Writing Quality Bullet Points
Writing impressive bullet points that concisely demonstrate your skills and accomplishments takes practice. In fact, many students find that writing bullet points is the hardest part of creating their resume. When creating bullet points, it is important to go beyond stating the duties or tasks related to the experience (e.g., job role, project, competition, etc.) being written about. Think about framing your bullet points to reflect a result, outcome, or accomplishment rather than just a task or responsibility. To make your bullet points count, consider this classic questioning method:
- Who: Who did your job/position help? The company? Customers? The public? Did you work with others?
- What: What was the purpose? What was/were the result(s) of the experience? What was done with the results?
- When: When/how often did the experience happen? Daily? Weekly? Bi-monthly? Mentioning how often you did something helps to show productivity.
- Where: Where did the experience occur? Was it virtual? Did you have to travel?
- Why: Why was your role an important part of the overall process and/or goal?
- How: How did your efforts help or add to the organization, group, or field? How many? How much?
You can use this basic formula as a starting point for writing detailed bullet points:
Specific Skill (action verb) + Action (what you did) + Results/Outcome
Here is an example of how this formula can improve a bullet point:
Before: "Created a documentary"
Using the formula: "Filmed and edited 10-minute documentary on student mental health using x3000 camera"
Specific details and carefully chosen action verbs set you apart from other candidates by directly highlighting the particular skills you have that are relevant to the job you want. Below are more examples of how to add specific content and valuable details to your resume.
Before:
American Marketing Association (AMA)
Member
- Learned to create a personal brand
- Attended group meetings
- Participated in member activities
After:
American Marketing Association (AMA)
Executive Officer
- Curated a personal branding method that appeals to a specific employer audience
- Contributed to bi-monthly meetings by planning meeting agendas and sharing documents via Google Docs
- Led 25 members in group activity aimed to build personalized marketing techniques
Before:
Downtown Dress Depot | Chicago, IL
Sales Associate
- Assist with inventory
- Provided excellent customer service
- Responsible for cash register
After:
Downtown Dress Depot | Chicago, IL
Sales Associate
- Executed weekly and monthly inventory reports for 1,200+ domestic and foreign products using MS Excel
- Maintained excellent customer service by addressing customer questions/complaints and offering style advice when asked
- Performed 200+ cash and credit transactions on a daily basis; accurately balanced cash register to conclude each shift
Final Tips
- Resumes are not "one version fits all." As a general rule, the bullet points you include should differ for each job application - because every job has its own requirements and necessary skills. Before writing your bullet points, carefully read the job description to identify key requirements and expectations (bonus points if you read the company values). Pay attention to recurring terms or themes in the job description. Use your findings to curate your resume and bullet points so they reflect the skills and requirements the employer is seeking.
- Prioritize your information. Bullet points that are most relevant for the job you're applying to should be listed first.
- Begin each bullet with a strong action verb. The purpose of the resume bullet points are to demonstrate specific skills that are relevant to the target audience (the employer, the job). Choosing the right action verbs to begin your bulleted statements is the simplest way to ensure you are demonstrating relevant skills.
- For example, let's say you need to demonstrate creativity as one of your skills. Verbs such as "innovated," "improvised" or "conceptualized" can help show off how you used your creativity to accomplish a task. (Hint: Refer to our "Action Verbs" document for more verbs by skill. Google can help too! Action verbs that show technical skills, Action verbs that show customer service...)
- Don't be repetitive. If you find yourself using the same action verb multiple times, use resources such as Google or thesauras.com to find synonyms. Sometimes, repetitive use of a word can indicate a lack of variety in the skills being demonstrated. To prevent this from happening, regularly assess your writing to ensure you are demonstrating a range of different skillsets. For each bullet point, you can ask yourself this series of questions:
- What skill (or skills) am I demonstrating here?
- Is that skill (or skills) relevant to this job?
- Have I demonstrated this skill in another bullet point?
- If you answer "no" to #2, consider removing that bullet point and replacing it with another that is more suited for your targeted audience. If you answer "yes" to #3, try rephrasing at least one of the repetitive bullet points to show a different skill. If you cannot rephrase, consider omitting the repetitive bullet tied to the least recent experience.