A to Z of action verbs for resumes: Part 1

Many job seekers don’t know how to ‘sell’ their skills and experiences when they write their resumes, says career coach and hiring expert Catherine Palmiere, president of Adam Personnel.

Applicants with poor resumes often accept lower salaries than people with the same experience but better resumes.

“I call it the resume penalty,” she says.

To turn your resume into a winner, try to include some of these action verbs that Palmiere included in her newest book, Unlocking the Door to Your Career.

In today’s post, we’re covering A to L of the verbs, including some we’ve added that we like. We’ll post the rest of the alphabet (there are about 131 in all) next week.

A: Acted, Adapted, Analyzed, Answered, Anticipated, Applied, Assisted, Awarded, Attained

B: Balanced, Began, Billed, Built, Bought, Budgeted … and Blogged!

C: Calculated, Cared for, Collected, Communicated, Completed, Composed, Condensed, Created, Convened

D: Described, Designed, Determined, Developed, Devised, Directed, Displayed, Donated

E: Earned, Ensured, Entertained, Entered, Established, Evaluated, Expressed, Exerted

F: Facilitated, Familiarized, Filled, Finished, Focused, Forecasted, Formulated, Functioned

G: Gained, Generated, Graduated, Greeted, Guided

H: Handled, Headed, Held, Helped, Hosted

I: Identified, Illustrated, Included, Informed, Insured, Investigated, Issued

J: Joined, Juggled

L: Launched, Lectured, Led, Learned, Listened, Located, Logged

By the way, Catherine has a podcast every Monday where she answers career questions.