How to Use Bullet Points in a Resume

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As the market continues to become more competitive, employers generally have hundreds of resumes to look through. This usually means they can only spend seconds scanning through each one – just over 7 seconds, to be exact.

Employers don’t want to wade through long, tedious paragraphs so using resume bullet points is an effective way of showcasing what makes you the must-have candidate!

A question that many jobseekers ask is, should a resume have bullet points? The short answer is yes, and the benefits are two-fold. Using bullet points on a resume clearly and concisely highlights your strengths, and it’s also easier to read. 

By using bullet points, you can showcase your most relevant accomplishments and your most important skills and qualifications without burying them in chunks of text.

The resume bullet points you include should differ for each job application according to the job requirements. Using our AI resume builder allows you to make quick edits for each application, thus tailoring your resume.

When To Use Bullet Points in a Resume

You can use bullet points on your resume in several areas. The most common and impactful is your work experience section. This is where you can list your duties and accomplishments.

 How many bullet points per job on a resume? This depends on how many jobs you include and how much space you have for each, but between 2-4 is a good number. Remember, you need to keep your resume as short and concise as possible.

You can also use bullet points in other sections, such as your skills, education, and accomplishments. In general, if there’s a choice between writing resume bullet points or paragraphs, it is generally better to choose bullet points.

How To Write Resume Bullet Points

The first thing to do is decide what skills and accomplishments you want to highlight. You’ll want to keep the type of role and industry in mind when selecting your bullets.

From there, you’ll need to read through the job description for each job application carefully and identify the key job requirements for each position. Pick out the keywords and work them (and synonyms of them) into your resume.

It’s essential to show why you’re the right candidate for a specific position rather than just submitting a generic, one-size-fits-all resume. Make each bullet point relevant to the role you’re applying for. Changing the bullets using resume templates is an easy way of creating a tailored resume for each application.

You should include 2-4 effective resume bullet points beneath the basic job information (job title, employer details, job role). You should use simple, attractive, readable bullets such as circles or hyphens. Whichever style you choose, be consistent throughout your resume.

Make sure you prioritize your bullet points. You’ll want to rank them in order of impact. This means placing the most important and most relevant points nearer the top of your resume and the less important ones nearer the bottom.

Each bullet should start with a strong, dynamic action verb (in the past tense) followed by what you produced or accomplished. You should also try to quantify your achievements as this is convincing for employers.

• 💡 Our expert’s advice

  

  If you find yourself with “too many bullets,” review at least five job postings of your targeted role and industry. Find commonalities regarding accomplishments and select your 2-4 bullet points based on common needs and in-demand skills.

Which bullet point to use in a resume

What is the best bullet point symbol for your resume? In most cases, you will want to go with the simple circle bullet like the ones you’ll see used later in this article. Circle bullets are universally accepted and highly professional.

Empty bullets, triangle bullets, and hyphen bullets are also okay to use. If you’re applying for a highly creative job, especially one in the visual arts or design, you might even opt for a “fancy” bullet point such as a rightwards bullet, white point bullet, or black point bullet.

In many word processors, you can insert a bulleted list by starting a line with an asterisk. However, if your processor doesn’t convert this to a bullet point automatically, consider other ways of creating the bullets. Using asterisks may make it appear that you lack certain computing skills.

Resume Bullet Point Examples

Here are some examples of effective bullet points for a resume that are positive, concise, and clearly demonstrate and highlight strengths.

Bullet points to organize your work experience

These samples also exemplify how long a resume bullet point should be. You will notice that each bullet point focuses on impact and outcomes.  As noted above, 2 to 4 bullet points are used for each description.

Education Section

If you’re writing a student resume or an entry-level resume, it may be the case that you need to emphasize academic and participation-related accomplishments. Here is an example of how you can use bullet points to list your academic qualifications:

The same is true even if high school is your highest level of education. Consider this example:

If you’re still feeling unsure about crafting your own bullet point descriptions, a resume template with bullet points can make the job easier. You can simply enter your information into the preset points. Resume Coach even has AI-powered technology that can offer suggestions to optimize your work!

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