Chapter 2. Soft Skills Related to Professional Capabilities: Performance and Grooming

(1) advocate; approve; assist; back; back up; encourage; espouse; foment; help incite; put up to; sanction; support; urge (especially in wrongdoing)

(1) Abetted by high oil prices, Exxon announced that its profits had tripled.

Collocates to: aided, decisions, enemies, people, progress, trends

Résumé bullet points:

• Abetted the decision to expand globally

(1) bear; continue; endure; go on being; put up with; stomach; take; tolerate

(1) Abided by a set of loose restrictions, I formed and started the business on very little capital.

(2) hold; remain; stay; stand fast; stand for

Collocates to: agreements, conditions, laws, norms, rules; resolutions, wishes

Résumé bullet points:

• Abided by the vision of the founder and kept the US plant open

(1) acquire; assimilate; attract; consume; digest; endure; engulf; fascinate; imbibe; soak up; sustain; take in; use up

(1) During the recent economic downturn, Boeing absorbed most of the price increases.

(2) draw into oneself; grasp; realize; recognize; take in; understand

(3) become captivated, interested, engaged or preoccupied in; fascinated

Collocates to: concepts, carbon, ideas, immigrants, liquids, solar, sunlight

Résumé bullet points:

• Absorbed myself in all new responsibilities

(1) agree; allow; approach; ascend; attain; come to; comply; conform; consent; enter upon; give assent; grant; succeed to; take over

(1) The unions acceded to the pension rule changes.

Collocates to demands, needs, new ideas, requests

Résumé bullet points:

• Acceded to subordinates significantly higher levels of authority and responsibility, thus improving morale and productivity

(1) accent; emphasize; heighten; intensify

(2) make more noticeable; play up; stress something

(1), (2) The recession accentuated the negative feelings many stockholders had about wasteful spending.

Collocates to: differences, opportunities, positives, shapes

Résumé bullet points:

• Accentuated company’s strategic objectives in the design and writing of annual report, which won an award from the PR Association

(1) admit; agree; believe; consent; say you will

(2) receive with gladness and approval

(3) take something being offered

(4) bow to; endure; put up with; resign yourself to; tolerate

Résumé bullet points:

• Accepted into the industry’s certification committee in only my seventh year in the business, which impacted the field

(1) achieve; attain; bring about; carry out; cause to happen; complete; do; gain; get done; finish; fulfill; make happen; make possible; produce; pull off; reach; realize; undertake

Collocates to: goals, job, mission, objectives strategy, tactics, task, work

Résumé bullet points:

• Accomplished all major objectives of firm’s highly touted HR program, “The Extra Mile”

• Accomplished all new project objectives of a major plant relocation, coming in 10 percent under budget, two months ahead of schedule, and without any loss of productivity

(1) approve; attribute; authorize; credit to; endorse; recognize; sanction

(2) certify; supply with credentials or authority

Collocates to: councils, hospitals, institutions, investors, programs, schools, training

Résumé bullet points:

• Accredited by the Promotion Marketing Association in 2012

(1) admit; allow; avow; concede; confess; fess up; grant; own up; recognize

(2) answer; react; reply; respond; return

(3) greet; nod to; salute; wave to

Collocates to: existence, contribution, fact, failure issue, need, problem, reality, support

Résumé bullet points:

• Acknowledged by industry association as one of the field’s Top 50 thought leaders

(1) accept; agree; assent; consent; comply with passively; concur; concede; consent; give in; go along with; submit; yield

(1) The union acquiesced, and the company switched pension plan from a defined benefit to a 401(k) plan, saving hundreds of millions of dollars in future benefit liabilities.

Résumé bullet points:

• Acquiesced to consumer input and led firm’s redesign and remarketing of digital action hero toy, keeping a multimillion dollar revenue stream alive

(1) Jorge adduced that the product’s failure was due to poor engineering..

Résumé bullet points:

• Adduced the main reasons for the firm’s drop in market share for the Board of Directors, providing direction for the strategic planning committee

(1) act as judge; listen; mediate; preside over argument; settle

(1) The Labor Relations Board adjudicated the dismissed employee’s case.

Collocates to: cases, disputes, infractions, nexus, quarrels

Résumé bullet points:

• Adjudicated disputes between nonunion workers, improving worker morale and productivity

(1) accommodate; alter; amend; attune; bend; change; correct; fine-tune; fix; modify; pacify; rectify; regulate; resolve; settle; tune up; tweak

Collocates to: compensate, ideas, models, standards, themes, work

Résumé bullet points:

• Adjusted all company revenues projections using the NPV model, producing a more accurate determination of actual needs and reducing the money borrowed by 20 percent

(1) control; deal out; direct; dispense; furnish a benefit; give out; govern; hand out; manage; mete out; order; run; supervise; oversee a process

(1) Surveys administered after the customer focus groups showed a high level of satisfaction.

Collocates to: contracts, exams, plans, polices, programs, projects, tests

Résumé bullet points:

• Administered the first in-house “English as a second language” training program assisting hundreds of immigrant workers in learning English faster

(1) accept; agree to; assume; approve; choose; embrace; endorse; espouse; foster; implement; take in as one’s own; take on; take up; take on board

Collocates to: approaches, concepts, ideas, plans, policies, procedures, processes, regulations, resolutions, rules, standards, strategies, systems, tactics

Résumé bullet points:

• Adopted new work rules, which provided greater efficiency and improved productivity, thus lowering production costs

(1) acknowledge; affirm; announce; assert; asseverate; avow; confirm; establish; insist; pronounce; state; validate; verify

(2) encourage; sustain; support; uphold

Collocates to: beliefs, commitments, conviction, faith, importance, rights, rulings, strategy, values

Résumé bullet points:

• Affirmed the rights of our customers to return items without receipts, thus improving customer satisfaction as reported on monthly surveys

(1) accord; affirm; concur; consent; get together; grant; harmonize; jibe; match; say yes; square

Résumé bullet points:

• Agreed to serve as a mentor for new hires, helping speed up learning curve

Résumé bullet points:

• Aided new hires in understanding the nuances of a highly regulated business, reducing possibility of costly errors

(1) I altered the Product Innovation Charter to include the goals we had set for the new product.

Résumé bullet points:

• Altered long-standing misconceptions regarding the acceptance of commercial mail, enabling a refocus on medium and growth of sales by 40 percent

(1) correct a mistake; improve; make better; tolerate

(2) correct a deficiency or defect; make right a wrong; take action that makes up for one’s negative or improper actions

(1), (2) The antiquated inventory system must be ameliorated.

Collocates to: difficulties, problems, shortcomings

Résumé bullet points:

• Ameliorated the firm’s prior disposal procedures and gained wide acceptance by consumer groups

Résumé bullet points:

• Appointed as first nondirector to organization’s strategic planning committee, adding diversity to decision making

• Appointed to liaison with global investor groups

(1) accept; agree to; attest; back up; command; commend; endorse; favor; praise; ratify; sanction; support

(1) Of the five new company products approved by the FDA, four were done by project management teams that I managed.

(2) allow; authorize; consent; grant; pass; sanction

Collocates to: budgets, deals, plans, ideas, new policies and procedures, requests

Résumé bullet points:

• Approved the requests for continuing education assistance

(1) array; authorize; catalogue; classify; fix; order; organize; position; set up, sort

(2) make plans for something to be done

Collocates to: alphabetically, ascending, carefully, chronologically, descending, haphazardly, hierarchically, symmetrically

Résumé bullet points:

• Arranged the company’s workspace to include shared offices and resources, resulting in improvements of 20 percent productivity

(1) determine; discover; establish; find out; learn; realize; uncover

(2) find out with certainty

Résumé bullet points:

• Ascertained that the firm’s international vendors were adding discretionary fees in favorable currencies to them, which increased our annual costs by 8 percent

(1) accredit; arrogate; assert that something has been caused by someone or something; attribute something to someone

Collates to: ideas, meaning, powers, tendencies, traits, values

Résumé bullet points:

• Ascribed the differences in speed to completion and subsequent cost savings to prototyping

(1) allocate; allot; choose; consign; dispense; dole out; give; hand over; pick; select; transfer

(2) appoint; delegate; designate; detail; name

Résumé bullet points:

• Assigned to the organization’s new product development committee

(1) confirm; endorse; serve to prove; substantiate; validate

Résumé bullet points:

• Authenticated the proof of consumer claims on main product line, reducing potential costs of overpayment by $2 million

Résumé bullet points:

• Authorized all department purchases, totaling $13 million in 2012

(1) assess; calculate; collate; compare; consider; evaluate; even out; equalize; keep upright; offset; settle; square; stabilize; stay poised; steady; tally; total; weigh; weight up

Collocates to: amendments, approach, budgets, life plan, view

Résumé bullet points:

• Balanced the organization’s budget five consecutive years, thus creating incentive for improved donations

(2) actuate; arise; commence; come into being; generate; inaugurate; initiate; originate; usher in

(3) have a first part

Collocates to: carriers, holidays plans, studies, journeys

Résumé bullet points:

• Began all the sales meetings with motivational stories of individual success

(1) I blue penciled the business plan submitted by the consultant.

(1) construct; erect; put up; raise; rear

(2) grow; improve; increase

Résumé bullet points:

• Built the company’s very first production prototype by employing 3D printing technology

• Built new business from start-to profitability in 19 months

(1) account; coax; compute; consider; deem; determine something; entice; enumerate; figure; persuade

Résumé bullet points:

• Calculated the firm’s annual cost of technology, allowing for more accurate annual budgeting

Résumé bullet points:

• Cataloged the 50-year history of customer suggestions into a searchable database of product improvement opportunities

Résumé bullet points:

• Chaired the firm’s investment committee that picked an investment portfolio that outperformed the DOW by 10 percent

(1) advocate; back; be a winner; campaign for; crusade for; excel; fight for; stand up for; support; uphold

Collocates to: approaches, causes, freedom, ideas, issues, reforms, values

Résumé bullet points:

• Championed the concept for an in-house day care center

(1) come together as one; combine; grow together; join; unite

Résumé bullet points:

• Coalesced more than 100 diverse stakeholders into an effective, efficient company asset

(1) choate; complete; conclude; be done; entire; finish a task intact; integral; perfect; through; unabridged; uncut; whole; wrap up

Résumé bullet points:

• Completed all requirements for 2012 annual evaluation by the second quarter

(1) create; envisage; imagine; invent original idea; picture; visualize

(2) begin life; dream; elaborate; form; make up

Résumé bullet points:

• Conceived the firm’s first social media strategy that extended the brand globally

(1) Exuding confidence and showing enthusiasm are often construed as signs of high intelligence.

(1) characterize; classify; describe; determine or set down boundaries; distinguish; identify; label; term

(2) circumscribe; delimitate; delimit; demarcate; mark out

Résumé bullet points:

• Defined the priorities for the board’s strategic planning committee

(1) describe accurately; determine; draw an outline; fix boundaries; identify or indicate by marking with precision; represent something

Collocates to: areas, boundaries, differences, factors, structure

Résumé bullet points:

• Delineated the scope of internal audits for the division, making them more efficient and effective

(1) describe; get a picture of; give a picture of; illustrate; picture in words; portray; present a lifelike image; represent; show

Résumé bullet points:

• Depicted the surging top competitor as a wannabe and thus lifted the sales team morale so they could redouble their efforts

(2) allocate; indicate; point out; specify

Résumé bullet points:

• Designated the locations for the firm’s annual franchise television advertising promotion

(1) allocate; allot; appropriate; assign; reserve for special purpose; set aside

(2) mark the ears of livestock for special identification

(3) set a distinctive mark on

Collocates to: money, processes, spending

Résumé bullet points:

• Earmarked the department’s cost savings for individual bonuses

(1) alter; correct; revise and make ready

(2) prepare a written work for publication by selection, arrangement, and annotation

(3) make additions, deletions, or other changes

Résumé bullet points:

• Edited the company’s customer newsletter, which was a tool that enhanced retention and improved renewal rates

(1) clarify; explain; make something clear; explicate; expose; expound; illuminate; lucid; reveal; throw light on it

(1) The impact on the new pricing policy has not been fully elucidated.

(1) allow; authorize; give authority or power to; sanction

(2) make one stronger and more confident, especially in controlling his life and claiming his rights

(1), (2) Our shareholders came away from the annual meeting feeling more empowered.

Résumé bullet points:

• Empowered my customer service staff with authority and responsibility, improving department productivity by 20 percent

(2) sign on the back of a check

(3) give sanction to an idea, plan, proposal, or candidate

(1) Our new product was endorsed by the largest consumer protection organization in the United States.

Résumé bullet points:

• Endorsed the employee benefits committee recommendation to include substance abuse in the employee medical benefit package

(2) give force to; urge

(3) bring about or impose by force; compel observance of

Résumé bullet points

• Enforced the department’s ethics policies

(1) follow; guarantee; make certain; make sure

(2) make safe; secure; protect

Résumé bullet points:

• Ensured all hiring managers complied with federal EEOC regulations

• Ensured the accuracy and completeness of field training manuals

(2) determine the number of; total

(3) name one by one; specify

Résumé bullet points:

• Enumerated the benefits of expanding operations globally to the Board of Directors

Résumé bullet points:

• Espoused zero tolerance for digital bullying

(1) begin; create; enact; ensconce; found; install; institute; prove; set up; settle; start

(2) make firm; make stable

(3) bring about; cause to happen

(4) settle in an office or position

(5) cause to accept or recognize; set up permanently

(6) demonstrate; prove

Résumé bullet points:

• Established the first social media center for the company, providing a unified center for social media policy

• Established software simulation and modeling methods to assist marketing in determining that a customer’s “voice” procedure is now standard operating procedure (SOP)

(1) beat; go beyond; be more or greater than; outdo; surpass what was expected or thought possible

Résumé bullet points

• Exceeded the firm’s record for retaining existing customers by 50 percent, helping to achieve record profits for the firm

(2) move ahead steadily

(3) counterfeit; copy; falsify; fake

(4) build; create; fashion; form

Résumé bullet points:

• Forged the first joint venture with the firm’s vendors and our manufacturing operations

• Forged alliances with customer advocacy groups to create the industries’ best record for service for six consecutive years (2006–2012)

Résumé bullet points:

• Formulated a new multichannel marketing strategy that delivered a 40 percent increase in profits in the first year

• Formulated the firm’s mission and vision statements, helping to solidify the brand

(1) carry out; complete an assignment; discharge; execute; exercise; implement; perform; satisfy

Résumé bullet points:

• Fulfilled all requirements for industry’s top certification in shortest time by any employee

(2) draw a conclusion

Résumé bullet points:

• Gathered the daily cash register receipts, floor manger notes, and customer suggestions and created a custom activity report for store manager

Résumé bullet points:

• Generated a 30 percent increase in sales in first year of the new position

• Generated $15 million annual savings by revamping and accelerating productivity growth by developing more private branding

(1) create; encourage; produce; increase

(1) We were ginned up about the positive reviews of the new product tests.

(2) escort; lead; pilot; route; surround; show; steer; supervise; usher

Résumé bullet points:

• Guided the firm’s successful winning application for the 2012 National Productivity Award

(1) carry out; come to grips with; conduct; control; cope with; deal with; have overall influence; hold responsible; manage; manipulate; ply; process; run; see to; sort out; supervise; undertake; wield

(2) feel; finger; hold; manage with the hands; touch

Résumé bullet points:

• Handled all social and civic relationships for the firm creating a win-win situation for the community and the firm

• Handled all competitive SWOT analysis and strategic planning for a product line that represented $49 million, or 20 percent of total sales

(1) accomplish; apply; carry out; complete; effect; employ; enforce; execute; fulfill; finish; instigate; put into action; put into operation; put into place; use; put into practice; put into service; realize

Collocates to: education, programs, regulations, rules, training, styles, transactions

Résumé bullet points:

• Implemented a social media strategy that gave the company an opportunity to join in the public conversation about outsourcing and thereby help shape the public opinion

• Implemented the firm’s diversity recruiting and hiring plan that resulted in a more richly diverse pool of workers

(1) “America has its origins in a rebellion against arbitrary and pernicious taxation and the framers wanted to make it extremely difficult to impose or raise taxes.”

—David Gelernter, Wall Street Journal, Opinion, 07/02/2012

Résumé bullet points:

• Imposed work rules and merit bonuses on underperforming business units

(1) ameliorate; amend; better; build up; develop; employ; enhance in value; enrich; expand; further; help; get better; increase; make better; meliorate; perfect; raise to a better quality; upgrade use

(2) convalesce; get better; get stronger; get well; make progress; mend; perk up; rally; recover

Collocates to: abilities, efficiency, output, performance, profits, quality, results, sales, skills, timing

Résumé bullet points:

• Improved retention rates by 20 percent and improved the firm’s profits by 8 percent

• Improved production output of new-to-the-world products by 15 percent by employing CAD technology

(1) accredit; ascribe a result or quality to anything or anyone; assign; attribute; fix

(1) The database of prospects from this zip code imputed certain economic demographic characteristics.

(2) accuse; allege; assert; challenge; charge; cite; implicate

Collocates to: datasets, omniscience, sanctification

(1) add to; amplify; augment; boost; enhance; enlarge; improve; multiply; raise; swell

(2) encourage; foster; fuel; intensify; redouble; strengthen

(3) escalate; expand; grow; multiply; mushroom; proliferate; rise; soar; spread; swell

Résumé bullet points:

• Increased department’s share of firm’s profit from 20 percent to 40 percent in three years

• Increased the number of turn-key vendor relationships, which improved our just-in-time inventory operation and saved the firm $1million a year in downtime and labor costs

(1) imbue; inculcate; ingrain; inspire; instill; introduce

(2) teach a body of knowledge or perspective

(2) My extensive teaching skills along with my management approach infused a more enthusiastic outlook of the hourly workers and lead to a 22 percent reduction in missed days.

(3) fill; permeate; pervade; suffuse

Résumé bullet points:

• Infused a sense of pride and self-respect into a demoralized sales team; in one year, they won the national sales contest

Résumé bullet points:

• Instituted the firm’s first diversity awareness training program, helping to reduce discrimination claims by 25 percent

• Instituted a global cross-functional team culture that provided a foundation for quicker, more efficient, and more profitable product launches

(1) arbitrate; be aggressive; insert; intercept; interfere; intermediate; meddle; mediate; offer assistance or presence; offer unsolicited opinion; put between

Collocates to: arbitration, between, intermediation, mediation, rules

Résumé bullet points:

• Interposed an additional barrier between the host and the clients

(1) The older, more dispirited employees were the ones most invigorated by the message of the new president.

Résumé bullet points:

• Invigorated the organization’s diversity outreach with a series of lectures, offsite visits, and cooperative ventures with diversity-owned businesses

(1) acclaim; applaud; celebrate; extol; mention; praise; speak well of

(1) The sales team should be lauded for its new sales record.

Collocates to: critics, efforts, ideas, plans, officials, leaders, others, vision, work

Résumé bullet points:

• Lauded by the media for innovative approaches to customer safety initiatives

Résumé bullet points:

• Leveraged the product portfolio to enable the firm to maximize its 2012 sales

• Leveraged the diverse skills and abilities of the intradepartmental project management team and managed a blockbuster new product that exceeded revenues of all previous new products by 50 percent

(1) make as great or as large as possible; make best use of; raise to the highest possible degree

Résumé bullet points:

• Maximized the resource allocation so that department achieved record sales while trimming costs by 20 percent

• Maximized the advertising budget by more careful selection of target media, thus increasing revenues by 10 percent while holding cost to prior year

Résumé bullet points:

• Mediated the dispute between fair hours for the 100 full-time staff and 200 part-time workers

(1) My work meliorated an already sound and effective strategy.

(1) My training manual militated our effort to get the new reps productive sooner.

(1) I nailed down the labor contract in record time.

(1) combine and adapt to obtain a particular outcome

(2) arrange or organize surreptitiously to achieve a desired effect

Résumé bullet points:

• Orchestrated the firm’s sales growth that allowed it to achieve industry leadership

• Orchestrated the firm’s successful entry into global markets

(2) begin; come from; derive; start; stem from

Résumé bullet points:

• Originated the advertising concept “Make a Need a Reality,” the most successful ad campaign in the firm’s history

Résumé bullet points:

• Outperformed 400 salespersons in the 2012 national sales contest

(1) administer; control; direct; keep an eye on; manage; run; supervise

Résumé bullet points:

• Oversaw the mergers and acquisition activities, which added $5 million to the bottom line

(2) present entertainment to an audience

Résumé bullet points:

• Performed as marketing liaison for clients of agency, providing added value

• Performed client interviews, researched information, and drafted affidavits, briefs, and contracts

(1) assume; conceive; conjecture; hypothesize; imagine; postulate; put forward; speculate; suggest; state or assume as fact; theorize

Collocates to: beliefs, concepts, idea, models, relationships, studies, theories

(1) A boycott of the firm’s products precipitated rigorous cost-cutting measures.

Collocates to: laws, policies, procedures, programs, regulations, rules, schedules

Résumé bullet points:

• Preempted what would have been expensive and punitive action by the FTC by writing self-regulatory practices that the industry adopted

(1) The CEO rationalized the staff reductions by describing the corporation’s value to customers.

(2) interpret on the basis of some explainable reason

(3) make actions conform to reason

(1) amend; correct; fix; put right; resolve; set right

(2) adjust; cure; mend; remedy; repair

(3) convert

Résumé bullet points:

• Rectified long-standing imbalance between some sales territories and quotes, providing a more realistic policy and giving salespeople more incentive

(1) abet; authorize; confirm; countenance; give official permission; ratify; permit

(2) impose penalty

(2) The Federal Communications Commission sanctioned the firm for violations of the Do Not Call rule.

(1) push along or through, with, or the shoulder

(2) take or carry upon the shoulder

(3) assume the burden of

Collocates to: broad, burden, heavy, responsibilities, tall

Résumé bullet points:

• Shouldered the responsibilities of two senior-level programmers for 18 months and maintained the department’s commitment to its customers not to miss a single deadline

(2) change the personality or character of one

(3) change the condition, nature, or function of

Résumé bullet points:

• Transformed an outdated, unproductive fulfillment center into the industry’s leading center in 20 months

(1) clean; cleanse; purge; wipe away

(1) One good quarterly report has not absterged the concern of investors.

(1) accent; emphasize; heighten; intensify

(1) My branding plan accentuated the product’s unique benefits in a way that more people could relate.

(2) make more noticeable; play up; stress something

Collocates to: differences, opportunities, positives, shapes

Résumé bullet points:

• Accentuated company’s technological leadership in the application for the Five Star Award

(1) achieve; attain; bring about; carry out; cause to happen; complete; do; gain; get done; finish; fulfill; make happen; make possible; produce; pull off; reach; realize; undertake

Résumé bullet points:

• Accomplished the five-year logistics reorganization plan in four years, saving $300,000 in investment costs

• Accomplished all objectives of the new media implementation plan

(1) correct a mistake; improve; make better; tolerate

(2) correct a deficiency or defect; make right a wrong; take action that makes up for one’s negative or improper actions

Résumé bullet points:

• Ameliorated years of serious customer service failures by better recruiting and hiring, quality training, and a results-based compensation plan

(1) determine; discover; establish; find out; learn; realize; uncover

(2) find out with certainty

(1), (2) I ascertained the extent of the high levels of product failure and determined its cause and devised a cost effective solution.

Collocates to: attempt, degree, desire, difficulty, extent, facts, need, order, sequence, truth

Résumé bullet points:

• Ascertained the long-term impact on market share of reducing advertising, which led to the decision to continue the advertising campaign

(1) accredit; arrogate; assert that something has been caused by someone or something; attribute something to someone

(1) The increase in global sales is ascribed to the general economic recovery.

Collocates to: attributes, belief, characteristics, feeling, meaning, phenomenon, qualities, traits, value, view

Résumé bullet points:

• Ascribed a purely political motive to FDC sanctioning of firm’s mining practices

(1) allocate; allot; choose; consign; dispense; dole out; give; hand over; pick; select; transfer

(2) appoint; delegate; designate; detail; name

Résumé bullet points:

• Assigned the responsibility to meet and greet dignitaries and escort them to company events

• Assigned cross-discipline individuals to project management teams

(1) confirm; endorse; serve to prove; substantiate; validate

Résumé bullet points:

• Authenticated $50 million of customer claims of financial loss due to firm’s investment advice

(1) characterize; classify; describe; determine or set boundaries; distinguish; identify; label; term

(2) circumscribe; delimitate; delimit; demarcate; mark out

Résumé bullet points:

• Defined the parameters of the firm’s adoption of a value chain strategy

(1) allocate; allot; appropriate; assign; reserve for special purpose; set aside

(2) mark the ears of livestock for special identification

Collocates to: assets, funds, money, process, projects, reforms, requests, spending

Résumé bullet points:

• Earmarked donations for appropriate causes, ensuring continued flow of funds

(1) bring about; cause or accomplish something; effect

(1) The positive change in company morale was effectuated by strong investor interest.

Collocates to: change, goals, intent, necessity, plans, policy, purpose, resources, standards

(1) clarify; explain; explicate; expose; expound; illuminate; lucid; make something clear; reveal; throw light on

(1) I was able to elucidate the results and findings of the complex research study and make them clear to the Board of Directors.

Collocates to: help, needs, research

(1) follow; guarantee; make certain; make sure

(2) make safe; protect; secure

Résumé bullet points

• Ensured that all staff were given proper training in social media techniques

• Ensured accurate, timely delivery of customer orders

• Ensured that firm maintained competitive edge in marketplace by conducting continual customer satisfaction research

(1) accredit; ascribe a result or quality to anything or anyone; assign; attribute; fix

(2) accuse; allege; assert; challenge; charge; cite; implicate

(2) The accreditation committee imputed the school’s graduation rates.

Collocates to: costs, date, datasets, income, policy, regulations, value

(1) abet; authorize; confirm; countenance; give official permission; permit; ratify

(2) impose penalty

(2) The firm’s in-house counsel was sanctioned by the American Bar Association.

(1) analyze; at hand; available; consider; explain to know the state of or whereabouts of something or someone

Résumé bullet points:

• Accounted for 25 percent of new hires

Résumé bullet points:

• Assembled project team in one week, a team that achieved two breakthrough projects in 2012

Résumé bullet points:

• Attended all meetings of the Board of Directors as the employee liaison

(2) plan events and activities for certain times

Résumé bullet points:

• Scheduled all the president’s visits with global stakeholders

• Scheduled fulfillment of all mail orders and managed customer return issues

(1) release repressed emotions by acting out in words or behavior based one’s imagination of the situation

(1) The negotiations had reached such a hostile tone that everyone was surprised and relieved when the firm’s chief negotiator abreached decorum and stood on the conference table and sang.

(1) accomplish; attain; complete; conclude; do; finish; get; perform; pull off; reach; realize

(2) succeed in doing something

Résumé bullet points:

• Achieved the firm’s first industry productivity award in 2011

(1) accept; agree; assent; comply with passively; concede; concur; consent; give in; go along with; submit; yield

(1) It was an important sign of personal growth for Joe to acquiesce to a plan to which he originally did not agree.

Collocates to: agree, accept, compelled, expect, forced, should, would

Résumé bullet points:

• Acquiesced to new owners to save more jobs

(1) The ability to adapt to change is an important characteristic that employers look for in applicants.

(2) make fit, often by modification

(3) cause something to change for the better

Résumé bullet points:

• Adapted to change in a highly volatile business environment with grace and professionalism

Résumé bullet points:

• Averred all technological claims in firm’s marketing and promotional materials

(1) It’s free seating at the concert, so we need to get there early to chope seats for our group.

(1) My staff was always the group that comported to department dress codes.

(1) The graphics of the advertisement coruscated through my mind.

(1) advise; deliberate; inform

Résumé bullet points:

• Counseled new hires on company guidelines regarding branding issues

(1) My white paper disabused the critic’s assertion that our products were unsafe.

(1) “I exhort you also to take part in the great combat, which is the combat of life, and greater than every other earthly combat.”

—Plato

Résumé bullet points:

• Meliorated the interdepartmental disagreements between sales and customer service, thus reducing a major factor in employee turnover and low morale

(1) My comments on the new policy mollified the employees who saw it as a negative.

Résumé bullet points:

• Mollified the most vitriolic of consumers who had waited in line for days for the product

(1) “Victory belongs to the most persevering.”

—Napoleon

Résumé bullet points:

• Preserved the firm’s ten-year record of double-digit sales growth by completing the IBM sale three months ahead of forecast

(1) favor; gain approval; like best; placate; win over

(1) We propitiated stakeholders by keeping them informed about key decisions.

Collocates to: decision makers, directors, leaders, managers, people, stakeholders

{also use in Design Mind-Set, and HARD SKILLS: Accounting and Finance}

(1) sagacious; work toward a solution through logical thinking and reason

(1) My ratiocinated approach helped a previously divided staff to accept the new policy as beneficial to the health of the firm and to their job security.

(1) This ingenious marketing plan recrudesced this slumbering organization.

(1) Some would say he was wily or even devious, but David seagulled and always benefited from the success of others.

(2) bring to a desired consistency, texture, or hardness by a process of gradual heating and cooling

(1), (2) “We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans—born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage, and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.”

—John F. Kennedy, Presidential Inaugural Address, Washington, D.C., January 19, 1961

(2) look upon with feelings of deep respect; regard as venerable

(1), (2) He was and is greatly venerated in the health care field.

(2) wear or select accessories

(1), (2) The way she accessorized herself indicated she had vast knowledge of fashion.

(1) The graduate students were adorned with the new blazers and scarves.

(1) We were bedazzled by the appearance, technology, and presentation of the sponsor.

(1) The salesmen were bedecked with company blazers, fedoras, and leather briefcases.

(1) Tom looked dashing in his tux; he cleaned up well for the board reception, having come off an oil rig just three hours ago.

(1) The student choir incandesced in their beautiful robes with the special back lighting.

(1) In the future, archeologists won’t have to interpret cave paintings because they will have our history, which we life streamed by digital audio and graphic recordings of daily activities from the mundane to really significant human activities of our time.

(1) John masked his lack of self-confidence by playing the clown figure.

(1) The audience ogled the panel of models.

(1) A job applicant showing up for an interview overdressed can be a problem.

(1) He preened before every presentation because he knew the importance of the visual package.

(1) He suited up in preparation for the event.

(1) If she had not titivated, she would not have felt as confident for the presentation.

(2) be fully supplied; be plentiful; be rich and abundant; have plenty of; proliferate

Collocated to: concerns, ideas, opportunities, problems, questions, signs, theories, thoughts

(1) acquire; assimilate; attract; consume; digest; endure; engulf; fascinate; imbibe; soak up; sustain; take in; use up

(2) draw into oneself; grasp; realize; recognize; take in; understand

(3) become captivated, interested, engaged, or preoccupied in; fascinated

Résumé bullet points:

• Absorbed two underperforming units into my department and still met all yearly objectives

(1) accent; emphasize; heighten; intensify

(2) make more noticeable; play up; stress something

Résumé bullet points:

• Accentuated the firm’s civic accomplishments in all PR activities

Résumé bullet points:

• Acclimated to the new corporate culture following the merger and won accolades from new management

(1) achieve; attain; bring about; carry out; cause to happen; complete; do; gain; get done; finish; fulfill; make happen; make possible; produce; pull off; reach; realize; undertake

Résumé bullet points:

• Accomplished the most difficult parts of the industry certification while managing two departments

• Accomplished all assignments on time and within budget guidelines

(1) be responsible for; get the credit or blame for

(2) analyze; at hand; available; consider; explain

(3) know the state of or whereabouts of something or someone

Résumé bullet points:

• Accounted for 20 percent of new sales for the division in 2012

• Accounted for all employees in the aftermath of the 2006 earthquake

(1) approve; attribute; authorize; give credit to; endorse; recognize; sanction

(1) The program was accredited by the appropriate professional bodies.

(2) certify; supply with credentials or authority

Collocates to: colleges; courses, education, fully; ideas, institutions, programs, schools

(2) act out; appear in; feign; impersonate; mock; perform; play in; pretend; simulate

Résumé bullet points:

• Acted on all customer complaints within 24 hours

(1) make real or actual; realize

(2) fulfill the potential of

Résumé bullet points:

• Actualized virtual transactions, giving customers a human contact

(1) activate; arouse to action; motivate; put into motion; start; trigger

Résumé bullet points:

• Actuated the industry’s first global fraud alert system, helping firms reduce their losses due to fraud by millions of dollars a year

(1) acclimate; accommodate; adjust; change; conform; fashion; fit; get used to; make suitable; reconcile; square; suit; tailor

(2) make fit, often by modification

(3) cause something to change for the better

Résumé bullet points:

• Adapted the CAD technology to firm and improved assembly line productivity by 33 percent

(1) direct one’s attention to; discourse; lecture; remark; speak directly to; talk to

(2) deliver; direct; dispatch; forward; mark with a destination; refer

(3) adopt; attend to; concentrate on; deal with; focus on; take up

Résumé bullet points:

• Addressed every employee complaint within two days

(1) acknowledge; affirm; announce; assert; asseverate; avow; confirm; establish; insist; pronounce; state; validate; verify

(2) encourage; support; sustain; uphold

Résumé bullet points:

• Affirmed the firm’s First Amendment rights of commercial free speech in congressional hearings

(1) ally; adjust; bring oneself into agreement with; correct; level; parallel; straighten

(2) arrange something in reference with something else

Résumé bullet points:

• Aligned personal goals and objectives with those of the corporation

(1) correct a mistake; improve; make better; tolerate

(2) correct a deficiency or defect; make right a wrong; take action that makes up for one’s negative or improper actions

Collocates to: conditions, effects, efforts, problems, situations, symptoms

(1) consider; dissect; evaluate; examine; explore; interpret; investigate; probe; question; scrutinize; study

Résumé bullet points:

• Analyzed firm’s results and proposed loss prevention plan that saved $280,000 in the first year of implementation

(2) find out with certainty

(1), (2) My research ascertained the sources responsible for theft of company intellectual property worth $17 million.

Résumé bullet points:

• Ascertained the most accurate cost of an industrial sales call, since McGraw Hill stopped publishing the data in the 1980s, thus providing a more accurate figure of the cost of sales

(1) accredit; arrogate; attribute something to someone; assert that something has been caused by someone or something

(1) Many of the health benefits ascribed to the product were proven by my research.

Collocates to: attributes, meaning, motives, powers, tendencies, traits, qualities, values

(1) assert; aver; avouch; avow; declare earnestly or solemnly; hold; maintain

(1) He asseverated that the mistakes in the report would be corrected.

(1) The drop in revenue was attributed to marketplace confusion regarding replacement parts.

(1) appraise; assess; check; count; examine; inspect; review; verify the accounting records of

Résumé bullet points:

• Audited the company’s books and filed all tax forms

Résumé bullet points:

• Authenticated all digital coupons sent in by vendors valued at $45 thousand

(1) affirm; assert the truthfulness of something; avow; claim; declare; maintain; profess; state; swear

Résumé bullet points:

• Averred all technological claims in firm’s marketing and promotional materials

(1) assess; calculate; collate; compare; consider; evaluate; even out; equalize; keep upright; offset; settle; square; stabilize; stay poised; steady; tally; total; weigh; weight up

(1) My management style balanced the financial needs of the firm and the human needs of the employees.

Résumé bullet points:

• Balanced personal and work goals with effective time and organizational management skills

(1) The rock crusher was battle tested in severe weather conditions.

(1) commence; identify and learn from the best business practices; level point of reference; standard; target

Résumé bullet points:

• Benchmarked a dozen new marketing measurements that provided previously unused method to determine effectiveness

• Benchmarked specifications for systems implementation

(1) I personally blue penciled the construction plans.

(1) When the CEO got involved with Web content, he didn’t just edit it; he bowdlerized it.

Résumé bullet points:

• Calenderized every industry conference and seminar so employees could identify and select the events that suited their schedules, thus saving hundreds of man-hours

Résumé bullet points:

• Calibrated all the firm’s purchases of used lab equipment following ISO 17025 standards

(1) assort; classify; separate

Résumé bullet points:

• Categorized all the products into their appropriate NAICs categories

(1) consolidate; bring power of something to the central organization

Résumé bullet points:

• Centralized the functions of 11 regional sales offices, streamlining reporting functions

(1) assure; attest; confirm; testify; verify; vouch; witness

Résumé bullet points:

• Certified the inspection work of the quality control team

(1) Because we had first choice, we were able to cherry-pick the best interns.

Résumé bullet points:

• Cited as “Top Performer” in Best 100 Systems Analysts in trade journal

(1) arrange; assort; catalog; categorize; class; distribute to groups; grade; group; list by some order or sequence; organize; sort

Résumé bullet points:

• Classified the firm’s 17,000 products into industry categories, making reorder, fulfillment, and shipping more efficient and less expensive

(1) integrate; link together; unite or join in a series or chain

(1) The volunteers concatenated to form an old-fashioned bucket brigade to fight the fire.

(1) bring together; combine; direct; harmonize; manage; match up; organize; synchronize; work together

Résumé bullet points:

• Coordinated complex, multinational research projects for global research department

• Coordinated the translation of all company PR, branding, and marketing materials from English to Spanish

(1) associate; calculate or show the reciprocal relation between; come together; bring into mutual relation; correspond; parallel

(1) The survey data indicated that the two factors were strongly correlated.

(1) My report corroborated the initial results of the Board Ethics Committee.

Collocates to: allegations, details, evidence, findings, information, observations, results, rumors, stories

(1) assume from observations; conclude from evidence; conjecture; figure out; hypothesize; infer; presume; posit; reason; suppose; surmise; suspect; work out

(1) The consulting team deduced from its observations that the firm needed to build brand.

(2) trace the course of deviation

(1) characterize; classify; describe; determine or set down boundaries; distinguish; identify; label; term

(2) circumscribe; delimit; delimitate; demarcate; mark out

Résumé bullet points:

• Defined the levels of experience and skill set necessary for all job openings

(1) define; demarcate; determine; fix boundaries; restrict; set limits; state clearly

(1) The research was delimited to ensure that no data was gathered on children under 13 years of age.

(1) describe accurately; determine; draw an outline; identify or indicate by marking with precision; fix boundaries; represent something

Résumé bullet points:

• Delineated the limits of expense account approvals for managers

Résumé bullet points:

• Demarcated a transaction boundary to define a unit of work

(1) The marketing plan detailed the approaches to be taken to reach the new marketplace.

(2) assign; conscript; delegate; designate; order

Résumé bullet points:

• Detailed the funding request for the SBA-backed loan

Collocates to: beliefs, ideas, notions, plans, thoughts, views

(1) allocate; appropriate; assign; allot; set aside; reserve for a special purpose

(2) mark the ears of livestock for special identification

(1), (2) The new funds were earmarked for global expansion.

Résumé bullet points:

• Earmarked the excess of profits over budget for employee bonuses

(1) alter; correct; revise and make ready

(2) prepare a written work for publication by selection, arrangement, and annotation

(3) make additions, deletions, or other changes

Résumé bullet points:

• Edited the company newsletter for eight years

(1) provide knowledge in a particular area

(2) discipline; edify; inform; impart knowledge; instruct; mentor; teach; train; tutor

(3) develop and train the innate capacities of by schooling or education

Résumé bullet points:

• Educated new vendors about the firm’s view of the value chain relationship

(1) come to conclusion; derive; evoke; solve a problem based on thoughtful consideration of facts

(2) deduce; draw out; elicit; infer

(3) bring out or develop; elicit from

Résumé bullet points:

• Focused on managing toward results

(2) categorize; classify; name

(3) ascertain; designate; detect; discover; find; isolate; pinpoint

(4) distinguish; make something stand out; set apart; single out

Résumé bullet points:

• Identified new acquisition targets for the firm, thus enabling the company to become one of the state’s largest businesses

Résumé bullet points:

• Integrated the outside and inside sales teams, reducing duplicative activities, marketplace confusion, and costs

(1) construe; explain; present in understandable terms; represent the terms of individual belief or judgment; tell the meaning of

Résumé bullet points:

• Interpreted the impact of all proposed Federal regulations on the business, giving the strategic planning group advanced planning time and keeping us ahead of the competition

(1) The two products were juxtaposed for the prospect to judge.

Résumé bullet points:

• Methodized asset management and inventory of equipment and software, creating annual cost savings of $400,000

Résumé bullet points:

• Nuanced nonverbal and verbal cues in all speeches to maximize impact

(1) combine and adapt to obtain a particular outcome

(2) arrange or organize surreptitiously to achieve a desired effect

Résumé bullet points:

• Orchestrated the change in strategic direction by emphasizing the market potential in aftermarket products, increasing the company’s profits by 17 percent

(1) continue something; repeat something insistently or over and over again

(1) The subjects in this study perseverated.

Résumé bullet points:

• Pinpointed gaps in marketplace penetration, allowing a more effective and efficient reallocation of resources and retargeting of marketing efforts

Résumé bullet points:

• Prioritized niche market opportunities with research so resources could be more effectively allocated

Résumé bullet points:

• Profiled and segmented existing customers and created prioritized prospect model that reduced the ratio of sales calls to close by 25 percent, saving hundreds of dollars per call

(1) express something in quantifiable terms

(2) explanation provided as a numerical expression

(3) determine or express or explain the quantity of, numerical measure of, or extent of

Résumé bullet points:

• Quantified transferable experience and skills of job applicants into a reliable interview application, identifying the highest potential of success

(1) make arrangements or a plan for carrying out something

(2) plan events and activities for certain times

Résumé bullet points:

• Scheduled all fulfillment, including orders, and managed all customer return issues

Résumé bullet points:

• Synthesized circuits to meet required specifications

(1) add up; chart; count; put facts in a table or column tally; total

Résumé bullet points:

• Tabulated and analyzed data from all customer focus groups

Résumé bullet points:

• Vetted all employees selected for top security clearances

(1) The analysis and interpretation of the survey’s data abduced the Theory of Business.

(1) acquire; assimilate; attract; consume; digest; endure; engulf; fascinate; imbibe; soak up; sustain; take in; use up

(2) draw into oneself; grasp; realize; recognize; take in; understand

(3) become captivated, interested, engaged, or preoccupied in; fascinated

Résumé bullet points:

• Absorbed three unprofitable stores and still made annual sales and profit objectives

(1) detach; draw away from; extract; remove; select; separate; take out

(2) abridge; condense; pre[as]cis; purloin; shorten; take or extract the relevant or important information from; summarize; synopsize

Collocates to: context, data, information, knowledge, manner, social

(1) accent; emphasize; heighten; intensify

(2) play up; make more noticeable; stress something

(3) mark with an accent

Collocates to: differences, figures, negatives, positives, shapes

Résumé bullet points:

• Accentuated differences in product quality

(1) acclimatize; adapt; accustom yourself; adjust; become accustomed to a new environment or situation; familiarize; get used to

(1) accept; agree; assent; comply with passively; concur; concede; consent; give in; go along with; submit; yield

(1) The management team acquiesced and allowed the extra holiday to be a paid day off.

Collocates to: authority, choices, customs, demands; laws, regulations, rules

(1) act as judge; listen; mediate; preside over argument; settle

Résumé bullet points:

• Adjudicated the disputes between staff scientists over the experiment procedures

(1) foreshadow; give a general description of something but not the details; prefigure; obscure; overshadow; predict; presage; summary

(1) She adumbrated the global financial problem based on her years of experience as an international financial consultant.

(1) He alluded to the agreement in his speech.

Résumé bullet points:

• Annotated the literature reviews of research interns

(1) assert; aver; avouch; avow; declare earnestly or solemnly; hold; maintain

(1) He asseverated that the theory of relativity would be confirmed by actual evidence.

(1) abet; collaborate; facilitate; help with

Résumé bullet points:

• Assisted the new product development team with research activities

(1) apease; erase doubts and fears; mollify; pacify; satisfy; soothe

(1) The last holdouts on the Board of Directors were finally assuaged to support the new plant construction by the report on market needs.

(1) out of the box, strategic, long-range thinking; visionary thinking

(1) Once the committee arrived at the retreat, they went into planning groups and blue skied the possibilities of the new product concept.

Résumé bullet points:

• Boosted output of the plant by 20 percent within a year after assuming the duties of plant manager

(1) Our project management team brainstormed the idea and came up with six potential uses.

Résumé bullet points:

• Brainstormed for ways to perform total quality customer service

(1) combine; come together as one; grow together; join; unite

(1) The project management team coalesced around the sponsor’s suggestions.

(1) She cogitated deeply before deciding to take the offer.

(1) assemble or collect to compare; bring together; gather; pool; pull together

Résumé bullet point:

• Collated data obtained from customer surveys into an improvement tracker

(1) interpret something from the abstract; create an understandable point out of a concept

Résumé bullet points:

• Conceptualized the entire security network around Cisco protocol and equipment

(2) deduce; infer; posit

(2) I deducted the solution based on similar variables in other situations.

Résumé bullet points:

• Demystified the capabilities of nanotechnologies

(1) describe; get a picture of; give a picture of; illustrate; picture in words; portray; present a lifelike image; represent; show

Résumé bullet points:

• Developed software to run the firm’s invoicing needs for 2,500 industrial customers

(1) clear; free from entanglements and ties; find solutions to problems; straighten out

(1) Her insights and negotiating skills disentangled the otherwise complicated situation.

(1) educate; enlighten; illuminate; improve; inform; instruct; teach

(2) uplift morally, spiritually, or intellectually

(1), (2) The speaker’s message edified and raised the spirits of everyone in attendance.

(1) come to conclusion; solve a problem based on thoughtful consideration of facts; derive; evoke

(1) It was educed from the analysis of the focus groups that our advertising message was not achieving its goal.

(2) draw out; elicit; infer; deduce

(3) bring out or develop

(1) clarify; explain; explicate; expose; expound; illuminate; lucid; make something clear; reveal; throw light on it

Résumé bullet points:

• Elucidated cloud computing

(1) construct an image; estimate; infer

(2) arrive at conclusion or results by hypothesizing from known facts or observations

(2) The business model was extrapolated from Schumpeter’s work.

(1) We garnered a great deal of information about our competitors from the surveys.

(1) educated guess of some outcome

(1) The researchers hypothesized that there was a connection between consumer loyalty and employee satisfaction.

(1) receive in the mind and retain; soak; steep; take in

(1) Repetition advertising imbibed viewers with slogans, jingles, and themes that were supposed to come into their attention unexpectedly.

(1) He lucubrated by dedicating himself to nearly constant learning.

(1) Disaster was obviated because a risk management plan was in place.

Résumé bullet points:

• Obviated disasters by implementing risk management

(2) observe; remark; see; take in

(3) comprehend; feel; sense; realize

Résumé bullet points:

• Perceived the need for a more accurate and qualitative gap analysis

(1) assume; conceive; conjecture; hypothesize; imagine; postulate; put forward; speculate; suggest; state or assume as fact; theorize

(1) The consultants posited a far different short-term outlook than the board strategic committee.

(1) continue without break; lead into new areas; proceed without interruption; smooth change to next topic

(1) I found a less costly approach that more easily segued the OEM process.

(1) bear; continue; endure; go on being; put up with; stomach; take; tolerate

(2) hold; remain; stand fast; stand for; stay

(3) remain with someone; stay

Collocates to: agreements, conditions, laws, norms, rules; resolutions, wishes

(1) acquire; assimilate; attract; consume; digest; endure; engulf; fascinate; imbibe; sustain; soak up; take in; use up

(2) draw into oneself; grasp; realize; recognize; understand

(3) become captivated, interested, engaged or preoccupied in; fascinated

Résumé bullet points:

• Absorbed 15 percent price increases from vendors and still maintained prices for customers

(1) acclimatize; accustom yourself; adapt; adjust; become accustomed to a new environment or situation; familiarize; get used to

(1) The proper combination of reading and trial and error may be the best approach to get new people acclimated to the rigors of the job.

(1) house; lodge; provide accommodations; put up

(2) adapt; be big enough for; contain; have capacity for; hold; reconcile; seat

(3) do a favor or a service for someone

(4) adjust; become accustomed; familiarize; get used to; make suitable

(5) allow for; assist; be of service; consider; find ways to help; oblige

Résumé bullet points:

• Accommodated diversity input when developing business strategy

(1) make real or actual; realize

(1) The business plan actualized the dream of the entrepreneurs.

(2) fulfill the potential of

(1) acclimate; accommodate; adjust; change; conform; fashion; fit; get used to; make suitable; reconcile; square; suit; tailor

(2) make fit, often by modification

(3) cause something to change for the better

Résumé bullet points:

• Adapted the fleet of delivery trucks to use propane, thus saving $100,000 a year on gasoline

(1) accommodate; alter; amend; attune; bend; change; correct; fine-tune; fix; modify; pacify; regulate; resolve; rectify; settle; tune up; tweak

Résumé bullet points:

• Adjusted to new regulations

Résumé bullet points:

• Anticipated the global slowdown of Rare Earth metals a year and built a stockpile that carried us through until production picked up

(1) be a type of insurance to ensure that the security issue will be purchased

(2) act as a backstop; use as a measure of last resort in case of an emergency

Résumé bullet points

• Backstopped more than $500 million in stock and bond issues

(1) initiative; manage without assistance; succeed with few resources

Résumé bullet points:

• Bootstrapped own start-up company

(1) push back against an aggressive person; stand up against an intrusive, aggressive, or assertive verbal assault

(2) fight back against a bully

(1), (2) Sandra surprised everyone when she bumped the shark and put Jason in his place.

(1) We chopped wood, never quit, and climbed the mountain, and the results showed our effort.

(1) accept life as it happens; act like a man in the face of hardships

(2) accept punishment and defeat with stoic resolve

(1), (2) Ron cowboyed up after letting everyone down and showed his true colors.

(1) identify a group with common demographic or psychographic characteristics and determine how to best make contact with them to deliver a message such as a sales or advertising message

Résumé bullet points:

• Crowd sourced 300,000 prospects by Facebook and Meetup

(1) ascertain; be first to learn something; determine; expose; find out; hear; learn; realize, see, or uncover something

Résumé bullet points:

• Discovered an untapped global demand for used car parts

Résumé bullet points:

• Ferreted out the weak links in our touted value chain approach and kept all key accounts

(1) create; encourage; produce; increase

(1) It is easy to get ginned up about some of the new technology.

(1) It was my pleasure to have greased the skids for such a deserving young person.

(1) The maintenance team jerry-rigged a loading platform to keep the operation going in the emergency.

Collocates to: advantage, for place, position, power, space, with

Résumé bullet points:

• Jump-started Internet start-up by crowd funding

Résumé bullet points:

• Kicked the tires of global merger deals

(1) She pulled the trigger on the controversial plan and showed why she is considered one of the top CEOs in the field.

(2) deal with a difficult person or situation

Résumé bullet points:

• Tackled problems as they arose, not letting situations get worse than when they appeared

(1) advocate; assist; back; back up; encourage; espouse; foment; help incite; put up to; sanction; support; urge (especially in wrongdoing)

(1) We abetted in the decision to go ahead with the controversial design.

(1) bear; continue; endure; go on being; put up with; stomach; take; tolerate

(2) hold; remain; stand fast; stand for; stay

(3) remain with someone

Collocates to: agreements, conditions, laws, norms, rules; resolutions, wishes

(1) acquire; assimilate; attract; consume; digest; endure; engulf; fascinate; imbibe; sustain; soak up; take in; use up

(2) draw into oneself; grasp; realize; recognize; understand

(3) become captivated, interested, engaged, or preoccupied in; fascinate

Résumé bullet points:

• Absorbed underperforming departments and still achieved budget goals

(1) agree; allow; approach; ascend; attain; come to; comply; conform; consent; enter upon; give assent; grant; succeed to; take over

Résumé bullet points:

• Acceded to requests of stakeholders

(1) gather speed; go faster; grow; hurry; increase speed of; pick up the pace; quicken; rush; speed up;

(2) cause to occur sooner

Résumé bullet points:

• Accelerated time-to-market for new products by 20 percent through use of “Breakthrough Project Management” methodology

(1) accent; emphasize; heighten; intensify

(2) make more noticeable; play up; stress something

(1), (2) The decision was accentuated with a round of applause.

(3) mark with an accent

(1) acetify; become active; energize; galvanize; get going; initiate; make active; start; set in motion; set off; stimulate; trigger; turn off

Résumé bullet points:

• Activated stovepipe plans

(1) acclimate; accommodate; adjust; change; conform; fashion; fit; get used to; make suitable; reconcile; square; suit; tailor

(2) make fit, often by modification

(3) cause something to change for the better

Résumé bullet points:

• Adapted the in-house training program to include more emphasis on employees’ civic responsibilities

(1) accept; agree to; assume; approve; choose; embrace; endorse; espouse; foster; implement; take in as one’s own; take on; take on board; take up

Résumé bullet points:

• Adopted only those new technologies that made organization more effective

(1) advance; back; be in favor of; bolster; defend; encourage; promote; sponsor; support

Résumé bullet points:

• Advocated for truth in advertising long before it became a catch phrase

(1) ally; adjust; bring oneself into agreement with; correct; level; parallel; straighten

(2) arrange something in reference with something else

Résumé bullet points:

• Aligned and trained two sales groups, creating more customer contact points

(1) I assuaged the concerns of the staff by sharing with them all the information I had.

(1) act as a backstop; provide last-resort support or security in a securities offering for the unsubscribed portion of shares; use as a measure of last resort in case of an emergency

Résumé bullet points:

• Backstopped 100 percent of $30 million of unsubscribed shares

(1) be the reason for; cause

Résumé bullet points:

• Brought about a passion for quality in every position

Résumé bullet points:

• Campaigned for more customer focus in all operations in every job

(1) bear the main responsibility for something; manage something for others by oneself

Résumé bullet points:

• Carried the water for new product idea

(1) advocate; back; campaign for; crusade for; excel; fight for; stand up for; support; uphold; be a winner

Résumé bullet points:

• Championed development of software simulation and modeling methods to assist marketing in determining that customer’s “voice” procedure is now SOP

(1) come together as one; combine; grow together; join; unite

Résumé bullet points:

• Coalesced previous group of individuals into something more than the sum of the parts

(1) act as a team; assist; cooperate; pool resources; team up; work jointly with; work together

Résumé bullet points:

• Collaborated with hundreds of vendors and suppliers to ensure value chain proposal met all customer needs

(2) fill a future obligation

(3) put an insane or mentally incapable person in charge of another

Résumé bullet points:

• Committed 100 percent effort to every endeavor

(1) be done; choate; conclude; entire; finish a task intact; integral; perfect; through; unabridged; uncut; whole; wrap up

Résumé bullet points:

• Completed twice the organization’s requirement for civic projects annually for five consecutive years

• Completed successful branding repositioning by developing new branding platform, logo, and message points that accurately capture and identity organization’s personality, values, and objectives

Collocates to: brilliantly, herself, himself, themselves, with

Résumé bullet points:

• Comported with professionalism in all business dealings

(1) act together; agree; associate; co-adjudge; collaborate; social capital; work together for a common purpose

Résumé bullet points:

• Cooperated with internal auditors to identify cost savings

(1) develop; encourage; foster; help; nurture; promote; refine; support

(2) tend to; till; work on

Résumé bullet points:

• Cultivated winning attitude on teams managed

(1) build or fit according to individualized specifications

Résumé bullet points:

• Customized in-house training modules

(2) commit; consecrate; surrender

Résumé bullet points:

• Dedicated all efforts to the organization’s mission

(1) allocate; allot; apply; bestow; confer; consecrate; dedicate; hallow; lavish

Résumé bullet points:

• Devoted all personal efforts to accomplishing the organization’s mission

(1) allocate; appropriate; assign; allot; set aside; set aside or reserve for special purpose

(2) mark the ears of livestock for special identification

(3) set a distinctive mark on

Résumé bullet points:

• Earmarked the funds for shareholder dividends

(1) bring about; cause or accomplish something; effect

(1) The new Board of Directors effectuated the rebuilding plan that had been on the table for years.

Collocates to: change, goals, intent, necessity, plans, policy, purpose, resources, standards

(1) produce a written work through lengthy, intensive effort

(1) Years of research and thousands of interviews elucbrated the classic work.

(1) Ronnie emended the year-end report.

(1) become determined not to budge from an opinion or position; circle the wagons; get in defensive position; prepare for bad news or prolonged assault; prepare for siege; protect your boss from outsiders

(1) The campaign committee hunkered down to plan its next strategy.

(1) be steadfast in purpose; continue in some effort or course of action in spite of difficulty or opposition; persist

(1) New businesses start-ups that persevered during the recession should have long-term survivability.

(1) release repressed emotions by acting out in words, behavior, or imagination

(1) He abreacted with an emotional dialogue.

(1) accent; emphasize; heighten; intensify

(2) make more noticeable; play up; stress something

(3) mark with an accent

Résumé bullet points:

• Accentuated the differences between products and the competition

(1) direct one’s attention to; discourse; lecture; speak directly to; remark; talk to

(2) deliver; direct; dispatch; forward; mark with a destination; refer

(3) adopt; attend to; concentrate on; deal with; focus on; take up

Résumé bullet points:

• Addressed long-standing and deep-rooted ineffective system procedures

Résumé bullet points:

• Adduced evidence that networking was the most effective job searching tool

(1) beg; change under oath; renounce under oath; request earnestly

(2) send paid communications through media channels to audiences that are most likely interested in the product, service, idea, or concept to which the advertising is referring

Résumé bullet points:

• Advertised for new employees through peer networks and frequently found excellent candidates

(1) The CEO alluded to the changes in his speech.

(1) come back with; counter; react; reply; respond; rejoin; retort

(2) explain one’s actions or behavior

(3) fulfill; lay to rest; meet; resolve; satisfy; solve

Résumé bullet points:

• Answered own phone in three rings or less and answered all emails within 24 hours

(1) be eloquent; express; be fluent; communicate; convey; be lucid; put into words; state; tell; verbalize

Résumé bullet points:

• Articulated a detailed technology roadmap for wireless Java

(1) assert; aver; avouch; avow; declare earnestly or solemnly; hold; maintain

(1) She asseverated eloquently.

(1) certify, witness, or swear to

(1) The product claims were attested to by three independent sources.

(1) create; pen; scribe; source; write

Résumé bullet points:

• Authored six books

• Authored paper for publication

(1) The political issues were bandied about during the break-in session.

(1) The sales team bantered with the accounting team about the viability of some accounts.

(1) Felix blandished Diana with complaints about her recent business success.

(1) The new product must be blazoned to get the consumer attention it needs.

(2) weblog

Résumé bullet points:

• Blogged about industry issues

Résumé bullet points:

• Brainstormed solutions with cross-departmental teams

(1) blandish; coax; entice; flatter; inveigle; soft-soap; sweet-talk; wheedle

(1) Not all employees respond to positive motivation; some need to be cajoled.

Résumé bullet points:

• Chronicled the industry’s fight against the piracy of intellectual property

Résumé bullet points:

• Communicated proactively with team members via media to share information, coordinate meeting notes, and help team members with individual assignments

• Communicated with ease and confidence

(2) create; incite; produce; write

Résumé bullet points:

• Composed freelance articles

(1) create an understandable point out of a concept; interpret something from the abstract

(1) The copywriters conceptualized the benefits from the product prototypes.

(1) It is easy to see how someone could have construed that conclusion from the limited information that was released.

(2) check in; look up; refer to; turn to

Résumé bullet points:

• Consulted and recommended operational improvements

(1) conduct; express; lead; make known; pass; put into words

(1) Roberto conveyed the board’s offer to the candidate.

(2) bring; carry; move; take from one place to another; transfer

(1) David convoked a member’s business meeting at the annual conference to challenge the board action.

(1) advise; deliberate; inform

Résumé bullet points:

• Counseled young people on the dangers of misusing social media

(2) consider; contemplate; deliberate; mediate; ponder; think over; weigh in; wonder

Résumé bullet points:

• Debated the globalization issue with those seeking to close US markets

(1) describe accurately; determine; draw an outline; identify or indicate by marking with precision; fix boundaries; represent something

Résumé bullet points:

• Delineated the responsibilities and roles of volunteers.

(1) This cooperation denotes a third-party affiliation agreement

(2) allude to; convey; express; imply; refer to

(1) describe; get a picture of; give a picture of; illustrate; picture in words; portray; present a lifelike image; represent; show

(1) The brochure depicted the product in several applications.

(1) Customers dialogued with marketing representatives by way of a web conference.

(1) As Director of Public Relations, I disabused writers and editors of misunderstandings and misconceptions they had of our business.

(1) After the meeting, I dulcified several staff who thought the CEO’s remarks were attacks on them.

(1) Of course, I used every tactic at my disposal; I cajoled, I earwigged, I even pleaded—anything to make the case.

(2) pester with private persuasion and warnings

(1) educate; enlighten; illuminate; improve; inform; instruct; teach

(2) uplift morally, spiritually, or intellectually

(1), (2) The book edified everyone who read it.

(1) alter; correct; revise and make ready

(2) prepare a written work for publication by selection, arrangement, and annotation

(3) make additions, deletions, or other changes

Résumé bullet points:

• Edited the company’s monthly newsletter

(1) discipline; edify; inform; impart knowledge; instruct; mentor; teach; train; tutor

(2) develop and train the innate capacities of by schooling or education

(3) provide knowledge in a particular area

Résumé bullet points:

• Educated 178 vendors regarding what was expected of them in the value chain arrangement

(1) The field manual elaborated on the procedures covered in the packing instructions.

(2) complex; complicate; convolute; dilate; expatiate on; fancy; intricate; provide detail on

(3) produce by effort

(4) develop in great detail; work out carefully

(2) cause to be revealed; draw forth; evoke

(1), (2) The new product elicited a variety of positive and negative responses.

(1) produce a written work through lengthy, intensive effort

(1) Twenty researchers and five writers elucbrated for five years to produce the guide book.

(1) clarify; explain; make something clear; explicate; expose; expound; illuminate; lucid; reveal; throw light on something of interest

(1) The consultant elucidated on the benefits of employing professional guidance.

(2) adorn with gimcrack or gimmick or gimmickry; decorate or improve by adding detail or ornamentation

(3) improve an account or report of an event by adding factious, imaginary, or audacious details to improve or heighten the acceptance of; touch up

(1), (2), (3) The products were embellished with a lot of things that did not really add much value.

(2) determine the number of; total

(3) name one by one; specify

(1), (2), (3) The packing list enumerated each of the 300 parts.

(2) indicate; make manifest without a doubt

(1), (2) The staff evinced during the open staff meetings.

(1) cover a wide scope of topics; elaborate

(2) add details to an account or an idea

(3) roam or wander freely

(4) speak or write in great detail

(1-4) Our CEO expatiated at the annual meeting and ran over his time by 1 hour.

(1) The union rep expounded the benefits of a union shop in a full employee meeting.

(1) Jackie’s boss extolled her work during the annual performance review.

(1) connect with someone online on the social network Facebook

(1) Many of our vendors, suppliers, and customers are Facebooked.

Résumé bullet points:

• Facilitated discussion with management about the advantages of telecommuting

(1) Jorge gleaned a great deal of customer data from the census.

(1) Our annual report illustrated in graphics our mission and vision.

(1) The CEO imparted the firm’s vision in his annual message.

(1) Some advertising we used implied certain benefits.

(2) bring up to date; enlighten; let authorities know; notify; report; tattle; update

(1), (2) The best software packages keep users informed about updates and changes.

(1) call to action; provoke; stimulate something

(1) The FDC rules innerved the industry and provoked an emergency meeting of leaders.

(1) Tom interjected additional thoughts that were not in his prepared notes.

(1) Sales representatives who have interviewed prospects rather than sell them have experienced much greater success.

(1) The presenter juxtaposed the buyers resistance and the sellers need to close.

(1) acclaim; applaud; celebrate; extol; mention; praise; speak well of

(1) Good communicators are lauded for their simple but effective styles.

(1) The people who are considered the best communicators are those who listen before they speak.

(2) be aware of; notice; observe; take in; take note of

(1), (2) It is noted when you are considerate and thoughtful.

(1) Too many people have objectified digital content.

(1) Sandra opined to the other staff about the compensation plan.

(1) The external auditors oppunged our accounting records.

(2) talk or negotiate with someone

(1), (2) Our negotiators parlayed the news into a stronger position.

(1) He parsed the document, so the original meaning was altered.

(1) Once he had piqued my curiosity, there was no turning back.

(2) feeling of annoyance generated as a result of a perceived insult or injustice

(3) excite or arouse; irritate

(1) Don had pontificated on this topic before, so we knew beforehand what to expect.

(1) assume; claim; guess; hypothesize; look for a reason or take for granted without proof; propose; put forward; suggest

Résumé bullet points:

• Postulated traditional price theories in cycles

(2) formally introduce someone to someone else

(3) put (a show or exhibition) before the public

(4) appear formally before others

Résumé points:

• Presented new sales training for companywide sales force of 500 people

(1) The company promulgated a written code of ethical conduct.

(1) Harris proofed the copy of the ads that were going to be placed in the magazine.

Résumé bullet points:

• Published online newsletter

(1) chew over; cogitate; contemplate; mull over; ponder; reflect on; think over

(2) mediate; turn over in one’s mind

(1), (2) When alumni got together, they ruminated over bygone days.

(1) analyze; dissect; examine carefully; inspect; pore over; search; study

(1) All content on the company Web site was scrutinized for proper protocol.

(1) attempt to adjust one’s communications style to accommodate others; deliberate

(1) Too many people have styleflexed their communications styles.

Résumé bullet points:

• Wrote six books

(1) house; lodge; provide accommodations; put up

(2) adapt; be big enough for; contain; have capacity for; hold; reconcile; seat

(3) do a favor or a service for someone

(4) adjust; become accustomed; familiarize; get used to; make suitable

(5) allow for; assist; be of service; consider; find ways to help; oblige

Résumé bullet points:

• Accommodated foreign language investors

(1) accept; agree; assent; consent; comply with passively; concur; concede; give in; go along with; submit; yield

(1) The committee members acquiesced to the chairman’s point of order.

(2) inform; let know; make aware; notify; tell someone what has happened

Résumé bullet points:

• Advised individual investors of their options

(1) advance; back; be in favor of; bolster; defend; encourage; promote; sponsor; support

Résumé bullet points:

• Advocated for work sharing

(1) alleviate; calm; dispel; put to rest; relieve; subside

(1) The customer’s concerns were allayed once the replacement piece arrived.

Résumé bullet points:

• Alleviated investor concerns with record earning three consecutive years

(1) accede; accept; acquiesce; agree; concur; consent

(1) It would have been a different outcome if the vendor had not assented to the terms.

(1) abet; collaborate; facilitate; help with

Résumé bullet points:

• Assisted coworkers with social media usage

Résumé bullet points:

• Befriended coworkers transferred from other locations

(1) Every member of the board closed ranks behind the embattled CEO.

Résumé bullet points:

• Coached young workers on field repairs, saving time and money.

(1) bond; go together; hold fast; join together

(1) The employees cohered when the news of the merger broke.

(1) advise; deliberate; inform

Résumé bullet points:

• Counseled terminated employees on outplacement benefits

(1) In the past, fiefdoms and empire building by managers would have never been countenanced.

(1) allocate; allot; apply; bestow; confer; consecrate; dedicate; hallow; lavish

Résumé bullet points:

• Devoted off-work hours to civic projects

(1) educate; enlighten; illuminate; improve; inform; instruct; teach

(2) uplift morally, spiritually, or intellectually

(1), (2) The moral counseling sessions edified the workers.

(2) raise the pitch, tone, or volume

(3) raise a person in title, rank, or position

(4) raise to a higher intellectual, moral, or spiritual position

(5) elate; exhilarate; raise the spirits of

Résumé bullet points:

• Elevated direct reports to greater responsibility whenever possible

Résumé bullet points:

• Gave regularly to corporate sponsored charities

(1) abet; aid; assist; benefit; change for the better; improve; succor

Résumé bullet points:

• Helped establish child care center in company to assist working mothers

Résumé bullet points:

• Mentored new and existing sales reps on customer relationship management, solutions selling, and listening skills

(1) cherish; provide extra care and attention in hopes of developing someone or something into full potential

Résumé bullet points:

• Nurtured relationships with 200 stakeholders

(1) aid; assist; be of use; do services for; help; perform duties; treat in a certain way

(1) The employees volunteered and served as tutors to students.

Résumé bullet points:

• Tutored MBA students

(1) blend; bring together; federate; merge; solidify; tie; unite

(1) The threat of being acquired unified the workers.

(1) accent; emphasize; heighten; intensify

(2) make more noticeable; play up; stress something

(3) mark with an accent

Résumé bullet points:

• Accentuated the visionary character of the firm with advanced Web graphics

(1) activate; arouse to action; motivate; put into motion; start; trigger

Résumé bullet points:

• Actuated the reserve contingency of $2 million to keep a plant open during the recession of 2009

(1) acclimate; accommodate; adjust; change; conform; fashion; fit; get used to; make suitable; reconcile; square; suit; tailor

(2) make fit, often by modification

(3) cause something to change for the better

Résumé bullet points:

• Adapted a multichannel marketing approach and doubled sales in less than a year

(1) correct a mistake; improve; make better; tolerate

(2) correct a deficiency or defect; make right a wrong; take action that makes up for one’s negative or improper actions

(1), (2) The audit ameliorated the department’s cash flow problem.

(1) The new CEO was more animated, and the staff found it easier to communicate with her.

(1) array; authorize; catalogue; classify; fix; order; organize; position; set up

(2) make plans for something to be done

Résumé bullet points:

• Arranged to have all the top field salespeople meet once a year

(1) gamut; place in an orderly arrangement; set out for display or use

(2) marshal troops; parade; place an order

(2) The products in the booth were arrayed in a way that visitors could easily trial them.

(3) dress in fine or showy attire

(1) create; pen; scribe; source; write

Résumé bullet points:

• Authored the firm’s first guidelines on social media

(1) Our game designers backcasted certain events to provide some realism to the game.

Résumé bullet points:

• Carved out niche markets for special products

(1) assort; catalog; classify; list; separate

Résumé bullet points:

• Categorized and prioritized investment options for the board finance committee

(1) avoid; dodge; elude; evade; frustrate by surrounding or going around; get around; go around; outwit; skirt; take another route; thwart

(1) We circumvented the obstacles of international shipping by producing in local countries.

(1) bring about; build; cause to come into being; compose; design; give rise to; produce

Résumé bullet points:

• Created the firm’s first social media resource strategy, increasing the brand’s presence worldwide

(1) design, build, or fit according to individualized specifications

Résumé bullet points:

• Customized unique landing pages for repeat visitors to the Web site

(1) describe; get a picture of; give a picture of; illustrate; represent; picture in words; portray; present a lifelike image; represent; show

(1) We depicted our products in their actual use.

(1) Our customers descanted in our regular open panels.

(1) aim; contrive; devise; intend; make designs; mean; plan; propose; set apart for some purpose

(2) conceive; construct; create; draw up blueprints or plans; fabricate; invent; originate

(3) blueprint; cast; chart; contrive; draw up; frame; intent; map; project; set out

Résumé bullet points:

• Designed the company logo

• Designed and implemented fundraising goals and strategies in conjunction with the board’s leadership

(1) conceive; concoct; contrive; create; design; develop; formulate; imagine or guess; invent; plan; plot; sot up; think up; work out or create something

Résumé bullet points:

• Devised a company-wide car pool plan that reduced the number of cars in the parking lot by 25 percent, thus reducing emissions and saving fuel costs for many workers

(1) transform an idea into a set of symbols during communications process

Résumé bullet points:

• Encoded customer data in special-purpose binary format

Résumé bullet points:

• Enkindled passion to succeed

(2) confront; face

Résumé bullet points:

• Envisaged that if you can see it, you can do it

(2) be the symbolic representation of; make or be an epitome of

Résumé bullet points:

• Epitomized the work ethic

(1) imbue; inculcate; ingrain; inspire; instill; introduce

(2) teach a body of knowledge or perspective

(3) fill; permeate; pervade; suffuse

(4) brew; immerse; saturate; soak; souse; steep

Résumé bullet points:

• Infused with unwavering belief in internal locus of control

(1) begin with something new; create; derive; devise; coin; commence; instigate; invent; make; modernize; originate; remodel; renew; renovate; revolutionize; transform; update

Résumé bullet point:

• Innovated Led On-Line (ILO) format for training 3,000 global employees, improving the quality for the training experience lowering training costs by 15 percent

(1) affect; arouse; encourage; excite; impel; incite; prompt; provoke; motivate; stimulate; stir

Résumé bullet points:

• Inspired by my dreams

(1) Interlarded with new product development plans are loose concepts and other partially conceived ideas that someday may become new products.

(1) first to develop new ideas or concepts; lead the way

Résumé bullet points:

• Pioneered the use of 3-D printing

(1) create models and replicas of what is to be produced; think of or design a new product

Résumé bullet points:

• Prototyped products for customers

(1) to put new attitude, life, or vigor into a cause; revive

Résumé bullet points:

• Revivified the truth in advertising concept by creating and overseeing the industries’ campaign to back up all advertising claims, which led to significant increases in consumer confidence

(1) find a solution; settle

(2) provide or find a suitable answer to a problem

Résumé bullet points:

• Solved many problems that limited firm’s growth in productivity with creative, out-of-the-box solutions

Résumé bullet points:

• Visualized the solutions to many issues and problems before devising solutions

(1) accumulate; amass; ensue; build up; increase; mount up

(2) come to one as a gain; amass

(3) accrete; add; to grow by addition

Résumé bullet points:

• Accrued significant credibility with consumer protection groups by being unwaveringly transparent

(1) acetify; become active; energize; galvanize; get going; initiate; make active; set in motion; set off; start; stimulate; trigger; turn off

Résumé bullet points:

• Activated targeted cost reduction contingency during economic emergencies

(1) affix; bond; hold; hold fast; glutamate; remain; stay; stick to something

Résumé bullet points:

• Adhered to highest levels of integrity and ethics in all business dealings

(1) act as judge; adjudged; deem; listen; mediate; preside over argument; regard; rule; settle

Résumé bullet points:

• Adjudicated disputes and disagreements among members of the trade association

(1) acknowledge; affirm; announce; assert; asseverate; avow; confirm; establish; insist; pronounce; state; validate; verify

(2) encourage; sustain; support; uphold

Résumé bullet points:

• Affirmed the firm’s principles in all public relations activities

(1) consider; dissect; evaluate; examine; explore; interpret; investigate; probe; question; scrutinize; study

Résumé bullet points:

• Analyzed and interpreted data from company surveys

(1) adjudicate; decide; intercede; judge; mediate; negotiate; pass judgment; referee; settle; sort out

Résumé bullet points:

• Arbitrated disputes between in-house and field sales representatives over key accounts

Résumé bullet points:

• Argued in favor of a stronger, formal, enforceable ethics policy

(2) find out with certainty

Résumé bullet points:

• Ascertained the root causes of customer service failures and reduced order cancellation rates by 75 percent

(1) assess; collate; calculate; compare; consider; equalize; evaluate; even out; keep upright; offset; settle; square; stabilize; stay poised; steady; tally; total; weigh; weight up

Résumé bullet points:

• Balanced the need for consumer privacy and the firm’s right to collect personal identifiable information, ensuring continued revenue growth with proper consumer protection

(1) The device was calibrated to indicate average speed.

Résumé bullet points:

• Capitalized on extensive personal network to find best candidates for newly created jobs, reducing lost opportunity costs

(1) assort; catalog; classify; list; separate

Résumé bullet points:

• Categorized all customers into groupings by profit contribution

(1) The researchers cogitated deeply over the questioner design.

(1) calculate; determine a number; equations; figure

Résumé bullet points:

• Computed the accurate costs of an industrial sales call when there were no industry benchmarks or standards, thus helping ensure more accurate budgeting

(1) create; envisage; imagine; invent original idea; picture; visualize

(1) elaborate; begin life; dream; form; make up

Résumé bullet points:

• Conceived of solutions to problems no one believed could solved

(1) bring together; merge; strengthen; unite

Résumé bullet points:

• Consolidated the inside and field sales force into one department, improving productivity and reducing annual costs by $200,000

(2) blueprint; compose; create; form; piece together; structure

Résumé bullet points:

• Constructed measurement matrix for business plan components, making results of each section of business plans quantifiable

Résumé bullet points:

• Contemporized the look of mill outlet stores, improving overall consumer appeal, increasing consumer traffic and sales

(1) bring together; combine; direct; harmonize; manage; match up; organize; synchronize; work together

Résumé bullet points:

• Coordinated the responsibilities and work of 200 volunteers across the nation

Résumé bullet points:

• Corroborated antidotal evidence of a shift in consumer preferences with empirical research, giving firm ten months over the competition to retool and begin producing

(2) choose; glean; pick out; select

Résumé bullet points:

• Culled social media sites for evidence of consumer opinions on firm’s brand

(1) assume; conclude from evidence; conjecture; figure out; infer; presume; suspect; hypothesize; posit; reason; suppose; surmise; work out

(1) It was deduced that the greater the time a salesman spent listening was related to an increased possibility of getting a sale.

(2) trace the course of deviation

(1) characterize; classify; describe; determine or set down boundaries; distinguish; identify; label; term

(2) circumscribe; delimitate; delimit; demarcate; mark out

Résumé bullet points:

• Defined key market segments using psychographic segmentation techniques

(1) confer; consider; consult; debate; meditate; mull over; ponder; plan; reflect; think carefully; weigh carefully

Résumé bullet points:

• Deliberated and resolved project management team disputes to achieve consensus

(1) define; demarcate; determine; fix boundaries; restrict; set limits; state clearly

Résumé bullet points:

• Delimited the boundaries of independent sales reps so as not to interfere with established relationships of field salespeople and their key accounts, creating greater customer satisfaction

(2) ascertain; clarify; establish; find out; uncover

(3) affect; control; govern; influence; mold

Résumé bullet points:

• Determined the optimum balance of volume for product containers and cost per unit of production

Résumé bullet points:

• Diagnosed recalled products and discovered the defect and devised repair process, which eliminated need to replace product and saved $30 million

(1) ascertain; be first to learn something; determine; expose; find out; hear; learn; realize, see, or uncover something

Résumé bullet points:

• Discovered the defective process that threatened a total recall and saved $30 million in costs

(1) We were dissuaded from further exploration by the results of the ore tests.

(1) come to conclusion; solve a problem based on thoughtful consideration of facts; derive; evoke

(2) draw out; deduce; elicit; infer

(3) bring out or develop; elicit from

(1-3) I educed from the audit that our financial position was fairly strong.

(1) cause; coax; make happen

(2) plan, construct, and manage as an engineer

(3) guide; plan and direct skillfully; superintend

Résumé bullet points:

• Engineered, troubleshot, and documented IIS solutions; tested and administered Windows 8 Developer’s pilot on 190 workstations and 5 servers

Résumé bullet points:

• Established correlation between cloud-based data storage and reduced hacker attacks

(2) form an opinion or judgment about: to judge carefully

(3) make estimates

Résumé bullet points:

• Estimated annual energy usage

(2) investigate; inquire into; look at or into critically or methodically to find out the facts, condition, or situation

(3) test by careful questioning or scientific inquiry

Résumé bullet points:

• Examined samples of parts provided by 200 vendor suppliers for quality assurance

(1) analyze logically; explain; make clear; write about something at great length

(1) The primary research methodology is problem-solving itself, which often, in practice, cannot be fully explicated.

(2) travel in an area completely new to learn about the geography, history, culture, and people

(3) search carefully, systematically, or scientifically

Résumé bullet points:

• Explored uses for new technology

(1) add details to an account or idea

(1) The reports addendum exposited many details.

(1) construct an image; estimate; infer

(2) arrive at conclusion or results by hypothesizing from known facts or observations

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• Extrapolated research data and results from other industries

(1) The marketing community has fathomed but a tiny part of human decision making.

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• Ferreted out the incorrect charges, inaccurate fees, and unsubstantiated billing by phone service provider, saving firm $4,000 monthly

(1) affix; arrange; assign; attach; blame; fasten; impute; pin on; place saddle; produce deep impression; secure

(2) mend; replace; restore

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• Fixed equipment at construction sites, saving thousands of dollars in downtime

(1) continue an action or activity; finish something you have started

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• Followed through on all initiatives

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• Formulated the blend of fuel and additives that allowed equipment to function for long periods in subzero environments

(1) activate; propel someone or something into sudden action; stimulate

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• Galvanized employees into volunteer teams during emergencies

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• Gauged the changes in consumer purchasing behavior in advance of industry research

(1) educated guess of some outcome

(1) Ever since Plato, scientists have hypothesized about how the brain processes information.

(1) Answers generally come to those who have imagined solutions to problems and opportunities.

(2) bring on; generate; produce; provoke; stimulate

(1), (2) Crystals are subject to aging and mechanically induced noise.

(1) begin; commence; create; inaugurate; induct; install; instate; instigate; introduce; invest; kick off; open; set off; start

(2) coach; instruct; mentor; teach; train; tutor

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• Initiated the funding of entrepreneurial start-up by white knights who were members of investment clubs

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• Measured results of all advertising and promotion campaigns

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• Mediated disputes between union and nonunion workers

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• Methodized the reporting and evaluations of 250 value chain partners

(2) control; coordinate; fix; manage; take charge

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• Organized work sharing operation, avoiding layoffs of 100 employees

(1) arrange; design; have in mind a project or purpose; intend; prepare; set up

(2) arrange strategic ideas in diagrams, charts, sketches, graphs, tables, maps, and other documents

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• Planned, produced, and oversaw all vendor/exhibitor services at the industry’s largest trade show

(1) assume; conceive; conjecture; hypothesize; imagine; postulate; put forward; speculate; suggest; state or assume as fact; theorize

(1) Judy had first posited the possibility of a correlation between the variables.

(1) express something in quantifiable terms

(2) numerical expression or explanation

(3) determine or express or explain the quantity of, numerical measure of, or extent of

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• Quantified the results of needs gap analysis

(1) chew over; cogitate; contemplate; mull over; ponder; reflect on; think over

(2) mediate; turn over in one’s mind

(1), (2) Two dozen engineers ruminated over the plant’s emission problems.

(2) fulfill needs and expectations, wishes, and desires

(3) comply with the rules

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• Satisfied all requirements for IEEE certification

(1) analyze; examine carefully; dissect; inspect; pore over; search; study

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• Scrutinized vendor and supplier proposals for excessive prices

(2) take the measure of something

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• Sized up the operational requirements of foreign-made tool and die machines