While conventional wisdom in business writing dictates that you should keep words simple to promote understanding, there are times when you might need words that carry a degree of oomph in them. In your resume for example. You don’t want to communicate mediocrity.
Compare and contrast these words:
- hired vs. recruited
- thought vs. conceptualized
- arranged vs. organized/systematized
- shown vs. demonstrated
- started vs. initiated
You’d notice that the second set of words bear that extra impact – a degree of emphasis, or even aggressiveness. These are often referred to as power words (with power sharing the same sense as in “power dress”). These words are ones you’d want found on your resume for it to stand out.
Here’s a longer list of power words that you may want to use:
- accelerated
- accomplished
- achieved
- adapted
- administered
- allocated
- amended
- analyzed
- applied
- appointed
- approved
- audited
- augmented
- budgeted
- chaired
- communicated
- compiled
- conceptualized
- conducted
- consolidated
- controlled
- converted
- coordinated
- created
- demonstrated
- developed
- documented
- elevated
- established
- evaluated
- executed
- formulated
- generated
- implemented
- intensified
- increased
- initiated
- instituted
- mastered
- monitored
- organized
- overhauled
- preserved
- proposed
- recommended
- rectified
- regulated
- reinforced
- simplified
- streamlined
- strengthened
- structured
- systematized
- terminated
- unified
- utilized
Keep in mind that you should check the appropriateness of the power word with the context. I stumbled upon a resume that tried to use these power words but fail in appropriateness with statements like “intensified club budget.” In this case, what the writer would probably want to communicate is an increase in budget. However, “intensify” might not be the most suitable verb to use, When it comes to budgets, it may be more appropriate to use words such as “increased” or perhaps quantify the increase using words like “doubled” or “tripled.”
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