Resume bullet points that get interviews: verbs, numbers and rewrites

Most resume bullets describe a job rather than the person who did it. “Responsible for managing social media accounts” could sit on a thousand resumes unchanged. The bullets that earn interviews say what changed because you were there, and say it in a form a recruiter can take in at a glance.

Why the bullets carry the resume

Recruiters skim. In Ladders’ 2018 eye-tracking study, the first screen of a resume averaged 7.4 seconds, and the layouts that held attention paired bold job titles with bulleted lists of accomplishments; long sentences were among the traits of the worst performers. In practice, your job titles get you a glance and your bullets decide whether it turns into a read.

The formula: accomplished X, measured by Y, by doing Z

Laszlo Bock, then head of people operations at Google, gave the clearest version of the rule in 2014: describe each achievement as “Accomplished [X] as measured by [Y] by doing [Z]”. X is the outcome, Y the number that proves it, Z the method.

You do not have to keep that order. Leading with the result is often stronger on a skimmed page:

• Result first: “Halved new-starter training time, from 6 weeks to 3, by writing a structured onboarding guide.”
• Action first: “Wrote a structured onboarding guide that halved new-starter training time, from 6 weeks to 3.”

Both contain all three parts. What matters is that none is missing.

Before and after: eight rewrites

These examples are fictional, written for this page across different kinds of work.

Before	After	What changed
Responsible for the company newsletter	Rebuilt the monthly newsletter, lifting the open rate from 22% to 35% in six issues	A duty became a result with a baseline
Helped with stock control	Introduced weekly cycle counts that cut stock discrepancies by half within a quarter	“Helped” became a specific action
Worked on the mobile app	Built the offline mode for the iOS app, used by 30% of riders on its first weekend	Vague verb replaced; scale added
Handled customer complaints	Resolved around 40 complaints a week and wrote the refund policy that halved repeat contacts	Volume and a lasting change
Duties included lesson planning	Planned a Year 9 history scheme of work now used by all five teachers in the department	Reach shown by adoption
In charge of a team	Managed 7 field engineers across two regions, with zero lost-time incidents in 18 months	Team size and a safety record
Tasked with reducing costs	Renegotiated 4 supplier contracts, saving $120,000 a year	An instruction became an outcome
Did data analysis for marketing	Modelled campaign attribution in SQL, moving 15% of paid budget to channels that converted	Method named; decision it drove

Openers to replace, and what to use instead

These openings describe an obligation, not an act. Each is a sign the bullet needs rewriting:

• Responsible for — say what you did with the responsibility.
• Duties included — duties belong in the job description, not your resume.
• Worked on — say which part was yours.
• Helped or Helped with — name your contribution, even if it was one piece.
• Tasked with — say how it turned out.
• In charge of — say what changed while you were.

Action verbs, grouped by what you actually did

Choose the verb that describes the action precisely. A thesaurus word chosen to sound impressive (“spearheaded”, “orchestrated”) reads as filler when every other applicant has used it too.

What you did	Verbs that say it plainly
Led people	Managed, led, coached, mentored, hired, trained
Made something new	Built, designed, wrote, launched, created, founded
Made something better	Improved, simplified, redesigned, rebuilt, standardised, automated
Saved time or money	Cut, reduced, shortened, renegotiated, consolidated
Grew something	Increased, expanded, grew, won, opened, doubled
Worked with data	Analysed, modelled, measured, forecast, audited, tested
Persuaded or sold	Negotiated, closed, pitched, secured, convinced
Fixed a problem	Resolved, diagnosed, recovered, repaired, prevented
Taught or explained	Taught, presented, documented, explained, published

Vary the opening verb within a role so three bullets in a row do not all start with “Managed”.

Where the numbers come from

A figure makes an outcome checkable. When you do not have a dashboard to quote, look for these:

• Scale: how many customers, students, patients, tickets, sites, products or people.
• Time: how long something took before and after, or how fast you delivered.
• Money: budget managed, revenue won, costs saved. Use the currency of the country you are applying in.
• Frequency: per day, per week, per shift.
• Rank: first of 20, top 10% of a cohort.
• Adoption: how many teams, colleagues or departments took up what you made.

Estimates are fine when they are honest and you could explain them in an interview: “around 40 a week” is defensible, an invented percentage is not.

Length, tense and count

• Under about 30 words per bullet reads in one pass. Past 40, split it or cut the context.
• Two to five bullets per role, most for your recent and relevant jobs. More than six dilutes the best ones.
• Past tense for previous jobs, present tense for your current one.
• No “I” or “my”: the implied subject is you.
• Most important first within each role.

How the builder helps with bullets

In the resume builder, bullets go one per line under each role on the Content tab. Example bullets for your field add a pattern in one click, eight per field across 16 fields; treat their figures as placeholders and replace them with yours.

The Check tab then reviews them. It flags bullets that open with “Responsible for”, “Duties included”, “Worked on”, “Helped”, “Tasked with” or “In charge of”; bullets over 40 words; a role with no bullets or more than six; a role whose bullets contain no number at all; and “I” or “my” anywhere. Each is a suggestion with its reason, not a score, and the builder does not rewrite anything for you.

The bullets sit inside a larger structure; how to write a resume, step by step shows the whole page, and resume summary examples shows how to turn your strongest bullet into an opening paragraph.