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If only a magic list of resume power words existed to bring your resume to life...
If you think writing a resume is boring, imagine being a recruiter tasked with reading hundreds of resumes weekly. Now, imagine that every resume features the same overused resume buzzwords.
After a while, all of these resumes start to blend together.
To save you and a potential recruiter from ultimate boredom, we compiled a long list of power words to use, how to use them, and how they're guaranteed to impress any hiring manager.
- What are Resume Power Words?
- How to Use Resume Power Words
- Resume Action Verbs
- Power Adjectives for Your Resume
- 3 Tricks to Help Avoid Using "Bad" Power Words
- How to Find Power Words in a Job Posting
What Are Resume Power Words?
Power words are action verbs and adjectives a job seeker can use to highlight and illustrate their skills and achievements in their resume. Rather than using the same overused resume buzzwords, power words bring a resume to life with active tenses, living examples, and an overall better illustration of the candidate.
Rewriting your resume with attention to more colorful, action-based language could be the thing that sets you apart. Get ready to knock your recruiter's socks off with your zhuzhed-up resume.
How to Use Resume Power Words
Most resume bullet points start with language that is repetitive and boring. When a recruiter is skimming the page, it’s easy for them to glaze over your accomplishments.
That’s where power words come in. Power words help punch up any resume bullet point. They help you stand out, they help relate your experience to the specific job better and faster, and they can help tell your story in a more concise way.
Replacing common buzzwords with exciting, active language, or keywords can even increase the chances that an Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) will pick up your resume in an online database.
Most companies will use an ATS to collect online applications. Next, the ATS will read/scan your resume to see if it’s a match for the job.
Specifically, the ATS compares your resume to the job description. The applicant tracking system scans for keywords or phrases in your resume that are also used in the job description.
How to Actually Use Power Words
If the job description is looking for someone to “manage client relationships,” then you’ll want to include the keyword “client relationships” on your resume.
Don't: Don't stop by just including the keyword with little or no context.
Do: Make it POP. This is what will make the recruiter be eager to review your experience. Do this by starting your bullet point with a power verb like “cultivated” or “organized.” Both those power verbs give us a better idea of your role vs. a general term like “manage.”
So you might say: “Cultivated 35+ client relationships and organized the sales process from lead to signed contract each quarter.”
By putting in a little extra thought to add some power verbs, your bullet points will set you apart from other candidates. There's nothing wrong with heading to your trusty thesaurus for a few ideas!
Resume Action Verbs
Another type of power word is an action verb. An action verb describes a specific action, task, or movement that answers the question, "What is the subject doing?" They are used to add impact to a sentence to provide relevant and important information, so they are key to an impressive resume.
Here's how to use resume action verbs:
- Accelerated: Accelerated development of the company's inaugural internship program.
- Collaborated: Collaborated with a team of eight people to raise $1.5 million for charity.
- Supervised: Supervised a cross-departmental initiative that resulted in a 10% increase in revenue.
- Implemented: Implemented framework and best practices for customer success.
- Designed: Designed a wireframe for the company’s first-ever mobile application.
- Enhanced: Enhanced customer experience with a new platform.
We covered action verbs in great detail here, including 100+ action verbs—and advice on how to use them.
More Resume Power Verbs to Try
- Mentored
- Guided
- Cooperated
- Unified
- Advised
- Assisted
- Supported
- Subsidized
- Sustained
- Commanded
- Conducted
- Piloted
- Mastered
- Initiated
- Instituted
- Invented
- Drove
- Oversaw
- Undertook
- Architected
- Curated
- Delegated
- Forecasted
- Elevated
- Heightened
- Expanded
- Conserved
- Defended
- Regenerated
- Secured
- Preserved
Power Adjectives for Your Resume
If this is beginning to seem like a grammar refresher lesson, it is!
Another type of power word is a power adjective. A power adjective is a word that describes a noun or pronoun. For example, in the phrase “hot day,” the word “hot” is the adjective that describes the day.
They are used to describe the quality, quantity, or state of a noun. These are especially important in a resume because recruiters love to see quantitative details included—like “I increased revenue by 10%.” vs. “I increased revenue.”
Some examples include:
- Focused
- Diligent
- Innovative
- Collaborative
- Proactive
- Detailed
- Prompt
- Extensive
- Numerous
- Smooth
- Comprehensive
- Agile
- Cohesive
The goal with adding power adjectives is to enhance what you’re describing—not to make it wordy.
Include an adjective with an accomplishment or example.
How to Transform Your Sentences with Power Adjectives
Before: Launched a new project management tool.
After: Launched seamless integration of a project management tool that increased team productivity by 15%.
After: Launched seamless integration of a project management tool that increased team productivity by 15%.
Before: In charge of cross-communication across many departments.
After: Created templates to ensure smooth and accurate communication with customers across five departments.
After: Created templates to ensure smooth and accurate communication with customers across five departments.
Before: Responsible for responding to customer emails each day.
After: Filtered 100+ high-priority customer emails each day in order to decrease monthly churn rates.
After: Filtered 100+ high-priority customer emails each day in order to decrease monthly churn rates.
Before: Oversee donor relations program.
After: Secured $30 million of dedicated funding from donors, families, and campus outreach organizations.
After: Secured $30 million of dedicated funding from donors, families, and campus outreach organizations.
3 Tricks to Help Avoid Using "Bad" Power Words
We’ve covered many reasons why you want to include power words in your resume and before we give you even more examples of power words, let’s discuss some that you should avoid.
You’ll want to avoid these resume power words because they are overused, don’t showcase your accomplishments as well as other words, and lack the ability to stand out in a sea of resumes.
Know the Difference Between Self-Promotion vs. Self-Initiation
You might be tempted to use terms to brag about yourself such as go-getter and point-person, but it would be more impressive if you focus on your skills to take initiative and get stuff done.
Ultimately, you’re showing you can bring value to the company. Try something like “self-starter” and then give an example of a time when you took initiative and the positive impact it had on the company.
Avoid the Overly-Obvious
Don’t waste precious resume real estate stating things that are obvious and don’t help differentiate you at all. These includes words like “team player,” “people person,” “hard worker,” etc.
Today, it’s a given that you’ll need to work well with people, so give us an example of how you worked with others to get something done.
Please Avoid Business Jargon (for Jargon's Sake)
We mentioned this already, but let’s get more specific.
Getting too fancy with the lingo can confuse the recruiter. Instead, stick to clear, concise language. Business jargon to avoid includes synergy, wheelhouse, bandwidth, ecosystem, etc.
How to Find Power Words in a Job Posting
When looking for a new job, the job posting can be a huge resource—if you choose to use it.
To further demonstrate that you’re a good fit for the specific company and job, reference the job posting. Inside the job posting, you will find keywords and phrases the company uses to describe itself—and the skills required for the job.
Aim to identify the words used to describe the company’s values. Highlight the keywords used in the job description that relate to the skills and responsibilities of the role. Include those same words and phrases in your resume, cover letter, and interview.
If the company describes its culture as “multi-passionate creators,” include that phrase in your resume or cover letter with an example of how you fit that description.
You can use these exact keywords and phrases in your resume and edit your bullet points so your experience looks and sounds like a perfect fit for the job. For example, if the job is looking for someone who can “analyze data using Excel,” then you will want to include your experience “analyzing data” and/or “using Excel.”
We have an entire guide that can walk you through the process as well.
Another place to find these keywords and phrases is on the company’s career page or About Us page.
One Final Pro Tip: Print out the job description for the job at hand.
Next, go find three or four other job postings for similar jobs at similar companies. Print those out as well.
Once you have them all in front of you, highlight the skills, experiences, and words that are used among them all. That will give you a good foundation for determining the keywords and phrases for those types of jobs.
