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200+ Resume Action Verbs That Get Interviews (Organized by Category)
The ultimate list of resume action verbs organized by skill category. Replace weak words with powerful verbs that grab recruiter attention and pass ATS screening.
February 23, 20268 min readResumeMD Team
Every bullet point on your resume starts with a verb. That verb determines whether a recruiter keeps reading or moves on.
"Responsible for" doesn't impress anyone. "Architected," "accelerated," "transformed"—those words earn second looks.
Here are 200+ action verbs organized by category, plus examples showing how to use them.
Why Action Verbs Matter
Recruiters scan resumes in 6-7 seconds. The first word of each bullet point is prime real estate. Compare:
| Weak Opening | Strong Opening |
|---|---|
| Responsible for managing... | Led cross-functional team of 12... |
| Helped with improving... | Optimized database queries, reducing load time by 60%... |
| Was in charge of... | Directed $2M product launch across 3 markets... |
| Worked on developing... | Engineered real-time notification system serving 500K users... |
Strong verbs also help with ATS (Applicant Tracking Systems) because they signal specific competencies that keyword-matching algorithms look for.
Leadership & Management
Use these when describing team leadership, project management, or strategic decisions.
| Verb | Example |
|---|---|
| Led | Led engineering team of 8 through successful product launch |
| Directed | Directed cross-departmental initiative reducing costs by 25% |
| Managed | Managed $3.5M annual budget for marketing operations |
| Supervised | Supervised 15 direct reports across 3 time zones |
| Orchestrated | Orchestrated company-wide migration to cloud infrastructure |
| Spearheaded | Spearheaded diversity hiring program, increasing representation by 40% |
| Championed | Championed adoption of agile methodology across 5 teams |
| Mentored | Mentored 12 junior developers, with 4 promoted within 18 months |
| Oversaw | Oversaw integration of acquired company's tech stack |
| Delegated | Delegated workstreams across 3 squads, delivering MVP 2 weeks early |
| Coordinated | Coordinated global rollout across 8 regional offices |
| Guided | Guided product strategy resulting in 150% user growth |
| Mobilized | Mobilized cross-functional task force to resolve critical outage |
| Established | Established engineering review process adopted by 50+ engineers |
| Cultivated | Cultivated high-performance culture with 95% team retention rate |
Achievement & Results
Use these to highlight measurable outcomes and impact.
| Verb | Example |
|---|---|
| Achieved | Achieved 99.99% uptime for production services |
| Exceeded | Exceeded quarterly sales targets by 35% for 4 consecutive quarters |
| Delivered | Delivered feature ahead of schedule, saving $200K in contractor costs |
| Increased | Increased organic traffic by 180% through SEO strategy overhaul |
| Reduced | Reduced customer churn by 22% with automated retention campaigns |
| Improved | Improved page load speed from 4.2s to 0.8s |
| Boosted | Boosted conversion rate by 45% through A/B tested checkout redesign |
| Generated | Generated $1.8M in new revenue from referral program |
| Accelerated | Accelerated deployment frequency from monthly to daily releases |
| Surpassed | Surpassed industry benchmark NPS score by 20 points |
| Maximized | Maximized server utilization, cutting infrastructure costs by 30% |
| Doubled | Doubled active user base within 6 months of feature launch |
| Eliminated | Eliminated 40 hours/month of manual reporting through automation |
| Recovered | Recovered $500K in annual revenue by identifying billing system bug |
| Secured | Secured SOC 2 Type II certification ahead of enterprise sales push |
Technical & Engineering
For software development, data, infrastructure, and technical roles.
| Verb | Example |
|---|---|
| Engineered | Engineered microservices architecture handling 10K requests/second |
| Architected | Architected event-driven system processing 5M daily transactions |
| Developed | Developed real-time analytics dashboard used by 200+ stakeholders |
| Implemented | Implemented OAuth 2.0 + RBAC, securing 50K user accounts |
| Automated | Automated CI/CD pipeline, reducing deployment time from 4 hours to 12 minutes |
| Optimized | Optimized SQL queries, improving API response time by 75% |
| Deployed | Deployed Kubernetes cluster serving 99.95% SLA across 3 regions |
| Debugged | Debugged race condition causing data loss for 5% of transactions |
| Refactored | Refactored legacy codebase from jQuery to React, enabling 3x faster feature development |
| Integrated | Integrated third-party payment processor handling $50M annual volume |
| Migrated | Migrated 2TB PostgreSQL database to cloud with zero downtime |
| Configured | Configured monitoring and alerting, reducing MTTR from 45min to 8min |
| Programmed | Programmed machine learning pipeline processing 100K images daily |
| Scaled | Scaled platform from 10K to 500K concurrent users |
| Built | Built internal CLI tool adopted by entire engineering org (40+ devs) |
| Designed | Designed API consumed by 15 client applications |
| Tested | Tested and validated disaster recovery plan for production infrastructure |
| Containerized | Containerized 12 legacy services, enabling consistent deployment across environments |
Communication & Collaboration
For roles involving writing, presenting, stakeholder management, or cross-team work.
| Verb | Example |
|---|---|
| Presented | Presented quarterly business review to C-suite and board of directors |
| Negotiated | Negotiated vendor contract saving $150K annually |
| Collaborated | Collaborated with product and design to ship 8 features in Q3 |
| Communicated | Communicated technical roadmap to non-technical stakeholders |
| Authored | Authored 15 technical RFCs adopted as engineering standards |
| Documented | Documented API specifications used by 3 partner integrations |
| Persuaded | Persuaded leadership to invest in developer tooling, reducing build times by 60% |
| Facilitated | Facilitated weekly cross-team syncs aligning 4 product squads |
| Briefed | Briefed executive team on cybersecurity posture and risk mitigation |
| Advocated | Advocated for accessibility standards, achieving WCAG 2.1 AA compliance |
| Influenced | Influenced product direction through data-driven customer research |
| Translated | Translated complex technical requirements into user-friendly documentation |
Analysis & Research
For data analysis, research, strategy, and problem-solving roles.
| Verb | Example |
|---|---|
| Analyzed | Analyzed user behavior data to identify 3 key churn drivers |
| Evaluated | Evaluated 5 vendor solutions, recommending option that saved 40% |
| Identified | Identified $2M revenue opportunity through market gap analysis |
| Researched | Researched emerging AI frameworks, leading to 30% productivity gain |
| Assessed | Assessed security vulnerabilities across 200+ endpoints |
| Investigated | Investigated production incident, identifying root cause in 30 minutes |
| Forecasted | Forecasted Q4 demand with 95% accuracy using ML models |
| Mapped | Mapped customer journey, uncovering 3 friction points reducing conversion |
| Benchmarked | Benchmarked API performance against industry standards |
| Diagnosed | Diagnosed systemic inefficiency saving team 20 hours per sprint |
| Quantified | Quantified ROI of new feature at $800K annual revenue impact |
| Surveyed | Surveyed 500 users to inform product roadmap prioritization |
| Audited | Audited data pipeline, discovering and fixing 15% data quality issue |
| Modeled | Modeled customer lifetime value to optimize acquisition spend |
Creative & Design
For design, content, marketing, and creative roles.
| Verb | Example |
|---|---|
| Designed | Designed component library used across 5 product teams |
| Created | Created brand guidelines adopted by 30-person marketing team |
| Crafted | Crafted email campaigns achieving 35% open rate (industry avg: 21%) |
| Conceptualized | Conceptualized new onboarding flow reducing time-to-value by 50% |
| Produced | Produced 40+ video tutorials driving 500K total views |
| Illustrated | Illustrated product documentation improving user comprehension by 25% |
| Redesigned | Redesigned checkout experience increasing mobile conversion by 28% |
| Launched | Launched social media strategy growing following from 5K to 50K |
| Curated | Curated content calendar driving 3x engagement increase |
| Revamped | Revamped company website, increasing time on page by 45% |
Process & Operations
For operations, project management, and process improvement roles.
| Verb | Example |
|---|---|
| Streamlined | Streamlined onboarding process, reducing ramp time from 3 months to 6 weeks |
| Standardized | Standardized deployment procedures across 4 engineering teams |
| Systematized | Systematized client reporting, saving 15 hours per week |
| Restructured | Restructured support workflow, improving first-response time by 60% |
| Consolidated | Consolidated 5 legacy tools into single platform, saving $200K/year |
| Formalized | Formalized incident response protocol used in 50+ production events |
| Centralized | Centralized documentation in Confluence, increasing discoverability by 70% |
| Transformed | Transformed manual QA process into automated testing pipeline |
| Modernized | Modernized legacy billing system, reducing errors by 90% |
| Simplified | Simplified user registration flow, increasing completion rate from 65% to 89% |
How to Use These Verbs Effectively
1. Match the Verb to Your Impact Level
- Entry level: Built, Created, Developed, Supported, Assisted
- Mid level: Led, Managed, Implemented, Designed, Optimized
- Senior level: Architected, Spearheaded, Transformed, Pioneered, Established
2. Always Follow with Specifics
The verb alone isn't enough. Always include:
- What you did (the task/project)
- How much (the metric or scale)
- So what (the business impact)
Template: [Action Verb] + [what you did] + [quantified result]
3. Avoid Overused Words
These verbs are so common they've lost impact. Replace them:
| Instead of... | Try... |
|---|---|
| Helped | Enabled, Facilitated, Empowered |
| Worked on | Built, Developed, Executed |
| Was responsible for | Owned, Directed, Managed |
| Assisted with | Supported, Contributed to, Partnered on |
| Participated in | Drove, Shaped, Influenced |
4. Don't Repeat the Same Verb
Scan your resume and check—if "Led" appears 4 times, swap some for Directed, Guided, Managed, or Spearheaded.
Quick Reference: Top 20 Action Verbs for 2026
These are the highest-impact verbs based on recruiter feedback and ATS keyword analysis:
- Led — Universal leadership signal
- Built — Shows creation and ownership
- Reduced — Implies efficiency and savings
- Increased — Implies growth and revenue
- Designed — Shows strategic thinking
- Implemented — Shows execution ability
- Automated — Hot keyword in 2026
- Optimized — Implies continuous improvement
- Delivered — Implies reliability and results
- Managed — Standard but still effective
- Developed — Versatile across roles
- Launched — Implies end-to-end ownership
- Collaborated — Shows teamwork (pair with specific outcomes)
- Analyzed — Shows data-driven thinking
- Streamlined — Implies process improvement
- Architected — Premium verb for senior tech roles
- Mentored — Shows leadership beyond management
- Scaled — Hot keyword for growth-stage companies
- Negotiated — Shows business acumen
- Transformed — Implies significant change
Put These Verbs to Work
Open ResumeMD's free editor and rewrite your bullet points using the verbs above. Pick a professional template, and you'll have a polished resume ready to send in minutes.
Need help structuring your resume? Read our complete resume guide or learn Markdown formatting in 5 minutes.
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