#Passive or active voice how to#

Focus on achievementsįocus on how you achieved something instead of the achievement itself. Passive: 'The department budget was increased because I helped my team meet sales goals for the quarter.'Īctive: 'Helped increase the department budget because my team met sales goals for the quarter.' 2. Passive: 'I was tasked with mentoring new hires.'Īctive: 'I mentored new hires so they were better prepared for their role and understood expectations.' Here are some examples of passive resume statements edited to be more active: Make sure your responsibilities and accomplishments start with 'I' or imply it. Look for 'to be' verbs such as 'is,' 'am,' 'have been,' 'were' and “are.” There are many tools that will check for passive voice usage. Running a grammar check for passive voice. Review your current resume to identify any passive voice statements.

Review your current resume for passive voice Here are some best practices for including active verbs in your resume so you can make an impact on the hiring manager: 1.

#Passive or active voice how to#

Read more: 195 Action Verbs to Make Your Resume Stand Out How to use active verbs in your resume To get started, here are some active verbs you can use in your resume and interview: Related: 10 Resume Writing Tips to Help You Land a Job 40 examples of active verbs to use In the second example, you show that you were in control of a task which is often more valuable to hiring managers. In the first example, you are taking direction from an assumed manager or member of leadership. Instead of writing 'I was tasked with compiling analytics for our marketing department to measure ROI for their quarterly campaign,' try 'I compiled analytics for our marketing department.' Active verbs demonstrate ownershipĪctive verbs demonstrate ownership of an action. An ATS is better able to understand statements that use active verbs since many employers add them as keywords that they want to see in resumes. They work well with applicant tracking systemsĬompanies often used applicant tracking systems (ATS) to automatically scan and filter resumes by certain keywords. Sentences that use passive voice, by contrast, tend to be more clunky and harder to interpret. Active verbs provide clarityīecause statements that use active verbs make the subject the one performing the action, they clearly describe your responsibilities in previous roles. Using action verbs that are unique and powerful can increase your chances of capturing the attention of an employer and moving to the next step in the hiring process. Here are some reasons why you should use active verbs in your resume, interview and throughout the job application process: They help your resume stand outĪctive verbs help highlight your accomplishments.

Why should you use active verbs in your job application? This also makes the sentence longer and harder to read. Passive: 'The department's sales were increased by Louise by 13%.' Even though Louise is the one performing the action, the department is the subject. This sentence is simple and straightforward. Here is an example of two sentences, one using an active verb and one using a passive verb:Īctive: 'Louise increased the department's sales by 13%.' The subject is Louise, who is performing the action. They differ from passive verbs that highlight the subject that receives the action in the sentence. View more jobs on Indeed View More What are active verbs?Īctive verbs, also called 'action or dynamic verbs,' are words used to describe an action that a subject is performing.