What makes a good resume bullet point?
A good resume bullet point says what you did, how you did it and what changed because of it, in one or two lines. It starts with a verb, names something specific, and gives a result a reader can picture. A bullet that only lists a duty tells the reader your job description, which they could guess from your title.
CareerOneStop, the US Department of Labor's career site, puts the test in its guide to writing work experience: "What happened as a result of my doing this task or part of the job?" It also says "Don't just say what you did" and asks you to include the context, why you did it, for whom, and the outcome.
Alberta's career site, alis, gives the same advice in its tips for writing a great resume: "Show what you accomplished by using numbers and strong action words" and "Don't just list the task you did". Its example says "Increased web traffic by 45% in the last 6 months" is better than "Increased web traffic."
What is the formula for a resume bullet point?
Use action, then project, then result: a verb, the specific work you did, and the outcome with a number where you have one. Yale's career office calls this Action + Project + Result. A second version leads with the result instead. Both work, and the right one depends on which part a recruiter should read first.
Yale's Office of Career Strategy sets out both in its guide to writing impactful resume bullets. The first is "[A] Choose an action verb + [P] Name a project you completed or problem you solved," then "[R] Describe the results you achieved, quantifying when possible". The second is "Accomplished [X] as measured by [Y] by doing [Z]".
Here is how the two read on the same made-up fact. A support lead rebuilt the help center and ticket volume fell by a third.
- Action, project, result: "Rebuilt the 60-article help center around the top 20 ticket reasons, cutting monthly tickets from 1,500 to 1,000."
- Result first: "Cut monthly support tickets by a third, from 1,500 to 1,000, by rebuilding the help center around the top 20 ticket reasons".
Yale's guide adds that a bullet should give a baseline for comparison, so the reader can judge the size of the result. "From 1,500 to 1,000" does that. "Reduced tickets significantly" does not.
How many bullet points should each job have?
Give your recent, relevant jobs about 5 to 8 bullets each, and older or unrelated jobs fewer. Keep each bullet to one or two lines. Put the bullet that best matches the posting first, because the reader may stop after the first few. Leave out routine tasks unless the posting asks for them specifically.
CareerOneStop's guide suggests "about 5-8 bullet points" per job, each "only one or two lines in length". It adds "Don't include every task unless you need to fill space". Canada's Job Bank, in its guide to writing a good resume, suggests "limiting each resume section or sub section to 5-7 bullet points".
The reason for the limit is reading time. Job Bank says "An employer takes an average of 30 seconds to skim a resume". CareerOneStop says to focus on jobs from "the past 12-15 years" and to describe older unrelated jobs briefly.
Which verbs should start a resume bullet point?
Start with a verb that names the skill the posting asks about, in the past tense for past jobs. "Negotiated" says more than "Handled," and "Rebuilt" says more than "Worked on". Pick the verb that matches what you did. A verb that claims more than you did is the first thing an interviewer will ask about.
MIT's career office says in its list of resume action verbs to "Begin each bullet point statement or phrase with an action verb" that points the reader to the skill you want to show. Its lists include "Delegated," "Supervised" and "Oversaw" for management, and "Negotiated," "Persuaded" and "Mediated" for communication. Job Bank suggests "persuasive verbs such as handled, managed, led, developed," and tells you to leave out "I," "my" and "me" in your bullets.
Watch the verbs that change your role. "Led" claims ownership, "Contributed to" claims a part, and "Supported" claims help. If you were one of six people on a project, "Led" is a different fact, and the page on how to tailor a resume to a job description without lying explains why that line matters.
What do strong resume bullet points look like?
Strong bullets name the work and give the result with a number or a clear before and after. The examples below are made up for this page, across several jobs, and each figure in them is an example. Use them as patterns, and fill them with your own facts and figures from your own records.
| Job | Weak bullet | Stronger bullet (example) | What changed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Project manager | Responsible for project timelines | Delivered 9 of 10 client projects on or before the contract date in 2025 | A result and a count replace a duty |
| Software engineer | Worked on the checkout page | Rewrote the checkout page's payment form, cutting load time from 4.2 to 1.8 seconds | The specific work and a before and after |
| Registered nurse | Cared for patients on a busy unit | Cared for 5 to 6 patients per shift on a 32-bed surgical unit | Scope a reader can picture |
| Accountant | Did month-end close | Shortened month-end close from 8 working days to 5 by automating 3 reconciliations | The method and the result |
| Retail manager | Managed staff | Hired and trained 14 seasonal staff for the 2024 holiday period, with 12 finishing the season | Numbers and an outcome |
| Customer support | Answered tickets | Resolved an average of 45 tickets a day with a 94% satisfaction score | Volume and quality together |
| Teacher | Taught math | Taught grade 9 math to 4 classes of 28, with 85% passing the provincial exam | Scope and a result |
Notice that not every strong bullet has a percentage. The nurse example shows scope, which is often the most honest figure available. If you can't find any figure, the page on what to do when your resume has no numbers lists where to look.
How do you check a resume bullet point before you send it?
Read each bullet and check three things. You can show where every number came from, the verb matches what you did, and someone outside your company would understand it. If any of these fails, fix the bullet. Then check that the posting's words for a skill appear where your work proves them.
Recruiters search resumes by keyword. Greenhouse, an applicant tracking system, explains how recruiters search resumes for keywords with Full Text Search. It says "A small snippet under their name will show how the search terms are used in their profile". So the recruiter sees your keyword inside its bullet, and a bullet with a result around the keyword reads better than a skills list.
Use this short checklist on every bullet:
- It starts with a past-tense verb for a past job.
- It names specific work, such as a system, a process or a group of customers.
- It has a figure or a clear before and after, where one exists.
- You can name where each figure came from.
- It fits on one or two lines.
- It uses the posting's word for a skill only where the work proves it.
Internal names need translating. "Ran the Q3 Falcon migration" means nothing outside your company, while "Moved 1,200 customer accounts to a new billing system" does. The page on resume keywords covers matching your words to each posting, and the page on a master resume covers keeping every bullet in one place.
What should you do with a bullet you can't back up?
Cut it or shrink it to what you can show. A bullet with a guessed number will come up in an interview, and the guess has to survive follow-up questions. A smaller true bullet, such as "Supported the billing migration by testing 40 account types," holds up better than a large one you can't explain.
Each bullet is also a short answer to "Tell me about a time". Writing it as action, project and result gives you most of a STAR method answer already, so practise saying the longer version out loud. The free resume optimizer checks each line of a resume, and Prept writes resume bullets only from facts you confirmed.