185 Resume Action Words and Verbs That Get Past ATS (2026)

Before diving into the lists, here's why action verbs matter for both ATS and human readers. ATS systems parse your resume to extract signals about your role, seniority, and skills. Passive constructions like "was responsible for" or "assisted with" are harder to categorize than clear action verbs like "Led," "Built," or "Reduced." Strong verbs also catch recruiter attention in the 6–8 seconds a human spends on an initial scan — they signal confidence and concrete action rather than vague participation.

Use these lists as a reference when writing or updating your bullets. Always pair the action verb with a specific, quantified result wherever possible.

Action Words for Leadership / Management

Use these when describing roles where you directed people, strategy, or organizational change:

Accelerated • Championed • Coached • Collaborated • Consolidated • Cultivated • Delegated • Directed • Drove • Empowered • Enabled • Established • Executed • Facilitated • Founded • Guided • Headed • Influenced • Initiated • Inspired • Led • Managed • Mentored • Mobilized • Orchestrated • Oversaw • Pioneered • Prioritized • Recruited • Restructured • Scaled • Spearheaded • Steered • Supervised • Transformed • Unified • Championed

Example bullet using leadership verbs: "Spearheaded company-wide shift to Agile methodology, coaching 6 cross-functional teams and reducing average sprint delivery time by 30%."

Action Words for Technical / Engineering Roles

Use these in software engineering, DevOps, infrastructure, and hardware roles where you built, maintained, or improved systems:

Architected • Automated • Built • Coded • Configured • Debugged • Deployed • Designed • Developed • Engineered • Enhanced • Implemented • Integrated • Launched • Migrated • Modernized • Maintained • Optimized • Programmed • Prototyped • Refactored • Released • Resolved • Shipped • Tested • Upgraded • Wrote

Example: "Engineered a real-time data pipeline processing 4M events per day using Kafka and Spark, reducing reporting latency from 6 hours to under 90 seconds."

Action Words for Data / Analytics

Use these when your work involved extracting insight, building models, or informing decisions through data:

Analyzed • Audited • Benchmarked • Built • Calculated • Catalogued • Classified • Compiled • Computed • Correlated • Derived • Evaluated • Examined • Forecasted • Identified • Interpreted • Mapped • Measured • Modeled • Predicted • Quantified • Researched • Synthesized • Tracked • Validated • Visualized

Example: "Built a churn prediction model using logistic regression that identified at-risk customers with 78% accuracy, enabling the CS team to retain 14% more accounts quarter-over-quarter."

Action Words for Marketing / Communications

Use these in content, brand, demand generation, PR, and communications roles:

Amplified • Authored • Branded • Broadcast • Built • Campaigned • Crafted • Created • Curated • Delivered • Designed • Distributed • Drove • Edited • Engaged • Expanded • Generated • Grew • Launched • Marketed • Positioned • Produced • Promoted • Published • Targeted • Wrote

Example: "Launched a content program that grew organic blog traffic from 12K to 95K monthly sessions in 14 months through a topical authority strategy across 8 keyword clusters."

Action Words for Finance / Operations

Use these in finance, accounting, procurement, supply chain, and operations roles:

Administered • Allocated • Balanced • Budgeted • Controlled • Cut • Decreased • Delivered • Documented • Executed • Forecasted • Generated • Identified • Managed • Maximized • Minimized • Monitored • Negotiated • Processed • Reconciled • Reduced • Reported • Restructured • Saved • Streamlined • Tracked

Example: "Renegotiated vendor contracts across 14 suppliers, reducing annual procurement spend by $1.2M without sacrificing service quality or delivery SLAs."

Action Words for Customer Service / Sales

Use these in customer-facing roles including account management, customer success, sales, and support:

Acquired • Advised • Assisted • Built • Closed • Converted • Cultivated • De-escalated • Developed • Drove • Educated • Exceeded • Expanded • Generated • Grew • Handled • Helped • Identified • Improved • Maintained • Met • Navigated • Negotiated • Nurtured • Retained • Sold • Supported • Upsold • Won

Example: "Grew a portfolio of 65 mid-market accounts to $4.2M ARR by identifying expansion opportunities and executing tailored quarterly business reviews."

Weak Words to Replace Right Now

These are the most common weak words and phrases that appear on resumes — and the stronger alternatives you should use instead:

• Responsible for → Led, Managed, Owned, Oversaw
• Helped with → Contributed to, Supported, Co-developed, Assisted in launching
• Worked on → Built, Developed, Designed, Implemented
• Participated in → Collaborated on, Contributed to, Co-led
• Was involved in → Led, Executed, Managed, Drove
• Did → Any specific action verb from the lists above
• Made → Built, Created, Designed, Produced, Developed
• Tried to → Remove entirely. Either you did it or you didn't.
• Tasked with → Led, Managed, Owned (you're describing your ownership, not your assignment)

How to Use Action Words Effectively

Action verbs are a starting point, not the finish line. The strongest resume bullets pair an action verb with a specific task and a quantified result. Here's the pattern:

[Action verb] + [what you did] + [result/impact]

Before: "Responsible for social media accounts."

After: "Grew Instagram and LinkedIn following by 85% in 10 months by launching a weekly video series that averaged 40K views per episode."

Before: "Worked on cost reduction initiatives."

After: "Identified and eliminated $340K in redundant SaaS subscriptions through a quarterly vendor audit, saving 12% of the IT budget."

Before: "Helped improve customer satisfaction."

After: "Redesigned the customer onboarding process with a 3-touchpoint email sequence and live check-in call, lifting 90-day CSAT from 72 to 91."

The transformation is the same in every case: replace passive or vague language with a specific action, make the scope concrete, and add a number wherever possible. Even estimated numbers ("roughly 20%" or "approximately 5 hours per week") are better than no number at all.

If you're struggling to find the right action words for your specific role and the job you're targeting, TryApplyNow analyzes each job description and suggests the exact language — including action verbs and keywords — that will resonate with both the ATS and the recruiter reviewing your application. The goal is a resume that reads like it was written specifically for that job, because it was.