175 Powerful Verbs and Phrases for Resumes, Cover Letters, and Interviews
While you’re revamping your resume or cover letter or building your test stories for interviews, you’ll find that you need to watch your choice of words. Because? Communication is powerful if the words we use to communicate are powerful. That’s not all it takes, but the right words are a good start.
So as you craft accomplishment statements or write paragraphs that sell your skills or write interview answers to impress employers, consider these suggestions:
- Use verbs in the active tense, not the passive tense.
- Use verbs that convey power and action.
- Use verbs that claim the highest level of skill or achievement that you can legitimately claim.
- Use verbs to accurately describe what you have done at work.
- Use adjectives and adverbs sparingly, but when you do use them, use them well.
- Use nouns that are as specific and descriptive as possible.
- Use numbers whenever possible.
- Use the most impressive (and still honest) form of the number you use.
- Never lie! Not worth it. She will reach you.
- Review all your verbs and nouns for agreement, tense, and appropriateness.
Here, then, are 175 powerful verbs and phrases to use on resumes, cover letters, and interviews:
- sacrificed
- abolished
- accelerated
- accomplished
- accomplished
- actively participated
- administered
- advanced
- advised
- aggressively analyzed
- applied
- assumed a key role
- author
- automated
- built
- hired
- closed
- trained
- co-developed
- co-directed
- co-founder
- cold called
- picked up
- co-managed
- release
- finished
- computerized
- conceptualized
- done
- consolidated
- content
- hired
- contributed
- reviewed
- convinced
- coordinated
- profitable created
- criticized
- cut
- effectively treated
- diminished
- definite
- delivered
- designed
- developed
- developed and applied
- managed
- lined
- cattle
- removed
- emphasized
- forced
- established
- evaluated
- exceeded
- executed
- exercised
- expanded
- accelerated
- facilitated
- filled
- in focus
- of
- adoptive
- founded founded
- cattle
- generated
- innovative
- driven
- helped
- identified
- implemented
- improved
- increase
- initiated
- innovative
- instituted
- instructed
- integrated
- interviewed
- inserted
- investigated
- reading
- led
- leveraged
- kept
- administered
- marketing
- motivated
- negotiated
- orchestrated
- organized
- overcome
- expired
- supervised
- penetrated
- done
- permitted
- persuaded
- planned
- played a key role
- positioned
- prepared
- presented
- prevented
- produced
- profitably
- managed project
- promoted
- proposed
- prospected
- protected
- provided
- published
- quadruplicate
- classified
- received
- recommended
- recruited
- reduced
- remote
- renegotiated
- replaced
- investigated
- resolved
- restored
- restructured
- invested
- satisfied
- saved
- programmed
- scope
- selected
- self financed
- setting
- exhausted
- resolved
- assigned personnel
- began
- disrupted
- aerodynamic
- substituted
- supervised
- taught
- tight
- took the lead in
- trained
- cut
- triplicate
- solved
- turned around
- updated
- ceded
While you can use the list anytime you want to say something in a more powerful way, you can also use it to help jog your memory about past and current job accomplishments that you might otherwise overlook. Also, consider using the list to help you refine your resumes and cover letters to be more powerful in your presentation and communication.
