Sample Resume Bullets

Resume Principle: Focus on the Interests of Your Audience

Example 1
This student spent two years working for a small wine producer. He had the following bullet on his resume:
Produced 3,500 gallons of wine entailing all aspects of the process from vineyard cultivation, wine
making, bottling, and proper storage.

Very few recruiters understand what goes into producing wine, cultivation, wine making, or bottling. As
such, they cant really tell what relevant skills or expertise the student possesses. The student was
interested in marketing and learned that being in touch with consumers is very important. As a result, he
dropped everything about wine production and instead focused on experiences in which he learned
about their customer base.
Analyzed customer feedback which led to a 100-fold increase in sales for 2008 and the
development of three new wines.

Example 2
This student had banking experience in a small investment bank. He wanted to move to a strategic
planning role in a corporation. He had the following bullet on his resume:
Valued acquisitions ranging from $10M to $10B and advised middle market companies on mergers
and acquisitions and private placement opportunities.

While speaking with professionals in the field, he learned a critical competency in strategy is decision-
making. As he continued to explore what strategy means, he found that the manner in which strategic
decisions are made and supported is a critical issue in all businesses. After surveying his banking
experience, he decided this bullet would allow him to address this important interest of his target
audience. He did so simply by focusing on the second half of the bullet:
Advised middle market companies on mergers and acquisitions and private placement
opportunities; supported recommendations with valuation analyses.

He noticed his bullet lacked results. The bullet did not tell a specific story but focused on what he did in
general. He selected a specific instance in which he offered advice to a client. This allowed him to bring
out the impact/results of his efforts:
Advised middle market CPG firm on potential merger opportunity based on valuation analysis;
recommendations provided well-supported go/no-go decision criteria.

Page 1 of 8
Example 3
This student was interested in consulting. Prior to returning to school, she worked for a local municipality
doing community development work. She had the following bullet on her resume:
Advised and helped local group, the Latino Outreach, to formulate strategy on how to research and
write grant proposals resulting in an award of $10,000.

She knew consultants help organizations with specific problems and act as catalysts for growth. She
rewrote the bullet to make it clearer and more succinct, but also to incorporate language that would be
more familiar for her target audience. Notice how the local group in the first bullet becomes a client
organization in the second:
Advised client organization on research and grant writing leading to an award of $10,000.

Example 4
This student worked as a computer programmer prior to coming to Chicago Booth. He wanted to go into a
strategy role within a corporation or into consulting. He had the following bullet on his resume:
Designed and developed virtual environments using C, C++, Sense8s World Took Kit, and IRIS
Performer on SGI workstations. Additional responsibilities included experiment setup,
configuration of the virtual reality immersion environment, and providing necessary technical
support.

While this bullet spoke directly to the interests of many computer programmers, it did not address the
interests of business people. Whenever human resources people looked at his resume, they instantly
thought of placing him in IT roles.

He did a total overhaul of the bullet by first surveying everything he did for this project. The project
involved creating a virtual simulation for training purposes. A large part of the project involved
understanding the needs of the people who would use the program. He re-oriented the bullet to
emphasize the process of interacting with others to learn to better understand their needs. He felt this
would appeal to his target audience:
Interviewed U.S. Army psychologists to design and develop interactive virtual reality.

Page 2 of 8
Resume Principle: Put Your Most Important Message First

Example 5
This student was a lawyer prior to business school. She wanted to move into corporate strategy roles. She
had the following bullet on her resume:
Negotiated settlement of a million dollar lawsuit for less than .5% of the alleged claim.

By itself, this bullet has some strong points. However, her resume was filled with negotiation experiences.
What she really wanted to highlight was strategic thinking. This student stepped back and generated a list
of everything that went into this particular project: interviewing constituents; conducting factual due
diligence; researching case law; summarizing the legal position of both sides; settling on a legal strategy;
persuading clients of the advantages of the proposed strategy; enacting litigation to force the opposing
party toward preferring a negotiated settlement to continued litigation; and negotiating the specific terms
of the settlement. Making this list gave her some choices about what to emphasize. She rewrote the
bullet to emphasize the skill of identifying and creating a strategy or approach:
Devised strategy for minimizing expense and financial risk based on financial and legal analysis
resulting in a negotiated agreement for less than .5% of a million dollar claim.

Example 6
This student worked in private wealth management and wanted to move into consulting. He had the
following bullet on his resume:
Provided client service to high net worth individuals and endowments across various asset classes
(value, growth, international, emerging markets, fixed income, REITs).

Provided client service is an umbrella statement that summarizes his whole job. It doesnt allow the
reader to get a full sense of the various skills the student used. By breaking down all that went into client
service, the student was able to identify specific skills and experiences that he wanted to highlight:
Developed individualized financial solutions for high net worth clients resulting in client
investments of $10M. Interviewed high net worth clients to identify financial goals; devised and
sold investment strategies and products.

Example 7
This student had a computer engineering background and primarily did coding. He had the following bullet
in the Additional section of his resume:
Adult Literacy Tutor for Black Cultural Center.

Page 3 of 8
There is nothing wrong with this bullet. As is, it demonstrates an interest in people and also community
involvement. The student in question, however, had a very technical background and was worried he
would be stereotyped as an engineer who lacked people skills. As a result, he was seeking ways to
communicate that he did indeed have solid people skills. He turned this bulletwhich merely describes
something he didinto a bullet that carried this important message:
Interviewed adult literacy students to assess learning needs, created individualized lessons, and
tutored over 20 adults in reading and writing skills.

Example 8
This student worked for an investment and development corporation dedicated to infrastructure projects
in Asia. She had the following bullets on her resume:
Planned to establish an international investment fund for national infrastructure projects.
Provided financing support and financial analysis for utility and transportation projects.

This student had volumes of experience working with finances but wanted to send stronger messages
about problem solving and people skills. Her first bullet refers to a project in which she developed the
idea of a single consolidated investment fund. The fund would support a wide range of infrastructure
projects in China, each of which was, on its own, too small for major financial institutions to consider. Her
current language, however, needed work. Planned can be a strong and active verb. But Planned to
establish is vague it didnt say much. She created the following revision to emphasize problem solving:
Created and presented novel solution for funding constraints for infrastructure projects. Elicited
support from Chinese governmental officials.
Provided financing support and financial analysis for utility and transportation projects.

Her second bullet also needed work. Provided financing support is ambiguous and not particularly active.
Also, she wasnt sure she wanted to highlight herself as a support person. She decided to drop the idea
of serving as a general support person and instead focused on the second half of the bullet providing
financial analysis. She inventoried all the things she did when she analyzed financial projects. One of her
roles was modeling; another was presenting her results and making recommendations. Both of these sent
much more useful messages about her as a potential employee. She then crafted a new version:
Created and presented novel solution for funding constraints for infrastructure projects. Elicited
support from Chinese governmental officials.
Modeled multiple financial scenarios for international utility and transportation projects; presented
optimal financing scenarios to senior team leaders.

Finally, she needed to decide which bullet carried a more important message and should therefore go first. It
was really a matter of judgment and it could be argued either way. The student, however, felt the first
bullet was stronger. It represented a specific instance when she had observed a problem, devised a
potential solution, and sold the idea to a very difficult audience. Thus she decided to leave the first bullet
first.

Page 4 of 8
Resume Principle: Focus on Your Specific Role

Example 9
This student worked as a financial analyst prior to arriving at Chicago Booth. She had the following bullet
on her resume:
Provided direct financial support to a division with annual expense base of over $100 million by
analyzing and interpreting financial data for planning and control purposes.

Provided is vague. Further, providing support doesnt send a compelling message. The more interesting
part of the bullet concerns the analysis and interpretation. This student sent a stronger message through
a very simple change she reversed the order of the two halves of the bullet. Note the use of a much
stronger and more specific lead verb:
Analyzed and interpreted financial data for planning and control purposes for a division with an
annual expense base of over $100 million

Example 10
This student was a project manager for an engineering firm. He had the following bullet on his resume:
Assisted in the preparation of monthly financial forecasts for Brazilian telecommunications project.

The student included this bullet because it was one of the few instances in which he did any kind of
financial analysis. At the same time, he recognized that the bullet lacked impact. He began to rework it by
asking the question, What specific actions did I take? His role was to analyze projected expenditures for
aspects of the engineering process and to identify potential problems. As he thought about it, he realized
that on several instances he had identified specific problems and solved them. He rewrote the bullet to tell
what he actually did. In so doing, he was able to keep the fact that he had some exposure to financial
data, but offered a stronger presentation by highlighting what action he took:
Analyzed finances for engineering operations and recommended purchasing and processing
improvements that reduced operational costs by 15%.

Page 5 of 8
Example 11
While working as a research assistant in a lab, this student was responsible for the daily operations of
experimental research. She had the following bullet on his resume:
Coordinated several projects at once, met daily deadlines, planned various methods and controls,
and presented rationale for unexpected results.

Coordinated is vague and as a result is not particularly strong. She chose a stronger, more clearly active
verb for her first revision managed.
Managed operations for multiple research projects including planning methods and meeting
milestones. Projects produced three professional journal articles.

This student also surveyed everything she did and decided to separate out the last part of the bullet
presented rationale for unexpected results and to put it within its own bullet. This last part
represents analytical skills that the student wanted to highlight:
Managed operations for multiple projects including planning methods and meeting milestones.
Projects produced three professional journal articles.
Identified themes in unexpected research findings, allowing for a new interpretation that led to two
additional research projects.

Example 12
This student had a history of finance experience but wanted to move into brand management. Her original
bullet was:
Prepared marketing materials and client presentations for Managing Directors and Vice Presidents
and participated in new business pitches.

Prepared is not particularly strong. In this case, the student simply selected a stronger lead verb created:
Created marketing materials and client presentations for Managing Directors and Vice Presidents
and participated in new business pitches.

She then stepped back and surveyed everything she did for this kind of project. She decided that creativity
was demonstrated in other bullets. She chose to use this bullet to highlight an important message for
brand managers that she could understand consumers. She rewrote the bullet to emphasize this new
message. Again, note that she uses a strong and active lead verb:
Assessed the needs of clients and tailored marketing materials and presentations for new business
pitches; participated in pitches with Managing Director and Vice Presidents.

Page 6 of 8
Resume Principle: Highlight the Impact of Your Work

Example 13
This student worked in a non-profit organization as a communications director prior to Chicago Booth and
wanted to move into marketing. He wrote the following bullet two ways. Which is stronger?
Improved marketing material resulting in $30,000 of additional corporate sponsorships.
Improved marketing material resulting increased partner sponsorships by 40%.

The first uses absolute terms ($30,000) and the second relative ones (40%). One way to assess whether to
use absolute or relative terms is to ask whether or not your audience knows if $30,000 is significant. For
the NPO, $30,000 was a great deal. The student felt recruiters with little experience in non-profits may
not recognize this fact. In order to make clear the significance of the accomplishment, the student
decided to use relative terms. He then developed the bullet by surveying everything he did for the project
and by re-orienting the bullet around a specific action that he took:
Developed creative messaging for new promotional materials that increased partner sponsorship
by 40%.

Example 14
This student had extensive experience as an IT consultant. She had the following bullet on her resume:
Identified opportunities for alliances and partnerships. Conducted exploratory meetings with
potential vendors for partnering opportunities in customer care, payment processing, and content
management.

As is, there are several strong elements within this bullet. For instance, identified is a strong and active
verb. Further, the bullet is about creating opportunities. Still, its not yet clear what became of her effort
to identify opportunities. Were any of these opportunities pursued? If so, to what end? The student
improved the bullet by highlighting the value of her efforts:
Identified cost-saving measures, researched key vendors, and initiated partnering discussions. New
relationships reduced clients operating expenses by 12%.

Page 7 of 8
Example 15
This student worked for a non-profit organization prior to Chicago Booth. As a part of that experience, she
managed a citizenship drive that encouraged immigrants to apply for U.S. citizenship. She had the
following bullet on her resume:
Managed teams of 1015 volunteers for naturalization seminars.

The results of her management are unclear. To what ends did her efforts lead? How did her leadership
improve the drive? In this case, the student felt that her leadership did make a big difference. When she
examined everything that she did, she realized she made several changes in the organization of the
staffing. Her re-organization and training allowed the staff to be much more efficient. She captured this
result in her revised bullet:
Trained, managed, and motivated teams of 10 to 15 volunteers for a mobile citizen application
effort, resulting in improved processing efficiency by 60%.

Example 16
This student worked as an analyst in a bank and wanted to move into an investment analyst role. He had
the following bullet on his resume:
Developed an index of hedge funds with investment styles and key players for use by the Prime
Brokerage Capital Introductions desk.

Its nice that he produced a report, but how was this report used? What was its value to the organization?
Its difficult to quantify the impact of a report. You can, however, ask how your analysis affected
organizational decision-making and/or operations:
Authored a detailed research report on the effect of demographic shifts in municipal and agency
bond pricing. Results employed by Head of Fixed Income Research to refine overall fixed income
strategy.

Example 17
This student served as an assistant in an asset management firm. She had the following bullet on her
resume:
Disseminated relevant market information to management team as well as assisted in the
execution of market trading.

This is a description of what she did on a routine basis. Because it was a routine process that she did every
day, its hard to identify a single instance of this activity that yielded measurable results. Still, her
information was important to the people who used it. She revised the bullet in an effort to show the
value of her information to those who used it:
Disseminated relevant market information to management team, allowing just-in-time analysis that
drove trading strategies.

Page 8 of 8