Your resume probably says things like "Responsible for managing social media accounts" or "Handled customer inquiries." These bullets are killing your chances because they're boring task lists, not accomplishments.

Let me show you exactly how to fix this.

The Formula: Action + Result + Context

Every resume bullet should follow this pattern:

• Action: What you did
• Result: What happened because you did it (with numbers)
• Context: Why it mattered

Boring version: "Managed email marketing campaigns"

Strong version: "Redesigned email marketing strategy, increasing open rates by 47% and generating $200K in additional revenue over 6 months"

See the difference? One tells me you had a job. The other tells me you were good at it.

Real Examples: Before and After

Marketing:

❌ Before: "Managed social media accounts for the company"

✅ After: "Grew Instagram following from 2K to 25K in 8 months through strategic content calendar and influencer partnerships, driving 300+ qualified leads"

Sales:

❌ Before: "Responsible for meeting sales quotas"

✅ After: "Exceeded quota by 156% in Q4 2024, closing $1.2M in new business—highest performance on 12-person team"

Project Management:

❌ Before: "Led cross-functional projects"

✅ After: "Coordinated 8-person cross-functional team to deliver product launch 2 weeks ahead of schedule and 15% under budget, resulting in $500K first-quarter revenue"

Customer Service:

❌ Before: "Handled customer complaints"

✅ After: "Resolved 95% of customer complaints on first contact (15% above team average), improving customer satisfaction scores from 3.2 to 4.6 stars over 6 months"

Operations:

❌ Before: "Improved processes and procedures"

✅ After: "Streamlined inventory management process, reducing stock discrepancies by 78% and saving 12 hours per week in manual reconciliation"

HR/Recruiting:

❌ Before: "Recruited candidates for various positions"

✅ After: "Filled 32 roles in 6 months with average time-to-hire of 24 days (vs. company average of 42 days), maintaining 94% offer acceptance rate"

The Numbers That Matter

Not every bullet needs a percentage, but specific numbers are always better than vague claims. Use:

• Percentages: "Increased X by 40%"
• Dollar amounts: "Generated $250K in revenue"
• Time saved: "Reduced processing time from 4 hours to 45 minutes"
• Volume: "Managed budget of $2M" or "Served 200+ clients"
• Rankings: "Top performer out of 15-person team"
• Frequency: "Delivered 3 reports weekly to C-suite"

If you genuinely don't have numbers, use these approaches:

Show scope: "Managed social media presence across 5 platforms for 50K+ follower audience"

Show impact qualitatively: "Created onboarding process adopted company-wide, becoming standard practice for all new hires"

Show recognition: "Selected to present strategy to executive leadership team based on campaign performance"

What to Do If You Don't Know Your Numbers

Go back and figure them out:

• Check old emails, reports, or presentations
• Ask former managers or colleagues
• Look at before/after metrics from when you started vs. when you left
• Make reasonable estimates if you have to, but be able to back them up if asked

Don't guess wildly or make up numbers—that's lying and you will get caught. But "approximately" and "roughly" are acceptable if you're in the ballpark.

Action Verbs That Actually Mean Something

Ditch weak verbs like "responsible for," "handled," or "helped with." Use strong action verbs:

Leadership: Led, Directed, Managed, Coordinated, Spearheaded Growth: Grew, Increased, Expanded, Scaled, Boosted Efficiency: Streamlined, Optimized, Reduced, Automated, Simplified Creation: Built, Developed, Designed, Created, Launched Results: Generated, Delivered, Achieved, Exceeded, Drove

But don't just swap in fancy verbs—make sure they're accurate. "Spearheaded" implies you led it from the beginning. "Contributed to" is more honest if you were part of a team.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Don't use the same verb for every bullet. "Managed X, managed Y, managed Z" is boring and shows no range.

Don't write paragraphs. Each bullet should be one or two lines max. Recruiters skim—make it easy.

Don't list obvious job duties. If it's in every job description for that role, it doesn't differentiate you. "Answered phones" for a receptionist doesn't help. "Managed 100+ daily calls while maintaining 98% satisfaction score" does.

Don't go back too far. Focus bullets on your last 10 years. Earlier roles can be brief or summarized.

Don't forget to update. If you accomplished something new last month, add it. Your resume should be a living document.

The 10-Minute Fix

You can improve your resume significantly in 10 minutes:

1. Pick your 3 most recent roles
2. Identify your top 2-3 accomplishments in each role
3. Rewrite those bullets using Action + Result + Context
4. Add numbers wherever possible

That's it. Those 6-9 bullets are what will get you interviews. The rest is supporting detail.

The Bottom Line

Recruiters spend 6-7 seconds on your resume. In those seconds, they're looking for proof you can do the job. Task lists don't prove anything. Results do.

Transform your bullets from "this is what I was supposed to do" to "this is what I actually achieved." The difference between getting interviews and getting ghosted often comes down to how you present your experience.

Take the 10 minutes. Fix your bullets. Get more interviews. It's literally that simple.