Action verbs for your CV: turning duties into results
A recruiter at a large company, or an admissions team, spends only seconds on a CV. In that time it must be clear not where you were, but what you did there. The right verb at the start of each bullet shows exactly that.
What an action verb is
An action verb is the verb that opens every bullet in an English-language CV: led, built, analysed, launched. It shows at once what you personally did, rather than a job title or a list of duties.
The most common mistake is to restate the job description: Responsible for…, Worked on…, Helped with…. Such phrases say nothing about the difference you made, and they make your CV indistinguishable from hundreds of others.
The formula for a strong bullet
Every bullet follows the same pattern: verb + what you did + scale or method + result. Express the result as a number wherever possible.
Responsible for the school's Instagram account.
Grew the school Instagram account from 400 to 2,100 followers in one year by launching a weekly series of student interviews.
Instead of a duty, there is an action (grew), a method (the interview series) and a result with “before” and “after” figures.
Helped organise a charity fundraiser.
Co-organised a charity concert with 12 performers, raising UAH 85,000 (about £1,600) for a children's hospital in Kharkiv.
Co-organised makes clear that you did not do it alone, while still defining your role. The scale and the sum make the event tangible, and the conversion to pounds helps a reader abroad.
Worked on data analysis during an internship.
Automated a weekly sales report in Python, cutting preparation time from 4 hours to 20 minutes for a team of six analysts.
A specific tool, a specific task and a clear benefit to the team. A bullet like this is easy to discuss at interview.
Verbs by type of experience
Choose the verb that reflects what you actually did, not the most impressive-sounding one: spearheaded in place of organised reads as exaggeration.
| Experience | Verbs | When to use them |
|---|---|---|
| Leadership | Led, Coordinated, Chaired, Mentored, Managed | You were responsible for people, a team or an event |
| Creating | Founded, Launched, Built, Designed, Developed | You started something from scratch: a club, a project, a product |
| Improving | Streamlined, Automated, Reduced, Increased, Redesigned | You made something that already existed faster, cheaper or better |
| Analysis | Analysed, Researched, Modelled, Evaluated, Forecasted | Research projects, science competitions, working with data |
| Communication | Presented, Negotiated, Wrote, Translated, Pitched | Talks, negotiations, writing, debating |
| Money and resources | Raised, Budgeted, Allocated, Secured, Sold | Fundraising, budgets, sales |
Words to avoid
- Responsible for – describes a duty, not a result.
- Helped, Assisted – obscure your role. If you were genuinely assisting, say with what: Prepared the slides for….
- Participated in, Took part in – suggest presence without contribution. Describe what you did instead.
- Worked on, Did – too vague to mean anything.
Finding figures when there seem to be none
Almost any experience can be measured. Ask yourself five questions:
- How many people? Participants, clients, followers, team members.
- How much money? Raised, saved, sold, budget.
- How much time? Hours saved, project length, turnaround time.
- How often? Weekly, 30 sessions, 12 issues.
- What place or level? Regional round, top 10 out of 200 teams.
If there is no exact figure, an honest estimate is better than none: around, over, more than. But never invent numbers: you may be asked about any figure at interview.
Tense, form and style
- Past tense for completed experience, present tense for ongoing roles.
- No “I” at the start: the bullet begins directly with the verb.
- Do not use the same verb more than twice in the whole CV.
- British or American spelling – choose one and use it consistently: organised / organized, analysed / analyzed. British for the UK, American for the US.
- One or two lines per bullet. Two or three bullets per role or activity.
For international applicants
- Do not translate job titles and organisation names literally; add a brief explanation instead: Junior Academy of Sciences (national research competition for school students).
- Volunteering, fundraising, helping your family, working while studying – all count as real experience. Describe them in the same way: action, scale, result.
- Give an approximate pound or dollar equivalent for amounts in your local currency.
- Avoid literal translations such as took part in on every line: the phrasing is common in CVs in your native language, but in English it sounds passive.
Final checklist
- Every bullet starts with a verb.
- No Responsible for, Helped or Worked on without specifics.
- Most bullets include a figure or a measurable result.
- Verb tenses reflect whether each role is complete or ongoing.
- Spelling is consistent throughout the document.
- You can discuss every bullet at interview.
To see how these principles transform a whole CV, read our analysis of two CVs from the same student.
Key takeaway
A strong CV describes results, not duties. Start every bullet with a precise verb, add scale and a figure, and do not exaggerate: one honest co-organised is more convincing than three overblown spearheaded.
Have your CV reviewed
We will rework every bullet so the result behind it is clear, whether you are applying to university or for an internship.