{"id":1172,"date":"2018-10-30T09:00:53","date_gmt":"2018-10-30T09:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/?p=1172"},"modified":"2025-10-22T15:56:42","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T14:56:42","slug":"cv-tips-writing-effective-bullet-points-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/2018\/10\/30\/cv-tips-writing-effective-bullet-points-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"CV Tips: Writing effective bullet points (Part 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/82\/2017\/12\/climbing-keon.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-944 alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/82\/2017\/12\/climbing-keon-214x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"214\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/82\/2017\/12\/climbing-keon-214x300.png 214w, https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/82\/2017\/12\/climbing-keon.png 228w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 214px) 100vw, 214px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>We see lots of CVs that do an excellent job of describing responsibilities and tasks. But we don\u2019t see many that articulate <strong><em>how<\/em><\/strong> that person has done things - that is, what personal skills or attributes they have used to get things done effectively.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/?p=1133&amp;preview=true\"><u>Part 1<\/u><\/a> focused on using the right verbs to tell employers exactly what you did, and reminded you to give employers a sense of scale of your work.\u00a0 Now here\u2019s how to develop your bullet points even further.<\/p>\n<p>This is the example we finished on in <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/?p=1133&amp;preview=true\">Part 1<\/a>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><i><em>Co-led and supervised ten twelve to fifteen year olds on six-day hikes and other outdoor activities.<\/em><\/i><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This bullet point assumes that the recruiter will know what <em>skills and qualities<\/em> she used to complete the task of taking teenagers on hikes and organising outdoor activities.\u00a0 The student is missing an opportunity to fully articulate why she would be successful in the role, and what she would be like to work with.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, the student could write something like this:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><i><em>Used motivational and interpersonal skills to co-lead and supervise ten twelve to fifteen year olds on challenging six-day hikes and other outdoor activities. <\/em><\/i><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This tells the employer the kinds of personal attributes that might be really useful in\u00a0the role.\u00a0\u00a0In this case, it's her ability to motivate others and to communicate well.<\/p>\n<p>When you're writing your CV, make sure you focus\u00a0on\u00a0the skills that the employer is looking for \u2013 this is why reading the job and person specification is really important!\u00a0 You could also do some reading around to find out what kinds of skills are usually required for roles, by using resources like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prospects.ac.uk\/job-profiles\">prospects.ac.uk<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/targetjobs.co.uk\/career-sectors\">targetjobs.co.uk\u00a0.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>You could choose to be even more explicit about your skills by\u00a0starting each bullet point with a skill that the employer is looking for, and then giving them your evidence.\u00a0 For example:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em><strong>Initiative and creativity:<\/strong> Took the initiative to develop a set of engaging outdoor activities targeted at twelve to fifteen year olds.\u00a0 These activities included [xyz]...<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>And finally\u2026shout about great results and successes!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/82\/2018\/10\/Success.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1175\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/82\/2018\/10\/Success-300x107.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"107\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/82\/2018\/10\/Success-300x107.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/82\/2018\/10\/Success-768x275.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/82\/2018\/10\/Success-1024x367.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/82\/2018\/10\/Success-601x215.jpg 601w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Use your bullet points to tell the employer about your impact. Think about how your work has allowed an organisation to improve in any area.\u00a0 Have you helped to improve membership levels? Improved sales and\/or profits? Try to quantify these things if possible (for example, a percentage increase).\u00a0 Alternatively, you could talk about instances where you\u2019ve made recommendations for improvements that have been implemented.\u00a0 This student chose to write:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Set up\u00a0an Instagram\u00a0account for the outdoor activities service which gained over 500 followers in two months.\u00a0 Around half of new participants have reported that this\u00a0inspired them to join the course.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For more useful tips on how to write your CV, see <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/2018\/10\/16\/cv-tips-watch-your-language\/\">this blog on getting your language right in CVs<\/a> and our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bath.ac.uk\/publications\/application-cv-and-cover-letter-guide\/attachments.bho\/application-cv-and-cover-letter-guide.pdf\">Application, CV and Cover Letter guide<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We see lots of CVs that do an excellent job of describing responsibilities and tasks. But we don\u2019t see many that articulate how that person has done things - that is, what personal skills or attributes they have used to...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1176,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[748],"tags":[385,22,41],"class_list":["post-1172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive","tag-bullet-points","tag-cv","tag-skills"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1172\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}