Types of Power Words for Resume Writing

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Power words are those well-thought-out action words, which will set you apart from the herd. The resume language becomes quite repetitive and this is when you need to think of appropriate words to describe your skills and achievements so that the recruiter doesn’t miss reading them. You can read more about the use of power words, here.

Let’s look at the different types of power words based on the purpose or the intent of using them.

1. Action Words

Action words are nothing but action verbs that express an action or denote something that the subject has done. These are crucial power words. These words are specifically used to demonstrate the skills and call out the exact efforts you might have taken in order to achieve success. Well-chosen words will do the trick of describing your accomplishments. They are an integral part of the resume if you want to highlight your strengths and make the writing impactful. Each bullet point should start with an action word. Few examples of action words include ‘attained’, ‘demonstrated’, ‘quantified’, ‘developed’, and ‘facilitated’ and many more.

In order to align yourself for the job role and the organization to which you’re applying, you need to use those power words which the organization has used to describe its mission or goal. By aligning your writing with what the company stands for, you indicate that you might be the right fit for the company and fall within its ideals. You may find these keywords on the company’s website either on their ‘Mission and Vision page’ or their ‘About Us’ page, or even in the job description, that they have given. For example, if the company identifies itself as “passion-driven,”, or if the job description reads, ‘candidate who will deliver business decisions promptly’, or if the company’s mission is ‘To discover, develop and commercialize therapeutics that..’, then you need to pick up these power words and use them in your resume format to get maximum benefit.

3. Skill Words

There are some typical routine words that highlight your skills that need to be included. The recruiters are used to looking for those words and those skills and qualities are such that an employer would definitely want them in every employee. Such power words can be described as, ‘leader, team player, accountable, passionate, growth-friendly, reliable’ etc. Try and use these words to showcase you do have these skills and don’t let it be assumed for the obvious.

4. Industry Jargon

This is commonly used by candidates while giving interviews, but what you don’t realize is, including this in your resume write-up could really do the trick. Every industry has those technical buzzwords or jargon that are important. Using those words indicates that you’ve really wrapped your head around the job requirements and that you have the necessary knowledge. Some jargon examples could be ‘SCM’, ‘SPOC’, Sigma Black Belt, ‘Reported directly to HOD’ etc. But beware! Don’t end up looking foolish by mentioning it in the resume and fumbling about it in the interview!

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