How to write resume bullet points that show results

The formula: verb, what, result

Start with a strong action verb, say what you did, and finish with the outcome or scale. Add the method or tool if it helps the reader judge the work. “Reduced customer wait time by 35% by redesigning the support queue in Zendesk.”

Keep each bullet to one or two lines, roughly 10 to 30 words, and use three to five bullets for recent roles and one or two for older ones.

Before and after

Weak bullets describe duties. Stronger ones show impact:

• Before: Responsible for social media. After: Grew Instagram followers from 3,000 to 18,000 in 12 months by launching a weekly video series.
• Before: Helped with customer complaints. After: Resolved 40+ customer escalations a week with a 96% satisfaction rating.
• Before: Worked on the website. After: Rebuilt the checkout page in React, lifting conversion by 12%.
• Before: Managed a team. After: Managed a team of 8 engineers across two time zones and shipped 5 releases on schedule.

Action verbs by type of work

Pick the verb that is accurate for what you did:

• Leadership: led, directed, mentored, coordinated, supervised, hired, trained.
• Building: built, designed, developed, engineered, launched, implemented, automated.
• Improvement: reduced, increased, streamlined, optimised, accelerated, simplified, modernised.
• Analysis: analysed, audited, evaluated, forecast, researched, identified, measured.
• Communication: presented, negotiated, wrote, published, advised, partnered.

No numbers? Use these instead

Not every job has metrics, but most have some scale you can state honestly: how many people, accounts, orders, tickets or transactions; how often; how big the budget; how long it took; how much faster or cheaper. If you truly cannot measure, describe the scope and the outcome clearly, for example “Introduced a shared checklist that all four shift teams adopted”. Never invent numbers; you may be asked to explain them.

lightbulb The ATS check tab in the free resume builder shows what share of your bullets start with an action verb and include a number.

Words to retire

Phrases such as “responsible for”, “duties included”, “worked on”, “helped with” and “various” tell the reader little. Replace them with the specific action and result. Avoid first-person pronouns; resume bullets are written as implied first person (“Led…” not “I led…”).

Frequently asked questions

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