Can Power Verbs Really Improve A Resume?

TearTaylor

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	A lot of professional resume writers believe that a good assortment of power verbs and action phrases used generously throughout the body of a resume can help to increase the chances of jobseekers getting invited in for interviews and I also tend to agree with this belief. For the most part, resumes are the same in overall setup such as personal contact information usually leads first at the top of the resume. The experience section follows next. Education follows after this section and a section titled Computers Skills or Organizations is usually included next. But even with these similarities, individual resumes can still be different. These differences can be marked by the choice of words that writers or applicants use to describe their job experiences. Many experienced resume writers make it a point to generously include power verbs throughout their resumes. They believe that by doing so they'll make their job experiences sound more important and also undoubtedly increase their chances of having their resumes looked at by hiring personnel. To give you an example of how the tone of a resume can change with the inclusion of power verbs, I've provided an illustration below. The first example illustrates an applicant experiences without power verbs and the second example showcases power verbs. Power Verbs Example: As you can see from the examples above, the inclusion of power verbs in job descriptions can really help in turning any lackluster job description into a more powerful one. The second example definitely seems to depict a candidate who has more confidence and who has had a lot more success in executing assignments. It’s no wonder that when hiring personnel are faced with the challenges of weeding out unqualified candidates they usually start first by eliminating resumes that don't include power verbs. While there’s a lot more to creating superior resumes than just adding a power verb here or there, this is still probably one of the easiest ways there is to increase the likelihood of having your resume looked at by hiring personnel. Constructing a resume using words such as developed, launched, organized, oversaw, restructured, revamped, spearheaded and any other words of this variety can really help make it appear as though your role with your previous employer was a vital one. Power verbs can effortlessly add more importance to your professional experiences that weaker verbs aren't able to successfully pull off. So, if you’re currently working on your resume or about to, you should really look to include a rich assortment of power verbs in your job descriptions. For additional help in developing resumes, refer to the tutorial Resume Builder 101. ________________________________________________ This article is © 2003-2004 by Tracy Miller and may not be reposted without written permission from the author and may not be reprinted for profit.