Resume guides
How to write resume bullet points that carry weight
Turn duties into evidence with a simple pattern: verb, action, result — and a number only where you genuinely have one.
Bullets are where resumes are won or lost. A duty describes your job; a bullet describes your effect.
The pattern
[Strong verb] + [what you did] + [result or scope]. Add a number only when you have one you can stand behind.
Before and after
- Before: "Worked on the website and fixed bugs."
- After: "Resolved an average of 25 reported defects a sprint across a React storefront, cutting rollback rate from 6% to 1.5%."
- Before: "Responsible for social media."
- After: "Grew the LinkedIn account from 3.2k to 11k followers over two quarters with a two-post-a-week programme."
Rules that hold up
- Start with a verb. "Responsible for" wastes your first three words.
- Keep it under about 34 words — beyond that, readers skim and miss the point.
- Past tense for past roles, present tense for the current one.
- Three to five bullets for the most recent role, fewer as roles get older.
- Never invent an employer, a metric, a certification or a skill. If a number is missing, ask yourself whether you can find it — and if not, write a strong bullet without one.