Resume Action Words: The Cherry on Top of the Cream

How can you make a resume that is strong and appealing and that can convince a potential employer? In today's situation of the economy, employment seems to be very elusive. This is the reason why you, as a jobseeker, need to stand out among the rest of the applicants. Writing your application summary that uses resume action words can be effective in securing the desired job.

What they can really do

Verbs are a helpful tool to show the employer what actions you will take if ever you get hired. They are usually used to express previous job accomplishments. Using the appropriate and high-impact action words that are specific to your field of expertise can really impress a hiring manager.

You only have seconds to prove it

This is true. Hiring personnel only take a glance at your application for maybe a maximum of 20 seconds. Why do they do this? It's because they have to read hundreds of application documents submitted by other job hopefuls. This is the reason why it is important to place powerful action words into your application summary. Always remember to present an outstanding document for you to catch the attention of hiring managers, a sure way to have them go further and read the entire application. Reading, as performed by managers, has always been the crucial part of recruitment for this is the stage when they decide whether to invite the applicant for an interview or throw the document directly to a pile of other trashed applications.

The use of action words

The use of resume action words should match your objectives and the position you're applying for. Just make use of verbs in past tense in describing your previous professional experiences, accomplishments, and duties and responsibilities. Likewise, use verbs in present tense for your current experiences. Avoid using passive tense that ends in "ing."

Examples of high-impact action words:

· Deliver

· Achieved

· Design

· Administer

· Monitor

· Accumulated

· Organize

· Increased

· Acquired

· Provide

· Trained

· Constructed

· Process

· Screened

· Perform

· Assist

· Budgeted

· Communicate

· Delegated

· Forecasted

· Research

Choose any of these words wisely. Avoid using one word over and over. Be aware on the words you will use because every word has different approach and meanings. Use words that will only describe yourself. These descriptions can be very basic. Adding up a value to the phrase can help your application paper make it on the top.

Avoid nonsense words

Always try to be considerate on choosing the proper resume action words to use. Every professional writer knows this rule. Imagine reading an application full of jargon? The employer may get dismayed with this kind of document.

Do not use a single verb many times as it may seem to be meaningless. Furthermore, experts have stressed that good application documents use more determined descriptions of work rather than describing previous employment.

The goal

Your goal is to land a job. Before you achieve it, you have to undergo a step by step process-first is to get an invitation for an interview. Second, you have to prove yourself at your best. And third is to have a job offer.

Words play a big role in resumes. Using them correctly will surely help you get the wanted job sooner or later.

Nelson Mullins is a former corporate hiring and recruitment expert who regularly writes articles on resumes, resume writing, personality development, and career in general. He is a father of three who also enjoys photography and biking. Nelson believes that while the employment world continues to be a rat race for applicants, it is important to always be equipped with new ideas on sustaining career growth and opportunities.

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Action Verbs Are Your Resume's Worker Bees

Restore. Transform. Spearhead. Clarify. Differentiate. Allocate. Effect. Leverage.

Other than the fact that they are all verbs, what do these words have in common? Take your time, there's no rush.

Give yourself a prize if you determined that those are POWER verbs. Those, and many others like them, distinctly show their user getting something major done. As opposed to passive verbs, such as Gave, Received, Helped, Claimed; those verbs, while necessary to our language, reflect on something being done to the user. Passive verbs, as their name implies, are relatively powerless when it comes to a resume.

Why is this important? When you have approximately 7 to 15 seconds for a recruiter or hiring manager to scan your resume, you want to give every word power, and nowhere is this more important than in your choice of verbs.

Consider: If I tell you that I received an Employee of the Month Award, you might offer your congratulations, a pat on the back, or a handshake.

However, if I tell you that I earned an Employee of the Month Award, your reaction could be very different. You might ask me what I did to earn that award, or what it's like working for Spacelee Sprockets, or even ask me if I know of any openings in the company.

Amazing, isn't it, the power of a single word?

The verbs that begin this article are active verbs, which is what gives them their power. Active verbs show you DOING something, as opposed to passive verbs, which show something being done to you.

In a resume, you always want to include active verbs. And wherever possible, you want to open the sentence with one of those action verbs. So our example would say: "Earned Employee of the Month Award... " Then you add in the month and year, and the reason why you won the award, to back up your claim.

In the resume you place before the hiring manager, you want to demonstrate that you are someone who gets things done. You want every accomplishment on the resume to reflect this. I have said many times before, and it bears repeating, your resume is not simply a dry list of your job duties. It isn't about your past. No, a resume is about your future. A resume speaks to the hiring manager and describes you as a candidate worthy of interviewing, and your previous accomplishments are evidence to the fact that you have already attacked similar problems to what the hiring manager needs, and you have solved them. Go ahead, show yourself in action!

Jack Mulcahy has written hundreds of resumes for people from all walks of life. Each resume he writes shows the unique selling proposition so necessary to market the job seeker. To learn more about Jack and how he can work to help your resume gain interviews, visit his website at http://www.resumesbyjack.com/.

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Resume Action Words: The Cherry on Top of the Cream

How can you make a resume that is strong and appealing and that can convince a potential employer? In today's situation of the economy, employment seems to be very elusive. This is the reason why you, as a jobseeker, need to stand out among the rest of the applicants. Writing your application summary that uses resume action words can be effective in securing the desired job.

What they can really do

Verbs are a helpful tool to show the employer what actions you will take if ever you get hired. They are usually used to express previous job accomplishments. Using the appropriate and high-impact action words that are specific to your field of expertise can really impress a hiring manager.

You only have seconds to prove it

This is true. Hiring personnel only take a glance at your application for maybe a maximum of 20 seconds. Why do they do this? It's because they have to read hundreds of application documents submitted by other job hopefuls. This is the reason why it is important to place powerful action words into your application summary. Always remember to present an outstanding document for you to catch the attention of hiring managers, a sure way to have them go further and read the entire application. Reading, as performed by managers, has always been the crucial part of recruitment for this is the stage when they decide whether to invite the applicant for an interview or throw the document directly to a pile of other trashed applications.

The use of action words

The use of resume action words should match your objectives and the position you're applying for. Just make use of verbs in past tense in describing your previous professional experiences, accomplishments, and duties and responsibilities. Likewise, use verbs in present tense for your current experiences. Avoid using passive tense that ends in "ing."

Examples of high-impact action words:

· Deliver

· Achieved

· Design

· Administer

· Monitor

· Accumulated

· Organize

· Increased

· Acquired

· Provide

· Trained

· Constructed

· Process

· Screened

· Perform

· Assist

· Budgeted

· Communicate

· Delegated

· Forecasted

· Research

Choose any of these words wisely. Avoid using one word over and over. Be aware on the words you will use because every word has different approach and meanings. Use words that will only describe yourself. These descriptions can be very basic. Adding up a value to the phrase can help your application paper make it on the top.

Avoid nonsense words

Always try to be considerate on choosing the proper resume action words to use. Every professional writer knows this rule. Imagine reading an application full of jargon? The employer may get dismayed with this kind of document.

Do not use a single verb many times as it may seem to be meaningless. Furthermore, experts have stressed that good application documents use more determined descriptions of work rather than describing previous employment.

The goal

Your goal is to land a job. Before you achieve it, you have to undergo a step by step process-first is to get an invitation for an interview. Second, you have to prove yourself at your best. And third is to have a job offer.

Words play a big role in resumes. Using them correctly will surely help you get the wanted job sooner or later.

Nelson Mullins is a former corporate hiring and recruitment expert who regularly writes articles on resumes, resume writing, personality development, and career in general. He is a father of three who also enjoys photography and biking. Nelson believes that while the employment world continues to be a rat race for applicants, it is important to always be equipped with new ideas on sustaining career growth and opportunities.

Read more ...

Effective Resume Writing: Lights, Camera, Action!

Action films are all the rage. With digital enhanced action whales can fly, demons come at you from every angle and imagined worlds appear on the screen like magic. What does all this have to do with writing a readable and compelling resume?

In a word: everything. The more action and color (we don't mean to print your resume on purple paper or use a red typeface) in your resume the more readable it will be. Writing skills come in many packages but for resume writing action and power words will win every time over a limp style that only highlights duties and responsibilities.

If you want to put the reader to sleep and for them to stop reading your resume after a sentence or two an uninspiring listing of your work history with your duties outlined in detail will do the job. So it's clear this is not the style to write an effective resume.

Keeping the reader awake when they are reading your resume is simple and straight forward. You must paint pictures and provide light with words and phrases. Active verbs and your record of accomplishments and results will get the job done.

Your accomplishments and achievements must be quantifiable. You did not, "improve morale," you "reduced unwanted employee turnover by 24% and in the first year saved over $103,000." You did not, "manage a marketing initiative," you "delivered marketing results that exceeded the plan by 45% and generated over $180,000 in increased sales."

You did not,"increase," something, you "vaulted ahead." You developed, built, delivered, solved, designed, analyzed, created and improved. Start your sentences with action and power verbs on your way to demonstrate how you turned opportunities and problems into value and results. The prospective employer is looking for someone who can generate results and value. A well written resume should be crafted to closely match the employer's needs.

Keep you sentences and paragraphs short. You want the reader to quickly move from one word picture to another.

You don't have to list three successful marketing campaigns-the biggest and best will get the job done. Be sure the early listed accomplishments match the top two or three needs of the employer. If you have to reach back to pull up the relevant accomplishment do so.

Your resume, also, should be tailored to meet the needs of a specific employer. Once you have the format set and your accomplishments written it's just a matter of cutting and pasting to put together an original document. If necessary, accomplishments and results achieved in other activities can be highlighted in your resume.

For example, one job hunter who had developed a very active in-house training program for a local Chamber of Commerce, qualified for a great job that required the developing of in-house training programs for a large employer.

So in resume writing you must have light, your message must be clear and easy to see. Don't keep the reader in the dark or where they have to connect the dots. Trust me they won't. Your camera is the reflection of your results. The action comes from the word pictures. The movies have found that this approach works; make it work for you when you write your resume.

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