How do you write CV bullet points with action verbs?
Open each bullet with an action verb, past tense for finished jobs and present tense for your current one, then say what you did, how, and what came of it, in one or two lines.1
Written 13 October 2026. CitedCV. How we write our guides
The anatomy of one bullet
MIT's career office asks you to start descriptions with a strong action verb such as built, managed, developed or wrote, and to include how you did the work, not only what you did. The Smith School of Business guide at the University of Maryland adds the third part: each statement begins with an action verb and shows, wherever possible, the result or impact. It suggests reading each bullet as a newspaper headline that tells the reader at a glance whether the story is worth asking about.
Action, method, result
| Part | What it answers | Example (invented) |
|---|---|---|
| Action verb | What did you do? | Rebuilt |
| Object and scope | To what, and how big? | the weekly stock report for 11 stores |
| Method | With what tool or approach? | in Power BI, replacing three spreadsheets |
| Result | What changed? | so area managers saw stock gaps on Monday instead of Thursday |
Put together: 'Rebuilt the weekly stock report for 11 stores in Power BI, replacing three spreadsheets, so area managers saw stock gaps on Monday instead of Thursday.' Not every bullet has all four parts; the action and the object are the minimum.
Lead with the result when the result is the news
The Smith School guide shows a bullet in three versions: the bare action, the action followed by a result, and the result moved to the front ('Decreased project planning time 50% by building...'). Its reasoning is that a result buried at the end can go unnoticed. Use the result-first order for your two or three strongest lines, not for every bullet, or the page starts to read like a list of percentages.
First thing to do: delete the duty phrases
Search your draft for 'responsible for', 'duties included', 'helped with', 'worked with' and 'assisted'. Penn Career Services names helping verbs such as assisted, worked with, helped and responsible for as ones to avoid, and asks for a strong verb that reflects the part of the project you worked on. MIT's own example turns 'was responsible for delivering projects on time' into 'ensured projects were delivered on or ahead of schedule'. Each phrase you delete forces the question the reader is asking: what did you actually do?
Which tense to use, and when
| Situation | Tense | Example | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| A job you have left | Past | Trained 12 new cashiers | USF Career Services; Smith School guide |
| Your current job, ongoing work | Present | Train new cashiers on the self-checkout tills | USF: present tense for current positions; Smith: present only for current activities |
| Your current job, a finished project | Past | Led the 2025 till replacement at two stores | Common practice: the project is over even if the job is not |
| A Turkish-language CV | Past, even for the current job | Eğitti | TED University suggests past tense for current experience too |
Whichever rule you follow, a reader should be able to tell from the verbs which work is still going on. A current role written half in present and half in past tense, with no project to explain the switch, leaves them guessing.
No I, no we
Harvard and MIT both say to avoid first-person pronouns. The Smith School guide describes the style as first person with the 'I' dropped, so the verb comes first. 'We' is the subtler problem: 'We launched the app' hides your part. Write the piece you did ('Wrote the payment screens for the app launch').
Active, not passive
Harvard asks for active rather than passive language. 'Budget was reduced by 8%' does not say who reduced it; 'Cut the travel budget 8% by moving regional meetings online' does. CitedCV's free checker flags passive forms such as 'was approved' in English bullets for the same reason.
Action verbs grouped by what you did
Harvard groups its list into leadership, communication, research, technical, teaching, quantitative, creative, helping and organisational verbs; USF groups by career-readiness competency; the Smith School guide prints a long alphabetical list of past-tense verbs. The table below draws verbs from those three lists and adds, in the last column, the detail each kind of verb needs next to it to mean something.
| What you did | Verbs | Pair the verb with |
|---|---|---|
| Led people | Led, supervised, directed, delegated, chaired, hired | Team size and what the team delivered |
| Planned and organised | Planned, scheduled, arranged, coordinated, prioritised | The event, rota or project, and its size or deadline |
| Analysed and researched | Analysed, evaluated, investigated, surveyed, tested | The data or question, the tool and the finding |
| Built and fixed | Built, programmed, installed, debugged, repaired, upgraded | The system, the stack and who uses it |
| Wrote and presented | Wrote, drafted, edited, presented, translated, negotiated | The document or audience and what it led to |
| Taught and coached | Taught, trained, coached, mentored, tutored | How many people, at what level, with what outcome |
| Helped and served | Assessed, advised, resolved, supported, referred | Volume per day or week and the type of case |
| Handled money and numbers | Budgeted, forecasted, audited, reconciled, balanced | The amount, the period and the accuracy |
| Created and designed | Designed, created, launched, illustrated, founded | What exists now that did not before |
| Improved a process | Reduced, simplified, automated, standardised, expanded | The before and after |
Verbs on the lists that can read as filler
Some verbs on the career-office lists are among the ones CitedCV's checker flags as corporate filler: Harvard's list includes spearheaded, orchestrated, facilitated, streamlined and utilized. The checker suggests plainer words: led or launched for spearheaded, coordinated for orchestrated, ran for facilitated, cut steps from or automated for streamlined, used for utilized. The career offices are not wrong to list them; the plain word is simply harder to read as padding.
Vary the first word
Three bullets in a row that open with 'Managed' tell the reader less than three different verbs would. CitedCV's checker flags two bullets in the same role that start with the same word, and any word that opens three bullets across the document. Changing the verb often exposes what you really did: 'Managed the budget' becomes 'Cut' or 'Reallocated'.
One role, rewritten
An invented warehouse shift supervisor, first as a duty list copied from a job description, then rewritten. The numbers are illustrations.
Before
- Responsible for a team of pickers on the night shift
- Duties included stock counts and health and safety checks
- Helped with training new starters
- Worked with the transport team on loading
After
- Supervise a night shift of 18 pickers handling about 9,000 order lines
- Run the weekly cycle count across 2,400 locations; stock accuracy held above 99% in 2025
- Trained 26 new starters on scanners and manual handling with a one-page checklist written for the purpose
- Rescheduled loading slots with the transport team so trailers left on time on 47 of 52 weeks
What changed: every line opens with a verb; ongoing duties are in the present tense and the finished training cohort in the past; each line carries a count a former manager could confirm; and no line repeats the job description.
How many bullets, and how long
The National Careers Service suggests usually two to three lines on what you did in each role. The Smith School guide says to make every word count: each bullet should reveal something different, and an accomplishment repeated across several jobs belongs only under the job with the best example of it. Give older and less relevant jobs fewer lines.
- CitedCV flags a role with more than six bullets.
- It flags a bullet longer than 260 characters, roughly two printed lines.
- It flags three or more bullets under one role that are all about the same length.
- It flags a mix of bullets with and without a closing full stop; the Smith guide also asks for consistent full stops.
STAR, SAR, SOAR: one story, compressed
The National Careers Service points to the STAR method (situation, task, action, result) for CVs as well as interviews, and asks you to be ready for follow-up questions on any example. The Smith guide uses SAR and PAR: it lists the action and result on the page and keeps the full story for the interview. The National College of Ireland careers guide (2022) adds how often and how much, which the guide to quantifying achievements develops further.
Sources and what each says about bullets
All were read on 13 October 2026.
| Source | What it says |
|---|---|
| Harvard Mignone Center (US) | Active language; fact-based lines that are quantified and qualified; verb lists in nine categories |
| MIT CAPD (US) | Start with a strong action verb; say how; accomplishments over duties; no first person |
| USF Career Services (US) | Present tense for current positions, past tense for previous ones; verbs by competency |
| University of Maryland Smith School (US, 2017) | Past-tense action verb first; result where possible; present only for current activities |
| Penn Career Services (US) | Avoid assisted, worked with, helped, responsible for |
| Prospects (UK) | Use active verbs such as 'created', 'analysed' and 'devised' |
| National Careers Service (UK) | Usually two to three lines per role; the STAR method |
| TED University (Turkey) | Effective verbs; no first person; past tense for current experience too |
What this page leaves to other guides
- Choosing which skills to show and listing them: the skills for a resume guide.
- Finding a number for each bullet: the guide to quantifying achievements.
- Rewording bullets toward one posting: the guide to tailoring a CV to a job description.
- Publications, grants and teaching on an academic CV, which follow other conventions.
Check your bullets
CitedCV's free CV checker reads a PDF, DOCX or TXT in your browser, without an account, and marks the bullet-level problems on this page: duty phrases, first person, filler verbs, repeated openers, overlong lines and too many bullets per role. It does not judge whether a bullet is true; that part stays with you.
Questions people ask
What are action verbs on a resume?
Action verbs are the words that open each bullet and say what you did: built, trained, reduced, negotiated. MIT, Harvard and Penn all ask you to start lines with one rather than with a duty phrase.
Should resume bullet points be in past or present tense?
Past tense for jobs you have left and present tense for work still going on in your current job, as USF Career Services and the Smith School guide advise. A finished project in a current job takes the past.
How many bullet points should each job have on a CV?
Usually three to five for a recent, relevant role and fewer for older ones. The National Careers Service suggests two to three lines per role; CitedCV's checker flags more than six bullets.
Should I write responsible for on my CV?
No, replace it with the verb for what you did. Penn lists responsible for among phrases to avoid, and MIT rewrites 'was responsible for delivering projects' as a line about the outcome.
Can I start two bullet points with the same verb?
Avoid it within one job. Different verbs say more, and CitedCV flags two bullets in one role that open with the same word, or one word opening three bullets across the CV.
Should CV bullet points end with a full stop?
Either way works if every bullet does the same. The Smith School guide asks for consistent full stops, and CitedCV flags a mix of bullets with and without them.
How long should a resume bullet point be?
One to two lines. CitedCV flags bullets over 260 characters, and the Smith guide asks you to make every word count and keep the full story for the interview.
What is the STAR method for CV bullet points?
It stands for situation, task, action and result. The National Careers Service recommends it for CVs; on the page you keep the action and result and save the situation for the interview.
Sources
- Harvard College Mignone Center for Career Success, Create a strong resume (action verbs)careerservices.fas.harvard.edu/resources/create-a-strong-resume/
- MIT Career Advising and Professional Development, Resumescapd.mit.edu/resources/resumes/
- University of South Florida Career Services, Action verbscareers.usf.edu/action-verbs/
- University of Maryland Smith School of Business, Resume Guidelines for Working Professionals (2017, PDF)networth.rhsmith.umd.edu/sites/default/files/_images/2017%20-%20Working%20Professional%20Resume%20Guidelines.pdf
- Penn Career Services, Write a resume/CVcareerservices.upenn.edu/channels/resume/
- Prospects, How to write a CVwww.prospects.ac.uk/careers-advice/cvs-and-cover-letters/how-to-write-a-cv
- National Careers Service, CV sectionsnationalcareers.service.gov.uk/careers-advice/cv-sections
- National Careers Service, The STAR methodnationalcareers.service.gov.uk/careers-advice/interview-advice/the-star-method
- National College of Ireland Career Development, Writing accomplishment statements (2022, PDF)www.ncirl.ie/Portals/0/Careers/Downloads/Writing%20accomplishment%20statements%20-%20Guide%202022.pdf
- TED Üniversitesi Kariyer Merkezi, Özgeçmiş (CV) nedir? (PDF)career.tedu.edu.tr/sites/default/files/docs/staj_kitapcik_0-1_1.pdf