Tool

Resume bullet checker

This is for anyone with a draft resume who wants a quick first pass over the wording of each bullet. Paste your bullets, one per line, and the checker points out patterns that often make a bullet weak: duty phrases such as "responsible for", passive voice, vague filler, no number at all, and bullets that are very short or very long. It takes a few minutes.

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What the checker looks for

• Duty phrases. Wording such as "responsible for", "worked on", "helped with" or "duties included" describes a job description rather than something you did. The fix is to name the action and its result.
• Passive voice. The checker looks for forms of "to be" followed by a past participle, such as "was completed". It is a rough pattern match, so it can miss cases and can flag sentences that are fine.
• Missing numbers. If the bullet has no digits or number words, it gets a note. A count, size, frequency, time span or amount often makes a claim easier to picture, but only use a figure you can state truthfully and explain in an interview.
• Length. Under 8 words is often too thin to carry meaning. Over about 35 words usually runs past two lines. These cut-offs are rules of thumb chosen for this tool, not published standards.
• Buzzwords and first-person starts. Phrases such as "team player" or "proven track record" are claims without evidence.

What it cannot do

The checker matches simple text patterns. It does not understand your job, cannot tell whether a bullet is true or relevant to the role, and does not predict how an applicant tracking system or a recruiter will react. A bullet with no flags can still be weak, and a flagged bullet can be exactly right for your situation. Treat the output as a prompt to look again, not a score.

Five questions to ask about any bullet

If a bullet is flagged, run it through these questions. They turn the checker's hints into an edit.

1. What was the actual problem or responsibility?
2. What did you personally do?
3. What tool, scale, scope or context matters?
4. What changed because of your work, even if you can only estimate it honestly?
5. Would the person hiring for this role care about it?

For worked examples of this process, see the resume rewrite examples. For deciding which bullets to keep at all, read how to tell if a bullet is too weak to keep, and for evidence when you lack figures, proving impact without perfect metrics.

Where this comes from

The patterns are drawn from resume-writing guidance published by university career centers and public workforce career sites, which commonly advise starting bullets with an action verb, showing results with specifics where truthful, and avoiding vague duty language. The exact phrase list and length limits are this site's own simplifications. This is general information, not personal career advice.