List of Action Verbs for Resumes
The most powerful words are verbs. And the most powerful verbs are action verbs
You should use plenty of action verbs in your resume, matched to your skills, and use them in the active form, not the passive form. Which of these two sentences do you think is the more powerful?
- active form: I increased sales by a hundred percent.
- passive form: Sales were increased by a hundred percent.
Here is a list of typical action verbs categorised by skill:
Communication skills
- address
- arbitrate
- correspond
- draft
- edit
- lecture
- mediate
- motivate
- negotiate
- persuade
- present
- publicise
- reconcile
- speak
- write
Management skills
- assign
- attain
- chair
- coordinate
- delegate
- direct
- execute
- organise
- oversee
- plan
- recommend
- review
- strengthen
- supervise
- train
Research skills
- collect
- critique
- define
- detect
- diagnose
- evaluate
- examine
- explore
- extract
- identify
- inspect
- interpret
- investigate
- summarise
- survey
Technical skills
- assemble
- build
- calculate
- devise
- engineer
- fabricate
- maintain
- operate
- overhaul
- program
- remodel
- repair
- solve
- upgrade
Creative skills
- conceptualise
- create
- design
- fashion
- form
- illustrate
- institute
- integrate
- invent
- originate
- perform
- revitalise
- shape
Financial skills
- administer
- allocate
- analyse
- appraise
- audit
- balance
- budget
- calculate
- control
- compute
- develop
- forecast
- project
Sales skills
- sell
- convert
- close
- deal
- persuade
- highlight
- satisfy
- win over
- sign
Teaching skills
- advise
- clarify
- coach
- elicit
- enable
- encourage
- explain
- facilitate
- guide
- inform
- instruct
- persuade
- stimulate
- train