Resumes
Words for Stronger Resume Bullets
Most resumes are not bad, they are just too soft. The biggest problem is weak verbs: words like "helped" and "worked on" hide what you actually did. Below are 10 stronger replacements you can use right away, plus examples of when each one works best.
The 10 words
1. Led — Use when you owned direction or decision-making.
2. Built — Use when you created a process, product, system, or team asset.
3. Launched — Use for rollouts, go-lives, and initiatives that went public.
4. Improved — Use when quality, speed, or output got better.
5. Increased — Use for growth metrics like revenue, conversion, or retention.
6. Reduced — Use when you lowered cost, risk, time, or errors.
7. Streamlined — Use when you simplified messy workflows.
8. Negotiated — Use for vendors, contracts, budgets, and cross-team tradeoffs.
9. Implemented — Use when you took something from plan to reality.
10. Mentored — Use when you developed teammates or onboarded new hires.
Quick before/after examples
Before: Helped with email campaigns.
After: Launched lifecycle email campaigns that increased trial-to-paid conversion by 18%.
Before: Worked on support process.
After: Streamlined support workflow, reducing first-response time from 14 hours to 6 hours.
Before: Responsible for team training.
After: Mentored 4 new hires and cut onboarding ramp time by 2 weeks.
How to apply this in 15 minutes
- Pick your top 5 bullet points from the last 2 years.
- Replace one weak verb in each bullet with one word from the list above.
- Add a number where possible: %, $, time, or volume.
- Keep each bullet to one action and one outcome.
- Read each bullet out loud. If it sounds vague, tighten it.