15 of the Most Effective Action Verbs to Include in Your Tech Resume
Resumes, by nature, are hardly exciting documents to read. Put yourself in a hiring manager’s shoes and imagine having to read hundreds of tech resumes every week. The fact is, most job seekers approach their resumes the same way, focusing on lists of tasks and responsibilities, making it difficult to tell one resume from the next. If they are lucky, hiring managers may get a few resumes that focus on accomplishments, but most look and sound the same, which can make it nearly impossible for you to stand out from the crowd.
If you want your achievements to jump of the page, it’s time to incorporate action verbs into your resume. Stop using words like “responsible for” or “tasked with,” and focus on adding more powerful language to your tech resume.
Why Action Verbs?
Action verbs are powerful and they can breathe new life into your resume. Words like these are boring: assisted, managed, helped, administered, led. However, words like influenced, executed, engineered, and accelerated have more “pop” to them and are more likely to leap off the page.
Action verbs also give your resume more meat. Which sentence sounds more impressive to you?
- Helped bring Agile practices into the development process to make projects more efficient.
- Spearheaded the implementation of Agile into the development process, reducing project completion time by 30% on average.
The second sentence pops off the page because it is more powerful and paints a much clearer picture of your contributions to the team. Bullet points like that are much more likely to get your resume noticed for all the right reasons.
Action Verbs To Incorporate Into Your Resume
If you are in the process of looking for a new tech job, spend time combing through your resume. Ditch boring verbs and incorporate action verbs like these into the mix:
- Accelerated
- Achieved
- Awarded
- Changed
- Eliminated
- Exceeded
- Expanded
- Generated
- Grew
- Increased
- Introduced
- Maximized/Minimized
- Optimized
- Saved
- Streamlined
These are just starting points – there are thousands of powerful action verbs you can use on your resume to stand out and paint a powerful picture of your experience and contributions on the job.
Are You Looking for IT Jobs in Chicago?
If you are a talented professional seeking new IT career opportunities in Chicago, work with the recruiters at CultureFit. We can connect you with opportunities where you will feel culturally aligned, and we can give you tips on improving your resume to help you get noticed. Contact us today to learn how we can help you achieve your goals.
