Action verbs speak louder than words, wait, what?

Any recruiter or hiring manager will tell you, without the right action verbs, your resume and cover letter read flat. A vigorous manager will have a resume and cover letter that uses words that light up a room.

Courtesy of the professionals at execSearches.com, an online nonprofit job board, here is a list, from A to Z, of action verbs that count:

A: Absorbed, accelerated, accessed, achieved, acted, adapted, addressed, administered, advanced, advocated, affected, aided, allocated, amended, amplified, answered, anticipated, appointed, arbitrated, ascertained, assessed, attained, augmented, authored, availed, awarded

B: Balanced, bargained, began, boosted, briefed, brought, broadened, budgeted, built

C: Calculated, canvassed, capitalized, catalogued, catapulted, centralized, chaired, challenged, channeled, chartered, choreographed, clarified, coached, co-authored, collaborated, collected, computed, conceived, conceptualized, concluded, condensed, conducted, conserved, consolidated, constructed, consulted, contributed, converted, convinced, corrected, correlated, counseled, crafted, created, cultivated, customized, cut

D: Debated, debugged, decentralized, deduced, deferred, delegated, designed, detected, determined, devised, devoted, diagnosed, directed, disciplined, discovered, dispensed, disseminated, dissuaded, distinguished, diversified, divested, documented, drafted, drew

E: Earned, edited, educated, elaborated, elected, elevated, elicited, emphasized, employed, enabled, encouraged, endorsed, enforced, engaged, engineered, enriched, ensured, entertained, established, estimated, examined, exceeded, excited, executed, exercised, exhibited, expanded, expedited, explained, exploited, explored, extrapolated

F: Fabricated, fashioned, fielded, finalized, financed, focused, followed, forecasted, formalized, formed, formulated, fortified, fostered, founded, framed, fulfilled

G: Gained, gathered, gauged, gave, generated, governed, graded, granted, grossed, guided

H: Handled, harnessed, headed, heightened, helped, highlighted, hired, honed, hosted

I: Identified, illustrated, imagined, implemented, improved, improvised, inaugurated, incorporated, increased, incurred, indexed, indoctrinated, inferred, influenced, informed, initiated, innovated, inquired, inspired, installed, instilled, instituted, instructed, integrated, interested, interpreted, introduced, invented, invested, involved, issued

J: Joined, judged, juggled, justified

K: Kept, kindled

L: Launched, lead, lectured, licensed, linked, listened, litigated, lobbied, located, logged

M: Maintained, managed, marketed, mastered, maximized, measured, mediated, mentored, merged, met, mobilized, moderated, modified, monitored, motivated, moved

N: Named, narrated, navigated, negotiated, netted, noticed, nurtured

O: Observed, obtained, offered, offset, operated, orchestrated, organized, oriented, originated, outlined, overcame, overhauled, oversaw

P: Participated, patterned, perceived, performed, persuaded, pinpointed, pioneered, planned, polled, praised, prepared, prescribed, presented, preserved, presided, prevailed, prevented, prioritized, probed, procured, produced, profiled, projected, promoted, prompted, protected, proved, provided, provoked, publicized, published, pursued

Q: Quadrupled, qualified, quantified, queried, questioned

R: Raised, ran, reached, realized, recommended, reconciled, recovered, recruited, rectified, redesigned, reduced, reengineered, referred, refined, regained, regulated, rehabilitated, reinforced, reinstated, rejected, related, remedied, remodeled, rendered, renegotiated, reorganized, repaired, replaced, reported, represented, researched, reshaped, resolved, responded, restored, restructured, resulted, restored, retained, revamped, reversed, reviewed, revised, revitalized

S: Safeguarded, salvaged, saved, scheduled, secured, segmented, selected, served, serviced, shaped, shrank, simplified, solved, sparked, spearheaded, specialized, sponsored, spread, stabilized, staffed, staged, started, steered, stimulated, strategized, streamlined, strengthened, stretched, studied, succeeded, supervised, supported, sustained, synchronized

T: Tabulated, tailored, targeted, taught, thanked, thrived, tightened, trained, transformed, translated, traveled, trimmed, tripled, troubleshot, turned

U: Uncovered, undertook, unified, united, updated, upgraded, utilized

V: Validated, valued, vitalized, volunteered

W: Weighed, welcomed, widened, won.

Of course, you don’t want to go too crazy and use all of the words above. That would be verbose. The key to this exercise is getting the person who is reading the information about you as excited as you'd be if the job was offered. There’s nothing wrong with a little flash, so long as there’s substance to back up the claims.

Courtesy of NPT Jobs, March 2006, Non-Profit Times, www.nptimes.com