Killer Words For Your CV

Communicated:
addressed, advised, arbitrated, corresponded, drafted, demonstrated, edited, interviewed, motivated, mediated, represented, negotiated, persuaded, proposed, presented, publicised, organised, illustrated, instructed, led, controlled, liaised, co-ordinated, marketed, recommended, counselled, recruited, reconciled, won over

Sorted Out:
analysed, collated, co-ordinated, eliminated, investigated, arranged, transformed, assessed, evaluated, scheduled, budgeted, identified, verified, classified, controlled, edited, solved, converted

Set Up:
assembled, fabricated, composed, devised, engineered, initiated, led, prepared, instituted, produced, introduced, originated, designed, pioneered, developed, planned.

Made Better:
broadened, decreased, eliminated, minimised, refined, strengthened, combined, developed, expanded, modernised, reorganised, repaired, remodelled, overhauled, serviced, transformed, consolidated, devised, improved, recommended, solved, edited, reduced, revised, streamlined.

Gave Out:
delivered, launched, provided, despatched, presented, served, distributed, processed, expanded, produced, generated.

Research:
collected, critiqued, defined, diagnosed, evaluated, extracted, identified, inspected, investigated, summarised, surveyed

Manage:
administered, assigned, attained, allocated, analysed, appraised, chaired, balanced, budgeted, delegated, represented, approved, directed, executed, organised, audited, forecasated, oversaw, supervised, conducted, controlled, led, co-ordinated

Innovate:
conceived, created, designed, developed, fashioned, formed, invented, originated, shaped

Mentor:
advised, coached, enabled, encouraged, facilitated, guided, infomed, instructed, persuiaded, motivated, stimulated, trained

Emphasise:
ability, accelerated, considerable, completed, achieved, authored, active, consistently, capacity, ensured, effective, proficient, responsible, technical, versatile, qualified, key, spearheaded, comprehensive, resourceful, successfully

For example: "I implemented a $5M business change programme" (active), sounds so much better than "A $5M business change programme was implemented by me" (passive).

Another example: "I increased sales by $40M" (active), compared with "Sales were increased by $40M by me" (passive)

The key here is to review your sentences and if you see the danger words "was" or "were" then you need to look at changing those sentences to be active.

Take a look at this A to Z of verbs that you can use in the active voice. Review your CV draft and look to see where you can change every passive sentence to an active one, and where you can use more precise words like these:

A: abstracted, achieved, acquired, acted, adapted, addressed, administered, advertised, advised, advocated, aided, allocated, analysed, answered, anticipated, applied, appraised, approved, arranged, ascertained, assembled, assessed, assisted, attained, audited, augmented, authored

B: bolstered, briefed, brought, budgeted, built

C: calculated, cared, charged, chartered, checked, clarified, classified, coached, collaborated, collected, comforted, communicated, compared, completed, complied, composed, computed, conceived, conducted, conserved, consulted, contracted, conributed, converted, cooperated, coordinated, copied, correlated, counselled, created, critiqued, cultivated

D: dealt, debated, decided, defined, dlegated, delivered, designed, detected, determined, developed, devised, diagnosed, directed, discovered, discriminated, dispatched, displayed, dissected, documented, drafted, drove

E: edited, eliminated, empathised, emabled, enforced, enlightened, enlisted, ensured, established, estimated, evaluated, examined, exceeded, excelled, expanded, expedited, experimented, explained, explored, expressed, extracted

F: facilitated, fashioned, financed, fixed, followed, formulated, fostered, founded

G: gained, gathered, gave, generated, goverened, guided

H: handled, headed, helped

I: identified, illustrated, imagined, implemented, improved, improvised, inaugurated, increased, indexed, indicated, influenced, initiated, inspected, instituted, integrated, interpreted, interviewed, introduced, invented, inventoried, investigated

J: judged

K: kept

L: launched, learned, lectured, led, lifted, listened, located, logged

M: made, maintained, managed, manipulated, mapped, mastered, maximised, mediated, memorised, mentored, met, minimised, modelled, modified, monitored

N: narrated, negotiated

O: observed, obtained, offered, operated, ordered, organised, originated, overcame, oversaw

P: participated, perceived, perfected, performed, persuaded, planned, practiced, predicted, prepared, presented, prioritised, produced, programmed, projected, promoted, proposed, protected, proved, provided, publicised, published, purchased

Q: queried, questioned

R: raised, ran, ranked, rationalised, read, reasoned, recorded, received, reduced, referred, related, relied, reported, researched, responded, restored, revamped, reviewed

S: scanned, scheduled, schemed, screened, set goals, shaped, skilled, solicated, solved, specialised, spoke, stimulated, strategised, streamlined, strengthened, stressed, studied, substantiated, succeeded, summarised, synthesised, supervised, supported, surveyed, sustained, symbolised

T: tabulated, talked, taught, theorised, trained, translated

U: upgraded, utilised

V: validated, verified, visualised

W: won, wrote