Finally Write Resume Bullet Points Right!
I’m done giving students their resume bullet points. Of course I’m going to continue to teach students some best practices related to the resume and the like. Like it or not (students), I’m going to help you finally write resume bullet points right!
I’m sure you’ve heard the following saying:
“Give a person a fish, and you feed them for a day; teach a person to fish and you feed them for a lifetime.”
You could say I’m done “helping” students fall short of their true potential, which can be realized when they fish around for the information needed to effectively tell their professional story.
Here’s an excerpt from the free bonus chapter to my book Would Your Boomerang Return? What Birds, Hurdlers, and Boomerangs Can Teach Us About the Time Value of Money (2023):
You’re almost ready for the “hot seat.” First, let me share something that I have figured out from working in industry. The smartest people in the group have mastered the art of asking really great questions. So much so that they deliberately don’t ask you the question they really want to ask you. In other words, it’s the trailing unspoken question that may be of more interest to the interviewer. I’ve seen this done with such precision and excellence that I’m a little jealous of those who can do this with ease. After all these years in business, I can’t figure out if it’s the leadership skill in the person helping to lead the other to their way of thinking or if it’s because some people don’t like to be too direct. Might be a little of both, especially because of office politics and people wanting to climb corporate ladders.
The best leaders not only ask great questions of others, but also of themselves. You can employ this tactic to write effective resume bullet points.
But before you can do that, you need to call it like it is: a living document that can always be improved. This requires getting out of your own way: embracing that you are both a source of the problem and the solution. A great degree of agency can follow this realization.
Remember that the job of the resume is not to get you the job; rather, to get you the interview. The former comes down to skills and experiences!
How do you best tell your professional story one (bullet point) line at a time? By asking the right questions (of yourself):
What did you (do)…?
Why did you (do what you did)…?
How did you (know that your work produced a positive outcome)…?
These three bullet points will help you finally write resume bullet points right! Don’t believe me?! It’s this simple:
What did you do as a Stocker? I made sure product got from the warehouse to the retail floor.
Why did you move product from the warehouse to the retail floor? It was important that shelves which were emptied from the prior day’s sales be mostly restocked before the store opened and customers started to shop.
How did you know that your work produced a positive outcome? Working alongside others, we unloaded multiple pallets before the store opened, contributing to the customers’ shopping experience and daily store sales that averaged around $35,000.
Still not there? If you get stumped, you can also look at it from the employer’s perspective:
What were you hired to do?
Why is this role really needed?
How can the company stay in business?
This makes it crystal clear:
What were you hired to do? I was hired to unload pallets of merchandise and stock showroom shelves.
Why is this role really needed? To help the team and stock shelves in a timely manner.
How can the company stay in business? Keep customers happy and sell things!
Here’s how it all comes together (for the fictitious character Roy G. B. IV):
Copyright 2025 Brent Pritchard. All rights reserved.
(In case you missed it, the comma is indigo and the period is violet. Who can really tell the difference anyway?! Long story short, you don’t have to use a comma in the bullet point, just like you don’t have to use a period. This would result in our character being known as Roy G. B. or Roy G. B. I or Roy G. B. V: you get the point.)
The “leader” that is “Assisted” sets the tone for the rest of the resume bullet point. It’s pretty clear that this person wants to draw attention to the fact that they are a team player, someone who works well with others.
This is what I call the STARE tactic:
Skill
Task
Action
Result
Experience
(Green gets to the Result… You can’t make this stuff up!)
Are you sold yet? For the rest of the story on the resume and job-search process, check out the free bonus chapter:
How long did it take you to rewrite one of your resume bullet points using these (tailored) questions?
Brent Pritchard is an author and college finance educator with over two decades of industry experience and cofounder of Boxholm Press, LLC, a family-owned-and-operated publishing company providing educational content, products, and services. He pioneers an innovative and approachable new way of learning and teaching the Time Value of Money as well as thought leadership in other business topics. His most recent book is Would Your Boomerang Return? You can contact him on his website here.