If the last time you wrote a resume was when the elder Bush was in office, I know it can be hard to find the words to describe your long time out of the workforce.
Whether they’re on hiatus for one year or 10, returning professional women have an especially hard time making volunteer work sound resume-worthy. Too often they use—and over-use—low voltage words like “organize” and “facilitate” to document every aspect of their volunteer roles.
In both volunteer and professional settings things do need to be facilitated and organized—but these words tend to be catch-alls that mask more complex skills such as negotiating, managing or selling.
Resumes can also sound very flat when words like “developed” are used 30 times in two pages. Forcing yourself to have a wider resume vocabulary prompts you to reveal more skills to potential employers. Saying you “Developed a project” sounds vague and somewhat ho-hum. The fact that you “Directed a project” gives you more authority, and also shows employers that you have leadership, management and operational skills.
The best way to turn the volume up on your resume is to start each sentence with a powerful, active verb. This discipline not only grabs the attention of resume readers, it also cuts down on wordy phrases and stilted language. Jump right in with the fact that you:
- Conceived an idea
- Aligned the IT departments for two divisions or
- Cultivated a mailing list of 500 donors.
And be sure that your active opening verbs are in the past tense if you’re talking about a past role.
So you know that you’re repeating the same dull words over and over…but you’re also not a walking thesaurus? Read below for the 9 Lives Resume Word Bank that suggests 200 alternatives from A to Z.
- Achieved, activated, adapted, addressed, adjusted, administered, advanced, advised, advocated, aligned, alleviated, allocated, altered, amplified, analyzed, anticipated, appraised, arbitrated, assembled, assessed. Assigned, assimilated, attained, attributed, augmented, awarded…
- Balanced, briefed, broadened, budgeted, built…
- Calculated, canvassed, catalogued, cemented, chaired, challenged, changed, charged, chose, chronicled, collaborated, communicated, compared, completed, composed, conceived, conceptualized, concluded, conducted, constructed, consulted, contracted, converted, convinced, created, cultivated…
- Designed, developed, devised, differentiated, directed, discovered, distilled…
- Edited, effected, elicited, emphasized, energized, engineered, enlisted, enriched established, examined, executed, expanded, extended…
- Forecasted, forged, formed, founded, fulfilled, funded…
- Gained, gauged, generated, governed, guided…
- Implemented, improved, increased, initiated, installed, instigated, integrated, invested, investigated…
- Launched, led…
- Managed, mapped, marketed, marshaled, mastered, measured, mediated, modeled, moderated, monitored…
- Navigated, negotiated…
- Outlined…
- Packaged, parlayed, persuaded, piloted, plotted, prescribed, presented, prevented, priced, produced, projected, promoted, prompted, proposed, proved, publicized
- Qualified, quantified, questioned…
- Raised, ran, rated, realized, recaptured, reconciled, reconditioned, recovered, recruited, refined, refreshed, rehabilitated, reinstated, rejuvenated, reoriented, represented, researched, restored, revamped, reversed, revived, revolutionized…
- Scheduled, showcased, sold, spearheaded, standardized, strategized, streamlined, strengthened, structured, studied, supervised, surveyed, synthesized, systematized…
- Trained, transformed…
- Uncovered, unraveled…
- Widened, wrote.
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