Skip to main content

65 Success Words to Use in Your CV

Written by: Lucy Walters
Published on: 27 Apr 2021

65 Success Words to Use in Your CV

Pharma recruiters and hiring managers often don’t have the time to read through every single CV they receive from top to bottom. Even if you’re the most qualified candidate for the role you’ve applied for, if your CV doesn’t grab the attention of recruiters and get through Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) used to identify the strongest candidates, you could still find your application in the rejection pile.

Using success words in your CV is a really simple way of grabbing the attention of recruiters by giving depth to your key achievements and clearly relaying your capabilities. Instead of using vague phrases like ‘I was responsible for…’ and ‘I worked to…’ and words such as ‘Managed’ and ‘Organised’ that recruiters see from time and time again, you should use terms that are specific to your achievements and which will help you stand out against your peers.

We’ve put together this list of 65 success words that you could use in your CV to tell pharma recruiters and hiring managers exactly why they should hire you, and what results you’re capable of producing:

  1.   Accelerated
  2.   Achieved
  3.   Acquired
  4.   Added
  5.   Advised
  6.   Adapted
  7.   Changed
  8.   Collaborated
  9.   Composed
  10.   Controlled
  11.   Coordinated
  12.   Created
  13.   Decreased
  14.   Delivered
  15.   Designed
  16.   Developed
  17.   Devised
  18.   Diagnosed
  19.   Directed
  20.   Discovered
  21.   Eliminated
  22.   Enhanced
  23.   Established
  24.   Exceeded
  25.   Executed
  26.   Expanded
  27.   Facilitated
  28.   Fostered
  29.   Founded
  30.   Gained
  31.   Generated
  32.   Grew
  33.   Guided
  34.   Identified
  35.   Improved
  36.   Implemented
  37.   Increased
  38.   Initiated
  39.   Integrated
  40.   Introduced
  41.   Launched
  42.   Maximised
  43.   Mediated
  44.   Mentored
  45.   Minimised
  46.   Negotiated
  47.   Optimised
  48.   Orchestrated
  49.   Partnered
  50.   Prevented
  51.   Produced
  52.   Planned
  53.   Programmed
  54.   Recreated
  55.   Redesigned
  56.   Reduced
  57.   Remodelled
  58.   Resolved
  59.   Restructured
  60.   Secured
  61.   Sold
  62.   Streamlined
  63.   Supervised
  64.   Updated
  65.   Upgraded

Be Specific About Your Achievements...

Using these words alone won’t give the full picture of your past achievements. To do this, incorporate statistics into your CV to provide more context, and be specific about the actions you took. You don’t need to give loads of detail for each of your achievements. Instead, go through the job advert and description and pinpoint the most important things the hiring manager is looking for, and focus on really making these parts of your CV shine.

Visit PharmiWeb.Jobs for more CV advice or to start searching for your next pharma job.