Which verbs does the checker look for

A fixed list of plain past-tense verbs: led, built, created, designed, developed, delivered, improved, increased, reduced, launched, managed, owned, shipped, grew, cut, drove, implemented and about a dozen more of the same kind, in both British and American spelling where the two differ.

Will an unusual verb lose me points

It can lose the action-led points, which reach thirty at three recognised lines. It costs nothing elsewhere, and a person reading the page will not notice. Accuracy matters more than the list.

Is there a limit on repeating a verb

No rule here counts repeats. A section where six lines begin with the same word reads flat to a person, which is reason enough to vary it.

Should I use present tense for my current job

Yes, for work that is ongoing. The recognised list is written in the past tense, so a present-tense line may not count towards the action rule even though it reads correctly. That is a limit of the measurement, not a reason to write the wrong tense.

Do power verbs improve my chances

No honest claim can be made about that. A precise verb makes a line clearer, and a clear line is easier to ask about. The check here measures readability and evidence, and predicts nothing.

Guide · Résumé

Action verbs on a résumé, and the ones a checker recognises

A résumé line that starts with a plain verb is easier to read and easier to score. Here is how to choose one accurately, and which verbs the check here recognises.

ConxfolioPublished 2026-09-12

— choose the verb that is true, then stop.

A line that begins with a verb tells a reader what happened before it tells them anything else. That is the whole argument for starting your experience lines this way, and it is a good one. The argument for a thesaurus is much weaker, and this page is mostly about the difference.

Choose for accuracy first

The correct verb is the one that describes your actual part in the work. You either led the migration, or you carried out part of it, or you supported the team that did. All three are respectable, and all three are checkable in a conversation. A résumé where every line begins with "spearheaded" is a résumé in which nothing is distinguishable, and the first interview question takes it apart.

A short list that covers most work

Built, created, designed, developed, delivered. Led, managed, owned, coordinated, directed. Improved, increased, reduced, cut, saved, grew, scaled. Launched, shipped, introduced, established. Implemented, automated, analysed, resolved, supported. Twenty-five plain words will carry almost any career, and each one means something different from the others.

The list the check here reads

The ATS résumé checker tests each experience line against a fixed list of past-tense verbs of exactly that kind, in both British and American spelling where they differ. Three or more matching lines earn the full thirty points of the action-led rule, one or two earn fifteen, none earns nothing. The rule is deliberately coarse: it is asking whether your section is written as achievements at all, rather than grading your vocabulary.

Knowing the list is useful and gaming it is not. A line that begins with a recognised verb but says nothing still fails the other three content rules, which between them carry seventy of the hundred content points.

Verbs to leave alone

"Utilised" means used. "Facilitated" usually means ran, helped or chaired, and hides which. "Spearheaded" means led, with a war metaphor attached. "Assisted with" is worth keeping when it is true and worth replacing when you did more than assist. The test is whether you could say the word out loud in an interview without changing it.

Where the tense matters

Past tense for finished work, present for the job you are in now. Keep one tense inside a role rather than switching mid-section. The recognised list is past-tense, so a present-tense line in your current role may not count towards the action rule. Write the correct tense anyway. A measurement that disagrees with the truth is the measurement's problem.

Rewriting a section in practice

Open the role in the résumé builder, read each line aloud, and cut everything before the verb. "Was responsible for the migration of fourteen services" becomes "Migrated fourteen services", and then, because the verb has freed up room, you can say what it changed: "Migrated fourteen services from a shared monolith to independent deployments". The line got shorter and gained a fact.

Do that for the current role and the one before it. Older roles rarely repay the effort, and the experience guide explains why detail should fall away as the dates recede.

What this cannot do

No verb makes weak evidence strong. If a role produced nothing you can point at, a better opening word will not hide it, and the honest fix is to describe the scope instead: what you were responsible for, how large it was, who relied on it. The guide to measurement covers that case, including the common one where the work was real and nobody ever wrote the numbers down.

Verbs by the kind of work they describe

You made something that did not exist. Built, created, designed, developed, wrote, launched, shipped, established.
You changed something that did. Improved, reduced, cut, increased, grew, scaled, automated, rebuilt, migrated.
You were in charge of it. Led, managed, owned, directed, coordinated, planned.
You worked out what was wrong. Analysed, investigated, traced, diagnosed, resolved.
You helped somebody else succeed. Supported, mentored, trained, advised.

Choose the group first and the word second. Most weak lines are weak because the writer reached for a verb from the third group when the work belonged in the fifth, or the other way round.

British and American spelling

This site writes in British English, and the check recognises both spellings of the verbs where they differ, so "analysed" and "analyzed" are treated alike, as are "optimised" and "optimized". Pick the spelling that matches the country you are applying in and keep it consistent through the document. A page that switches between the two looks assembled from parts, which is usually exactly what happened.

Rewrite the lines in the builder

Edit each role in place and watch the page redraw. Nothing is sent anywhere while you write, and the export is free in PDF and DOCX.

Open the résumé builder Score the rewritten section

Questions

Which verbs does the checker look for: A fixed list of plain past-tense verbs: led, built, created, designed, developed, delivered, improved, increased, reduced, launched, managed, owned, shipped, grew, cut, drove, implemented and about a dozen more of the same kind, in both British and American spelling where the two differ.
Will an unusual verb lose me points: It can lose the action-led points, which reach thirty at three recognised lines. It costs nothing elsewhere, and a person reading the page will not notice. Accuracy matters more than the list.
Is there a limit on repeating a verb: No rule here counts repeats. A section where six lines begin with the same word reads flat to a person, which is reason enough to vary it.
Should I use present tense for my current job: Yes, for work that is ongoing. The recognised list is written in the past tense, so a present-tense line may not count towards the action rule even though it reads correctly. That is a limit of the measurement, not a reason to write the wrong tense.
Do power verbs improve my chances: No honest claim can be made about that. A precise verb makes a line clearer, and a clear line is easier to ask about. The check here measures readability and evidence, and predicts nothing.

Conxfolio is a free set of four career tools: a résumé builder with 37 rendered layouts, an ATS résumé checker that prints its own arithmetic, a cover letter builder that traces every proof paragraph back to the line it came from, and a portfolio builder with 20 authored designs. There is no account to create, nothing is held back for a paid plan, and no language model is used anywhere in the product, so the readers, the score and the letter are deterministic code you can check.