside a result: "Automated X in Python" |
| Spearheaded, Orchestrated (overused) | Fine once, grandiose when they open every bullet | Led, Coordinated, Launched |
The pattern is old. When LinkedIn ranked the most overused words in member profiles for 2013, "responsible" was first, followed by "strategic" and "creative", according to Entrepreneur's report of the list. LinkedIn's career expert at the time advised concrete examples that show you are responsible or strategic instead of the label. The same applies to adjectives such as "motivated" and "detail oriented" in a summary: replace the claim with the evidence.
Two smaller habits to drop:
- Pronouns. The University of Washington Bothell career services guide advises against "I", "me", "my", "we" and "our" and recommends a "first person implied" style.
- Tense drift. The same guide says to use past tense for previous jobs and present tense for current ones. Pick one tense per job and hold it.
Borrowing the posting's verbs
Job postings are full of verbs: "own the roadmap", "reconcile accounts", "partner with sales", "forecast demand". When the posting's verb describes work you really did, using it on your resume is accurate and helps both readers.
The software reader is literal. Greenhouse, a widely used applicant tracking system, explains that its system "uses AI to analyze job descriptions and suggest relevant keywords" and synonyms to recruiters, and that when recruiters search for these terms "they'll find exact matches in candidates' applications". An exact match is the reason to prefer the posting's word over your synonym when both are true. The human reader benefits too: bullets in the posting's vocabulary read as a description of the job they are hiring for. More on the matching side is in our guide to resume keywords.
A method that borrows the vocabulary without copying the posting:
- List the posting's verbs. Underline every verb in the responsibilities section.
- Mark the ones you have done. Only those. A verb you cannot back with a story in an interview is a liability.
- Swap your synonym for theirs. If you wrote "Balanced accounts" and the posting says "Reconcile", write "Reconciled". If you wrote "Ran" and it says "Own", "Owned" is fine when the work was really yours end to end.
- Keep your own objects and numbers. Borrow the verb, never the sentence. "Reconciled 30 ledger accounts monthly" is your bullet; "Reconcile accounts in a fast-paced environment" is theirs.
- Reorder. Move the bullets that use the posting's top three verbs to the top of each job.
Doing this for every application takes time, which is why tailoring is its own skill; our guide to how to tailor a resume walks through the whole process, and hard skills for a resume covers the nouns that sit after the verbs.
If you would rather not do it by hand for each posting, ApplyEze writes a resume for every job it applies to and brings the posting's named skills and tools onto your skills line, even when your own record does not list them. There is no step to remove one before a live run, so use a dry run to see what it writes, and be ready to discuss anything on the page.