Add Professional Pizazz To Your Resume With These Adjectives

May 20, 2022

What Is An Adjective?
Using Adjectives In Resumes

When writing a resume, it is crucial to sell yourself as best you can and highlight all of your strongest qualities while focusing on your experiences and successes. That being said, your resume won’t turn heads with common, boring words like good, fine, and nice. No, you need to make your resume truly shine with some bold, magnificent words that will make you stand out.

That is where adjectives come into play. Not just any adjectives, though, but powerful adjectives that vividly describe how impressive you and your past accomplishments are. By skillfully using adjectives, you can make it clear that you are exactly the right person for the job.

What is an adjective?

Adjectives: grammar definition

To start, an adjective is a word that modifies and describes a noun, pronoun, or anything acting as a noun in a sentence. Descriptive words like funny, green, fast, and skittish are some simple examples of adjectives. If you are trying to identify whether or not a word is an adjective, just ask yourself if it is modifying a noun or pronoun and providing some info about it. If it is, you are more than likely looking at an adjective.

Adjectives often come right before the nouns that they modify as in The happy children played with the silly puppies. However, adjectives can also be separated from their nouns if a sentence uses a linking verb like look or seem. For example, in the sentence That girl is smart the adjective smart is connected to the noun girl through the linking verb is.

🖋Adjectives in resumes

Adjectives are powerful, descriptive words that you can add to your resume to give more detail about who you are and what you have done. Adjectives can add some extra punch and pizzazz to really kick up your resume to the next level. Here are some examples:

Developed a good inventory system.
Developed a modern, efficient, and affordable inventory system.

You can see that the first option is really lacking the oomph that the second example has. Additionally, the second option thoroughly describes how great the system you created was. After all, those impressive adjectives wouldn’t be there without you!

Whether you’re writing a brand-new resume from scratch for the first time or are simply jazzing up your current one, here’s how to strategically make use of adjectives to really bring the heat.

Explore everything you need to know about adjectives here.

How to use powerful adjectives in resumes

If you have any experience at all with resume writing, you already know that it is deceptively difficult. Because a resume’s purpose is to essentially “sell” yourself and your skillset to recruiters and hiring managers, each sentence needs to be carefully and thoughtfully crafted. You want to thoroughly describe your duties and responsibilities and your previous jobs while simultaneously telling the reader something about who you are as an employee—all while keeping it as brief as possible and trying not to be repetitive. That’s a tall order for just a few short bullet points!

That’s exactly why adjectives are so crucial to good resume writing. By simply swapping out a few words here and there, you can more clearly showcase your skills, provide as much detail as possible, and lead with the most compelling words that will keep recruiters’ eyes on your resume for longer.

Try sprinkling in some of the powerful adjectives below throughout your resume, including in your job descriptions, summary statement, and even in your cover letter. (Pro tip: you can also use them on your LinkedIn profile in the same way!)

Solved a challenging problem

If you helped your team come up with a viable solution for an ongoing issue, you could describe your process or solutions with:

Example: Streamlined the assembly process by developing an inventive, professional scheduling system that made clever adjustments to shift lengths in order to ensure workers make excellent progress during work hours.

Need help sprucing up your resume? Check out our comprehensive guide to resumes!

Supported internal stakeholders

Internal stakeholders are people whose interest in a company is the result of a direct relationship, such as employment, ownership, or investment. Whether you interacted directly with company investors or simply managed the needs of a team of employees, elaborate on your specific experience with:

Example: Fostered a unified, cooperative environment in which shareholders knew that their questions and concerns would be handled by a diplomatic, open-minded representative.

Found ways to save time or money

Helping companies streamline their efforts and operate more efficiently or cost effectively is no small feat, which is why it’s such an impactful accomplishment in the eyes of recruiters. To really drive the point home on your resume, try describing your plans and solutions using:

Example: Improved the customer service experience by organizing an efficient, cost-effective troubleshooting process that emphasized prudent, reliable solutions to the most common issues.

Grew sales

On the other hand, it’s equally as impressive if you’ve played a major role in making the company money. Sell your great solutions, strategies, and products you with:

Example: Constantly led the company to successful, lucrative quarters by ensuring customers saw our products as the most enticing and captivating items on the market.

Launched a feature or project

Did you lead the charge on an exciting new endeavor or help launch a company-wide initiative? Illustrate just how impactful your role was with:

Example: Developed a sleek, cutting-edge marketing strategy that made it clear that the company was leading the way with revolutionary, groundbreaking products.

Led a team

Strong management and leadership skills are highly valuable for job-seekers in any industry. Set yours apart from the rest by using:

Example: Provided inspirational, resolute leadership to a team of ten graphic artists. Acted as a bold, resolute manager while remaining decisive and confident during times of crisis.

Showed technical proficiency

Demonstrate your skill set and showcase the amount of hands-on experience you have in your industry with:

Example: Remained focused and attentive when reviewing datasheets. Kept mindful of company standards and made judicious use of resources when compiling thorough error reports.

Get descriptive with adjectives

When picking the right adjectives for your resume, you really want to make yourself sound special. Don’t be afraid to kick things up a notch and use eye-catching adjectives that’ll make your resume memorable. Study up on these terms with our word lists (with added features like ability to create flashcards and quiz yourself):

You can also test yourself on some of the best words to use by taking our quiz before glamming up your resume. After all, you already know how impressive your past accomplishments are, but you’ll need the right words to make that clear to everybody else.

And adjectives are the special, effective, powerful words that you need!