A resume must clearly articulate a candidate’s qualifications. The choice between past and present tense is a grammatical rule, not a preference, that provides structure and clarity to your employment history. The correct verb tense depends entirely on the status of the job or accomplishment, signaling whether an action is completed or ongoing. Consistent and appropriate tense usage demonstrates professionalism and makes the document easier for both human readers and Applicant Tracking Systems to process.
The General Rule: Past Tense for Past Roles
When describing any job you have left or any position with a defined end date, all responsibilities, accomplishments, and metrics must be written in the past tense. This rule applies uniformly across all previous positions. Using the past tense, such as “developed,” “managed,” or “achieved,” accurately frames the actions as completed contributions to a former employer. For instance, instead of saying, “Responsible for managing a team of ten,” a stronger bullet point would read, “Managed a team of ten professionals, increasing project completion rates by 15%.” This approach transforms a vague duty into a quantifiable accomplishment. Strong past-tense action verbs like Spearheaded, Cultivated, Executed, Analyzed, and Reorganized convey your impact in roles that have concluded.
The Key Exception: Present Tense for Current Roles
The exception to the past-tense rule is for the role you currently hold, where ongoing responsibilities should be in the present tense. Using the present tense, such as “manage,” “develop,” or “lead,” communicates that these duties are actions you perform on a continuing basis. This distinction contrasts your historical roles with your current employment status. A nuance for the current job is that while ongoing duties use the present tense, any specific projects or accomplishments that have been completed must revert to the past tense. For example, you might write, “Lead all weekly departmental strategy meetings” (present tense, ongoing duty) followed by, “Launched a new client onboarding process that reduced initial churn by 20%” (past tense, completed project). This mixing of tenses within the current job section is acceptable because it distinguishes between continuous functions and discrete, finished achievements.
Action Verbs and Active Voice Are More Important Than Tense
Beyond verb tenses, selecting dynamic action verbs and consistently using the active voice are essential for an impactful resume. The active voice places the subject—you—at the beginning of the sentence, directly performing the action. This conveys ownership and authority over your achievements and avoids weak phrases like “I was responsible for” or “duties included,” which diminish your contribution. Active voice statements are concise and immediately highlight your results for the reader. For example, a passive construction like, “The budget was reduced by $5,000 through my efforts,” becomes the much stronger active voice statement, “Reduced departmental operating budget by $5,000 through vendor renegotiations.” Using a strong verb ensures your experience is presented as a direct, powerful action. Always ensure that an action verb starts the bullet point to maximize its impact, regardless of the tense used.
Common Tense and Voice Mistakes to Avoid
One frequent error on resumes is mixing tenses within a single bullet point. For instance, a statement like, “Managed the team and then launch a new software platform,” incorrectly blends the past and present tenses for two separate actions. Ensuring that all verbs within a single bullet point are grammatically consistent maintains a polished, professional document. Another common mistake is relying on vague, passive phrases like “was tasked with” or “responsible for,” which tell the reader nothing about your actual performance. These weak introductions should be replaced with strong action verbs that quantify and specify your contributions, such as Orchestrated, Streamlined, or Formulated.