Writing bullet points – Page 3

Describe the size of your team and what you did to develop, organise and motivate them, along with the results the team achieved.

Examples:

• "Led a team of 14 customer service agents and 2 team leaders across two shifts."
• "Hired and onboarded 9 new staff during a busy expansion year."
• "Introduced monthly one-to-one coaching, which helped two agents earn promotion to team leader."
• "Reorganised shift patterns to improve cover at peak times."
• "Handled performance issues fairly and documented improvement plans."

Avoid bullets such as "Managed a team" with no detail. The reader wants to know how many people, what kind of team and how you led them.

Use plain text with standard bullet symbols, include the job advert's key terms where they truthfully describe your work, and avoid tables, text boxes and images.

Tips:

• Use the advert's wording for important skills and tools, such as "accounts receivable" or "Primavera P6".
• Spell out an acronym once if it may be searched in both forms, for example "Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)".
• Keep bullets in the main body of the page, not in headers, footers or side columns.
• Use round bullets or dashes, not icons.

A bullet like "Prepared IFRS-compliant monthly management accounts in SAP" is clear to both software and people. The job-description comparison in the builder can show which frequent advert terms are missing, so you can check whether any of them truly apply to you.

No, do not copy them word for word. Use the job description to understand which skills and terms matter, then write your own bullets showing what you actually did.

Why copying is a problem:

• Recruiters recognise their own advert and see it as lazy or dishonest.
• Copied lines describe what they want, not what you have done.
• It can include duties you never performed.

Better approach:

• Advert: "Prepare monthly management reports."
• Your bullet: "Prepared monthly management reports for the operations director, covering sales, costs and stock levels."

Matching terms honestly is good practice. Copying whole sentences is not.

Yes. Merge them into one stronger bullet, or delete the weaker one. Repetition wastes space and makes your experience look thinner than it is.

Example:

• "Handled customer complaints by phone."
• "Resolved customer issues and escalated where needed."

Merged: "Resolved customer complaints by phone and email, escalating complex cases to the supervisor."

To find duplicates, read each job's bullets and ask whether two of them describe the same task. Then use the freed space for something different, such as a result or another responsibility.

Show what you did with the tool, not just that you used it. Put the tool name next to the task or result.

Weak: "Used Excel."
Strong: "Built an Excel model with pivot tables and XLOOKUP to track project costs across 15 sites."

Weak: "Familiar with Salesforce."
Strong: "Managed a pipeline of 80 opportunities in Salesforce and kept forecasts updated weekly."

Weak: "AutoCAD."
Strong: "Drafted shop drawings for ductwork in AutoCAD MEP for two hospital projects."

Keep a full list of tools in your skills section, and use bullets to prove how well you use the most important ones.

Say who you trained, how many, on what, and the outcome if there is one.

Examples:

• "Trained 12 new cashiers on POS procedures and cash handling."
• "Mentored 2 junior accountants, reviewing their reconciliations each month."
• "Ran fire safety refresher sessions for around 60 staff each quarter."
• "Created a training guide for the new booking system, now used for all new joiners."
• "Coached a struggling agent who went on to win the monthly quality award."

Training others shows trust and leadership, even if you do not hold a manager title. It is worth including in most roles.

Describe the problem or old way briefly, what you changed, and the improvement. Keep it to one or two lines.

Structure: Changed what + how + resulting improvement.

Examples:

• "Replaced paper delivery notes with a tablet app, ending lost paperwork and speeding up billing."
• "Introduced a shared calendar for meeting rooms, ending double bookings."
• "Redesigned the invoice approval flow in the ERP, reducing approval time from about a week to two days."
• "Standardised daily site reports with a single template used across all projects."

If you do not know the exact improvement, describe it honestly in words such as "faster", "fewer errors" or "less manual work".

Say what you were recognised for, by whom and, if helpful, how often. Make it concrete rather than vague praise.

Examples:

• "Named Employee of the Quarter twice in 2024 for guest service."
• "Mentioned by name in over 30 positive guest reviews in one year."
• "Received the regional Safety Champion award for leading near-miss reporting."
• "Chosen to represent the branch at the national customer service training."

You can keep major awards in an awards section and add a short bullet under the job where they were earned. Avoid claims like "loved by customers" without evidence.

Name the standard, process or regulation you followed or managed, and show the outcome, such as audits passed or incidents avoided.

Examples:

• "Conducted daily site safety inspections and closed actions with subcontractors."
• "Maintained ISO 9001 quality records and supported two external audits with no major findings."
• "Checked customer documents against KYC procedures before account opening."
• "Kept food safety temperature logs and passed all municipality inspections."
• "Prepared monthly HSE performance reports for the client."

Do not claim compliance with a standard you did not work with. Name what you actually followed.

Add the missing details: what exactly you did, for whom, how much and with what result. Vague bullets usually lack specifics.

Before and after:

• "Handled accounts." becomes "Managed 45 corporate customer accounts, including billing and renewals."
• "Did reports." becomes "Prepared weekly sales and stock reports for 12 branches in Excel."
• "Worked on projects." becomes "Coordinated three office refurbishment projects with contractors and facilities."

Questions to ask for each bullet:

• What did I do? (verb)
• What was it? (task)
• How big, how often or for whom? (context)
• What happened as a result? (outcome)

If you cannot answer any of these, the bullet may be filler you can remove.

Cut filler phrases, use one strong verb, and remove details the reader does not need.

Words and phrases you can usually cut:

• "Was responsible for", "in charge of", "duties included".
• "In order to" (use "to").
• "Various", "several different", "a number of".
• "Successfully", when the result already shows success.

Before: "Was responsible for successfully coordinating a number of various team activities in order to improve the morale of staff."
After: "Organised monthly team events to improve staff morale."

Read each bullet and try to remove three words. If the meaning stays the same, keep the shorter version.

Lead each job with the bullets that relate to your new field, and describe them in the new field's language. Move unrelated duties to the end or remove them.

Example: a retail manager moving into HR.

• "Recruited and onboarded around 25 store staff a year."
• "Ran weekly training on customer service and safety."
• "Handled staff scheduling, absence and performance conversations."
• "Managed store sales and stock." (kept short, less relevant)

You are not changing what you did, only which parts you emphasise and how clearly you name the transferable skills.

Usually not. Most resume bullets are short phrases that start with a verb and leave out "I" and some articles. This keeps them short and easy to scan.

Full sentence: "I was in charge of preparing the monthly payroll for all of our employees."
Resume style: "Prepared monthly payroll for 220 employees."

You can still use correct grammar inside the phrase, and some people prefer full sentences in a more formal or narrative CV. Whichever style you choose, use it consistently across all bullets.

Yes, when the timing adds meaning, such as a project in a particular year or something achieved within a timeframe. Otherwise, the job's dates are enough.

Useful examples:

• "Led the 2023 migration of the finance system to the cloud."
• "Opened 3 new branches within 18 months."
• "Named top sales performer for 2024."

Avoid adding dates to every bullet. It clutters the page, and readers mainly need the start and end dates of the role.

Security bullets should show the tools, the type of threats handled, response work and improvements to security posture, without revealing confidential details.

Examples:

• "Monitored and triaged security alerts in Splunk for a 24/7 SOC covering 5,000 endpoints."
• "Investigated phishing incidents and coordinated containment with the IT team."
• "Ran monthly vulnerability scans with Nessus and tracked fixes with system owners."
• "Wrote response playbooks for common alerts, speeding up handling by new analysts."
• "Delivered phishing awareness sessions to staff across 3 offices."

Never include internal IP ranges, client names or specific vulnerabilities from real systems.

Banking bullets should show the products, customers, compliance and service quality.

Examples:

• "Opened and serviced current and savings accounts for retail customers in a busy branch."
• "Advised customers on personal loans, credit cards and deposit products based on their needs."
• "Completed KYC and anti-money-laundering checks before account opening."
• "Processed around 100 teller transactions a day with balanced cash at close."
• "Referred qualified customers to the wealth team, contributing to branch sales targets."

Accuracy and compliance are central in banking, so show them clearly.

Show the platforms, the type of content, the scale of the audience and the effect on engagement or business goals.

Examples:

• "Managed Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn accounts for 4 hospitality brands."
• "Planned monthly content calendars and produced short videos and carousels."
• "Grew a restaurant group's Instagram audience steadily through Reels and local influencer partnerships."
• "Replied to comments and messages daily, escalating complaints to the guest relations team."
• "Reported monthly performance in Meta Business Suite and adjusted content based on results."

Link to examples of your work in your contact or links section.

Supply chain bullets should show what moved, how much, where, and how you kept it on time and accurate.

Examples:

• "Coordinated around 40 import shipments a month by sea and air from Asia and Europe."
• "Prepared customs documents and worked with brokers to clear goods without delays."
• "Tracked purchase orders and updated delivery dates for the warehouse and sales teams."
• "Negotiated freight rates with 5 forwarders during the annual tender."
• "Maintained stock levels for 300 SKUs using SAP and weekly demand reports."

Name the systems, trade lanes and Incoterms you work with if they are in the job advert.

Medical bullets should show your specialty, the setting, patient volume, procedures and contributions to teaching, audit or quality.

Examples:

• "Managed around 20 inpatients a day on a general medicine ward with a senior consultant."
• "Ran two outpatient clinics a week for diabetes and hypertension follow-up."
• "Performed procedures including central lines and lumbar punctures under supervision."
• "Led a clinical audit on sepsis screening and presented findings to the department."
• "Taught medical students on weekly bedside teaching sessions."

Keep patient details anonymous and list licences, registrations and courses in their own sections.

Present it as self-employed work and show reliability, volume, customer ratings and time management.

Example:
"Delivery Rider (self-employed), working with food delivery apps | 2022 to present"

• "Completed around 25 deliveries a day across central Dubai."
• "Maintained a high customer rating through on-time, careful delivery."
• "Planned routes to cover peak lunch and dinner periods efficiently."

You can list multiple apps under one entry. Gig work shows independence and customer service, which many employers value, and it also fills what could otherwise look like a gap in your work history.

Describe it like any job, with a clear title and real responsibilities. Family business experience is valid work experience.

Example:
"Shop Assistant and Bookkeeper, Al Noor Textiles (family business) | 2020 to 2024"

• "Served customers and handled cash and card sales six days a week."
• "Kept daily sales records and monthly accounts in Tally."
• "Placed orders with 8 regular suppliers and checked deliveries."

Use an honest title that reflects your duties, not an inflated one like "Managing Director" if you mainly worked in the shop. Be ready to explain your role and give a reference from someone who can confirm it.

Translate military tasks into civilian language, focusing on leadership, logistics, safety, training and equipment.

Examples:

• "Led a team of 12 personnel on 24/7 rotating duties." (instead of a rank and unit name)
• "Managed stores and equipment inventory with full accountability for every item."
• "Planned transport for up to 40 vehicles on training exercises."
• "Trained new recruits on safety procedures and equipment handling."

Avoid acronyms and unit codes that civilian readers will not know, and never include confidential or classified details.

Show the courses or research topics, your tasks, the number of students or the outputs such as papers and datasets.

Examples:

• "Led weekly tutorials for 3 groups of about 20 first-year economics students."
• "Marked coursework and exam scripts using agreed rubrics."
• "Collected and analysed survey data from 400 respondents in SPSS."
• "Co-authored a conference paper on water use in agriculture."
• "Maintained lab equipment and trained new students on safety procedures."

If you are moving from academia to industry, describe these tasks in business terms, such as training, data analysis and project management.

Write them the same way as any other job: describe your responsibilities and achievements honestly. The resume does not need to say how the job ended.

Example:

• "Managed social media channels for three retail brands."
• "Produced weekly performance reports for the marketing manager."

Focus on what you did well. If asked in an interview why you left, give a brief, honest and calm answer, and talk about what you learned. Never change dates or titles to hide a dismissal, because these can be checked.

There is no fixed number, but many one-page resumes have roughly 10 to 15 bullets across all jobs, projects and activities. The space you have, not a rule, decides.

How to share them out:

• Most recent or most relevant role: four to five bullets.
• Second role: three to four bullets.
• Older roles or projects: one to three each.

If your bullets push you onto a second page, cut the weakest bullets first, especially routine duties and repeated points. If your page looks empty, add detail to your most relevant roles rather than adding filler.