Strip the headings and contact details and a resume is a dozen lines of evidence. Each one has the same job: prove you did something that mattered, and make the reader want to ask about it.
The formula
Strong action verb, then the specific thing you did, then the result, then the method if there is room. In that order, because the reader may only get through the first few words.
[Verb] [what you did] [result, with a number] [how]
Rebuilt the weekly sales report in Power BI, cutting preparation
from six hours to forty minutes for a team of nine.Not "Was responsible for rebuilding". Not "Successfully rebuilt". Just "Rebuilt". Every word before the verb is a word the reader spends without learning anything.
Verbs that carry weight
Pick the verb that describes your actual contribution. Inflating it is easy to catch in an interview and expensive when caught.
| You | Verbs |
|---|---|
| Made something new | Built, designed, launched, wrote, developed |
| Improved something existing | Rebuilt, streamlined, reduced, automated, refactored |
| Worked out what was wrong | Diagnosed, investigated, audited, traced |
| Led or coordinated | Led, coordinated, mentored, ran |
When you have no numbers
Students and career switchers often stop here, and they should not. If you cannot measure the outcome, quantify the scope or the frequency instead. All four of these are numbers a reader can use.
- Volume: "processed 12,000 records", "handled 40 tickets a week".
- Audience: "used by 60 people across three teams".
- Frequency: "published twice weekly for six months".
- Time: "delivered in three weeks against a four-week estimate".
Three rewrites
| Before | After |
|---|---|
| Made presentations for clients | Built pitch decks for eleven client meetings; six converted to paid pilots |
| Learned Excel and data analysis | Cleaned and analysed a 40,000-row sales export in Excel to find three loss-making SKUs |
| Part of the marketing team | Ran the email calendar for a 15,000-subscriber list, lifting open rate from 18% to 26% |
The final pass
- Read only the first three words of every bullet. If they are interchangeable, rewrite them.
- Count the numbers. Fewer than half your bullets carrying one means you are describing duties.
- Remove every adverb. "Successfully" and "effectively" add length, not credibility.
- Check each line is one sentence and under two lines on the page.
Key takeaways
- Verb first, result early, method last.
- Use the verb that matches what you really did.
- No outcome metric? Quantify volume, audience, frequency or time.
- Read the first three words of each bullet as a test of whether they differ.
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