The Best Words to Use in Your Cover Letter & Resume

by Kristine Tucker

When you create a resume and cover letter, specific word choices help your resume stand out from the competition. Tailoring your content to fit the job description and including key words reflects your ability to identify job demands associated with the position. Some employers use scanning programs to locate the best resumes and reject those that don't meet minimal standards. Effective wording helps ensure your resume doesn't get rejected or sent to the bottom of the pile.

Action Verbs

When you write a resume and cover letter, action verbs show a hiring manager that you're proactive and assertive when it comes to job responsibilities. According to Boston College Career Center, action verbs such as coordinated, developed, supervised, drafted, formulated, approved, organized, and implemented give your resume power and direction. Without effective action verbs, your resume sounds weak, passive and lethargic. You want your words to jump off the page, encouraging a hiring manager to contact you for an interview.


Keywords are words that are relevant to a specific job title and related job responsibilities. Most keywords are used in the initial job description, so repeating and prioritizing those words in your resume and cover letter increases your chances of getting a favorable review. In large corporations and high-profile organizations, human resources departments often use high-tech, keyword-search software programs to scan electronic resume submissions for specific skill sets. According to the Career Center at Florida State University (FSU), without incorporating job-relevant keywords into your resume and cover letter, your documents might get rejected as insufficient, unskilled or unqualified submissions.

Specific Skills

Choose words that link your specific skill sets to the job description. The FSU Career Center recommends describing skill sets using action verbs and specific job-relevant nouns rather than vague clauses. For example, "trained new employees" is a better way to say "responsible for training," and "created financial reports" is more descriptive than "responsible for reporting." Be sure to list any skills you have that are detailed in the job description. If the job description says "responsible for scheduling work shifts and performing administrative duties," you might write, "scheduled multiple work shifts, created productivity reports, and communicated with clients and staff on a daily basis."

Recognizable Words

When in doubt, opt for recognizable words over obscure words or advanced vocabulary terms. Unless the position is highly technical or highly specialized, avoid terminology that might not be familiar to the average person -- or average computer program. Once again, computerized scanning programs could be problematic. They might not recognize unusual words, words in a foreign (non-English) language, or words that aren't found in most dictionaries or thesauruses. If a simple word is available and doesn't sound juvenile or uneducated in the context of the sentence, choose it over an obscure one.

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