By Jeff J. St. Louis
How Many Bullet Points Per Job on A Resume?
The human eyes have a straight relationship with the brain. Wherefore, when your eyes see something attractive or beautiful, according to Randy Rieland, Smithsonian Expert, it gives your brain a “dopamine reward.” That can also mean an attractive layout will give you a reward— a job interview.
It can be a little difficult for a lot of people to choose the right set of experiences to list on a resume. You may even wonder if there is an ideal number of bullet points to include in a resume. That’s actually a good question. What you choose to say about you on a resume can determine the next steps in your professional life. Learn the best practice and represent yourself as well as possible. Consider each bullet point an opportunity to brag, which you should do respectfully.
How Many Bullet Points Per Job Should You Include on Your Resume?
Three bullet points per job is an ideal number but if you feel like there is a fourth one that is strong enough to tell a lot about your work experience, go for it. Each bullet point should not be longer than three lines. In the “Skills” section, you may include about four to six bullet points—one bullet point per skill.
- Be clear and concise
- Use appropriate action verbs to describe your achievements and skills
- Be simple and consistent
What Is An Action Verb?
An action verb describes an action. The syntax or the structure of the sentence helps identify the person who did what the action verb describes. For example, Jack published five articles last month— (Noun/Pronoun) + (Action verb) + (Complement).
Since you want your bullet points to be concise, and since the recruiter knows that the resume is about you, it is not necessary to include the pronoun “I” in your bullet points. Just use an action verb plus complement.
Examples Of Concise Bullet Points
- Developed two successful video games
- Increased revenue by three percent
- Doubled the number of active memberships within two months
- Trained forty to sixty salesmen quarterly
- Enhanced employee performance through training, and as a result the number of satisfied customers increased by twenty-three percent.
- Published six new articles that made it to the first page of the local News Paper
- Pioneered a customer-loyalty program, causing the amount to of active customers to double
Bullet Points To Include In The Skills Section
Some of the following skills may apply to you. If you are not sure about your skills, ask some of your past colleagues what skills they think you have and give them a few minutes to explain why they think you have those skills.
The more people you ask the more accurate your conclusion will be. The bullet points you will use need to be relevant to the job you want to apply for.
- Attention to detail
- Oral communication skills
- Scheduling
- Public speaking
- Customer service
- Organizational skills
- Written communication skills
- Time management
- Teamwork and collaboration
- Creativity
- Conflict management
- Adaptability
- Research and Data analysis
- Copywriting
- Storytelling
- Planning
- Digital Printing
- HTML and CSS
- Video Editing
- Data entry
- Bookkeeping
- Storyboarding
- Logo creation
- Brand management
- Paid social media advertisement
- Email Marketing
- Negotiation
- Work ethic
- Professional presentation
- Emotional intelligence
Examples Of Action Verbs To Include In Your Bullet Points
Achieved, built, engineered, developed, founded, Launched, pioneered, remodeled, restructured, designed, reorganized, redesigned, organized, operated, reached, finalized;
Spearheaded, trained, mentored, transformed, communicated, illustrated, supervised, guided, instructed, volunteered;
Acquired, capitalized, amplified, automated, changed, simplified, revolutionized, secured, updated, upgraded, enhanced, improved, accelerated, expended, simplified, collected, published, exceeded, increased, optimized, surpassed, outperformed, doubled, decreased, reduced.
This list is NOT exhaustive.
Action Verbs Analysis
Notice that all of these verbs describe your skills and/or things that you have done. Therefore, the past tense of the verbs is being used. It is important for you to use action verbs like the ones above because recruiters are looking for doers. They want to hire professionals who can generate results and improve the situation of the hiring company.
Furthermore, some of the above action verbs describe your ability to deliver, to make things happen, and to bring improvement where it’s needed. Several of these verbs show how well you can perform, while others talk about your leadership and communication skills.
You may be wondering why is the verb “Decrease” on that list. The reason may not be obvious to you now, and that’s ok. Just keep reading.
Say that you have performed so well that you DECREASED the company’s operations costs by twelve percent, which could also mean you have increased productivity by twelve percent. Or you have decreased customer acquisition costs by five percent.
If you were a recruiter, wouldn’t you be interested in a candidate like that? Now, do you think the verb “Decrease” does not belong on that list?
Verbs like “Founded and built” talk about your decision-making and creative skills. And a verb like “Spearheaded” shows to the recruiter that they can count on you for a leadership position.
In other words, it can give the hiring manager an idea about your people skills. And these are the kinds of signals you want to send to the recruiter’s brain.
You need to show the benefits, show the value you have added to the previous companies you worked for. By doing so, you will increase your chance of being one of the top two candidates for the position you are applying for.
How To Effectively Use Bullet Points On A Resume
Knowing how many bullet points per job on a resume may not be enough. For you also need to know how to use them effectively. The following are examples of how to use bullet points on a resume. Each job position should have three of your most important achievements. And these examples, the bullet points focus on your work experience.
Customer Relations Manager
Your Life Consulting BC Inc.
June 2018-April 2021
- Increased the number of loyal customers by three hundred and two percent—from 230 to 695 loyal customers.
- Doubled the number of five-star reviews by collaborating with the operations team.
- Strengthened the customer relations reputation, which helped to double revenue two years in a row.
Sales Manager
XYZ Company
June 2017-July 2021
- Trained and empowered a team of thirty-seven salespeople monthly and enhanced performance tremendously within the first six months, and as a result, tripled the number of unique customers.
- Exceeded sales goal twelve months in a row and increased the company’s revenue by eight percent (8%).
- Improved relationship between customers and sales professionals by mentoring each salesperson on how to develop a professional relationship with the customer, which helped to increase the number of loyal customers by two percent (2%).
Email Marketing Specialist
ABY Marketing
July 2019-May 2021
- Increased click emails through rate from 15% to 29% per month, which helped triple traffic on the company’s website.
- Reduced the number of one-time customers by three percent.
- Decreased customer acquisition costs by seven percent.
What Not To Include As Bullet Points On A Resume
Sometimes, you may have the impression that you should include every single thing you have done or accomplished in your resume. You may feel like making a bullet point for every single skill you have.
You probably feel that way because you have learned that you should not undersell yourself on a resume.
But you should also know that if you include a bullet point that does not have anything to do with the job you are applying for, it might cause more harm than good.
Everything you make a bullet point for should serve the purpose. Or in other words, you must contextualize your bullet points.
Avoid utilizing:
- Vague terms
- Irrelevant skills
- Irrelevant achievements
- Personal opinions
- Resume summary
Avoid Using Vague Terms
You don’t want to include a term just for the sake of including it as a bullet point. Don’t use big words just to show how educated you are. It’s not going to work on your behalf.
Avoid Including Irrelevant Skills
You need to avoid any skills that are not relevant to the position you are applying for. Each bullet point should be relevant to the required skills for the job. If you are applying for a job like “Social Media Manager”, your four-year experience as a pilot may not be relevant. No matter how good you were at running as a professional football player, it cannot help you get the job of Web Developers.
So, to better help yourself, make a list of all your skills, and group them based on job descriptions or job titles.
Stay Away From Irrelevant Achievements
Say you are applying for a “Sales Manager” position, an achievement like “Engineered a successful software” would not be relevant to the job description. You won the boxing competition last year, that’s great! But if you want to work as an accountant, your achievement as a boxer would not be a relevant achievement to include in your resume.
Avoid Including Your Personal Opinions As A Bullet Point
When you include a bullet point that says “Good leadership skills” or “Hard worker”, you do nothing but share your personal opinions about yourself. Employers want to see for themselves that you are a good leader or a hard worker; a bullet point with this kind of information does not help you much.
Don’t Utilize Bullet Points In The Summary Section Of Your Resume
A resume summary is a statement located on top of your resume that underlines the experiences and skills that qualify you for the job you are applying for. It is as short as three to five lines. You should not use bullet points to write your resume summary. Instead, it should be a short paragraph.
Can You Use Periods After Bullet Points?
You can use a period after each bullet point but you need to be consistent—if you use a period after one bullet point on your resume, you should do the same for all the other bullet points.
Another thing, if the bullet points contain complete sentences, feel free to use a period but if you are using phrases or single words in your bullet points, it would be better to not include a period at the end.
Why Are Bullet Points Important On A Resume?
Bullet points help break down key information. The use of bullet points makes it easier for the recruiter or hiring manager to find the things that are relevant to the job description you have applied for.
One of the reasons why bullet points have such an impact on a hiring manager is because nobody wants to read pig blocks of text or long paragraphs. The easier you make it to the recruiter to read your resume, the more chance you have to get a job interview.
Moreover, you can use bullet points to list the foreign languages you speak, to include your hobbies, and interests (if necessary). College students use bullet points to list key courses they have completed that are relevant to the job. And the majority of college students would include their GPA.
You can make bullet points your best friend when it comes to communicating who you are and what you stand for as a professional, and you can do this in a clear and concise way.
If you are not very good at creating beautiful resume layouts, there are several websites where you can buy resume templates. A few of these websites also have free templates that you can download and then customize based on the things you just learned and, of course, your creativity.
Consider this:
- Think outside of the box
- Ask for help if needed
- Categorize your skills so you can better contextualize them
As A Conclusion
You just learned how many bullet points per job on a resume that can serve the purpose. Now you know that three bullet points per job is a great number to consider when deciding how many bullet points to include on your resume.
Moreover, you have learned what kind of verbs to include in your resume to better represent yourself, to describe your skills, and to talk about your achievements. Now you when it is a good idea to use bullet points and when it is not a good idea to use them.
And finally, you have learned that bullet points are extremely important as well as to be consistent, concise, creative, and clear on your resume when it comes to utilizing bullet points.
Good luck!
