Resume Words to Avoid, and What to Write Instead
We counted the opening word of 30,356 bullet points from 2,823 real resumes. The results say the standard advice about action verbs has been followed so widely that it stopped working.
What real resumes actually start with
Those five are on every recommended action-verb list, including this one. That is the problem. When a recruiter reads forty resumes for the same role, a bullet opening with "Developed" carries no more signal than one opening with "Worked on", because every other candidate opened the same way.
Here is the full top of the distribution. Marked rows are the ones that describe an activity rather than a result.
| Opening word | Bullets | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Built | 1,566 | 5.2% |
| Developed | 1,120 | 3.7% |
| Designed | 951 | 3.1% |
| Led | 737 | 2.4% |
| Implemented | 560 | 1.8% |
| Managed | 530 | 1.7% |
| Conducted | 430 | 1.4% |
| Collaborated | 400 | 1.3% |
| Executed | 383 | 1.3% |
| Delivered | 359 | 1.2% |
| Supported | 266 | 0.9% |
| Coordinated | 266 | 0.9% |
| Performed | 258 | 0.8% |
| Maintained | 222 | 0.7% |
Activity openers account for 9.5% of every bullet we measured, 2,884 lines in total. Notice that most of them are not "bad" words at all. Managed, coordinated and collaborated appear on plenty of recommended lists. They are weak here for one reason: they say how you spent your time, not what was different afterwards.
What to write instead
The fix is never a straight word swap. Each of these replaces a description of effort with a description of the outcome, which usually means the sentence gets restructured, not just retyped.
Every replacement above needs a number, and that is the part no word list can give you. If yours are missing, start with how to quantify a resume when you have no numbers, which covers the six kinds of figure most jobs produce even when nothing was formally measured.
Past tense or present tense
Past tense for roles you have left, present tense for the one you are in, and never a mix inside a single role. The choice matters less than the consistency: a tense that flips halfway through one job reads as carelessness on a document whose entire purpose is to demonstrate the opposite.
One more thing the data turned up: a noticeable share of bullets do not begin with a verb at all. "Data analysis using Python" is a topic, not an achievement. If a line could sit unchanged in a course syllabus, it is describing a subject rather than something you did.
The verb list, by category
Use it to find a precise verb for an outcome you have already identified, not to sprinkle variety over bullets that contain no result. Two rules that follow from the frequency table above:
- Match the verb to the ownership you actually had. Inflation is obvious to anyone who interviews for a living.
- If your verb is in the top five, check that the rest of the sentence is doing the work, because the verb is not.
Leadership & Management
Aligned, championed, coached, coordinated, cultivated, delegated, directed, drove, empowered, enabled, facilitated, guided, hired, influenced, inspired, led, mentored, mobilized, motivated, orchestrated, oversaw, partnered, rallied, recruited, resolved, spearheaded, steered, supervised.
Strategy & Planning
Analyzed, architected, assessed, audited, benchmarked, conceptualized, defined, designed, diagnosed, developed, evaluated, forecasted, framed, identified, mapped, modeled, planned, prioritized, proposed, recommended, researched, roadmapped, scoped, simulated, sized, standardized, strategized, synthesized, validated, envisioned.
Execution & Delivery
Built, delivered, deployed, executed, implemented, initiated, launched, operationalized, piloted, released, rolled out, shipped, unblocked, coordinated, drove, produced, ran, owned, supported, maintained, operated, ensured, monitored, administered.
Technical (Engineering)
Automated, engineered, refactored, optimized, benchmarked, load-tested, linted, instrumented, profiled, debugged, resolved, integrated, migrated, containerized, provisioned, secured, scaled, deployed, tested, validated, documented, modularized, standardized, streamlined, modernized, replatformed, tuned, hardened, patched, replicated.
Product & Growth
A/B tested, activated, analyzed, aligned, converted, discovered, experimented, iterated, launched, mapped, measured, monetized, optimized, positioned, prioritized, refined, reactivated, rebalanced, retained, roadmapped, segmented, shipped, simplified, sunset, validated.
Marketing & Sales
Acquired, activated, advocated, pitched, closed, converted, created, demoed, differentiated, evangelized, generated, influenced, localized, nurtured, negotiated, positioned, promoted, qualified, re-engaged, sold, sourced, syndicated, targeted, upsold, won.
Finance & Analytics
Allocated, budgeted, forecasted, reconciled, audited, analyzed, modeled, quantified, estimated, benchmarked, priced, valued, underwrote, capitalized, amortized, accrued, tracked, reported, projected, optimized, reduced, increased.
Operations & Process
Standardized, streamlined, automated, improved, reduced, accelerated, coordinated, scheduled, documented, implemented, monitored, optimized, organized, maintained, scaled, systematized, consolidated, harmonized, rationalized, triaged, escalated, ensured, enforced, audited.
Customer & Support
Onboarded, supported, resolved, troubleshot, guided, advised, trained, educated, retained, renewed, escalated, advocated, investigated, diagnosed, documented, responded, triaged, collaborated, de-escalated, communicated, delighted, rescued.
Research & Design
Interviewed, researched, synthesized, ideated, sketched, prototyped, wireframed, storyboarded, designed, validated, tested, observed, explored, evaluated, analyzed, refined, iterated, simplified, visualized, reimagined.
Communication
Presented, communicated, clarified, documented, authored, summarized, articulated, briefed, explained, socialized, pitched, persuaded, influenced, negotiated, translated, reported, coordinated, facilitated, collaborated, partnered.
Quality & Risk
Hardened, secured, validated, tested, verified, monitored, mitigated, triaged, de-risked, prevented, reduced, improved, enforced, audited, ensured, inspected, reviewed, safeguarded, strengthened, corrected, remediated, sanitized, regression-tested, fuzz-tested.
Next: pair verbs with metrics using the quantification formula, then re-scan with the resume scanner.