Original data · 2,902 full-text S&P 500 job postings
Another Word for "Worked" on a Resume: 11 Stronger Verbs
"Worked on" and "worked with" are filler: every job involves working. They take up the most valuable spot in a bullet, the first word, without telling the reader anything. Replace them with the verb that names the action, and keep "worked" only in phrases like "worked closely with" when the relationship is the point.
11 alternatives to "worked", by what you mean
Pick the group that matches what you did, then the word that fits. "Postings" is the share of the 2,902 full-text job descriptions that use the word in any form. Example bullets are illustrative, not taken from real resumes.
| Word | Postings | Example bullet |
|---|---|---|
| "Worked on" a project or productUse the verb for what you made or changed. | ||
| built | 81.2% | Built an internal inventory dashboard used by 40 store managers each week. |
| produced | 2.4% | Produced 12 customer case-study videos from script to final edit. |
| executed | 14.8% | Executed a 6-week email campaign that brought back 900 lapsed customers. |
| "Worked with" people or teamsUse when the relationship is the story. | ||
| partnered with | 24.6% | Partnered with procurement to renegotiate three supplier contracts. |
| collaborated | 32.5% | Collaborated with designers and engineers to ship a redesigned onboarding flow. |
| served | 30.7% | Served a caseload of 45 clients with weekly check-ins and service plans. |
| "Worked with" a tool or systemUse when you operated equipment or software. | ||
| operated | 39.1% | Operated forklifts and pallet jacks across a 100,000 sq ft distribution center. |
| applied | 3.2% | Applied Python and pandas to clean five years of sales data for a pricing study. |
| configured | 2.2% | Configured HubSpot workflows that routed inbound leads to reps within five minutes. |
| "Worked in" a role or areaUse for the scope of what you covered. | ||
| handled | 16.7% | Handled all inbound freight receiving and put-away for the night shift. |
| staffed | 0.1% | Staffed the front desk of a 120-room hotel during peak season weekends. |
For comparison, "worked" itself: 35.2% (1,022 of 2,902 postings).
Before and after: rewriting "worked" bullets
Three example rewrites. They are illustrative, with made-up numbers, to show the pattern: a specific verb, what you acted on, and the result.
BeforeWorked on the company website.
AfterBuilt six landing pages in Webflow that lifted demo requests by a quarter.
Names the work and the tool.
BeforeWorked with clients to meet their needs.
AfterServed 30 small-business clients, renewing all but two at contract end.
Shows scale and retention.
BeforeWorked with Excel and SQL.
AfterApplied SQL and Excel to build a weekly margin report used by the finance team.
Puts the tools inside a result.
Which alternatives each role family uses
"Worked" is most common in Product postings (51.4%) and least common in Finance postings (15.3%). The right-hand column shows the three alternatives from this page that appear most often in each family's postings. Only families with at least 40 full-text postings are shown.
| Role family | "worked" | Most-used alternatives |
|---|---|---|
| Engineering628 postings | 47.5% | built (92%), collaborated (37.7%), operated (37.4%) |
| Sales368 postings | 35.9% | built (90.5%), operated (51.6%), handled (44.6%) |
| Retail & service133 postings | 20.3% | built (78.2%), collaborated (38.3%), served (30.8%) |
| Operations109 postings | 44% | built (70.6%), collaborated (35.8%), served (27.5%) |
| Data & science101 postings | 47.5% | built (77.2%), collaborated (45.5%), served (21.8%) |
| Finance85 postings | 15.3% | built (80%), collaborated (58.8%), served (51.8%) |
| Marketing84 postings | 34.5% | built (54.8%), collaborated (39.3%), executed (36.9%) |
| Product72 postings | 51.4% | built (94.4%), partnered with (55.6%), collaborated (50%) |
| HR & people56 postings | 16.1% | built (91.1%), partnered with (51.8%), operated (51.8%) |
How to pick the right word: mirror the posting
Look at the posting's duties list and borrow its verbs: "operate", "build", "configure", "partner with". Those are the words a recruiter types into the ATS. If the posting asks for experience "working with" a specific tool, name that tool exactly in your bullet; the tool name is the keyword, not the verb.
Applicant tracking systems and recruiters search for the posting's own words, so the safest synonym is the one the job description already uses. Paste the posting into the free resume keyword generator to pull out its verbs and skills, then use the table above to replace the "worked" bullets that the posting does not ask for. For a wider list by category, see our resume action verbs guide; the dataset behind these numbers is described in our S&P 500 ATS study.
Frequently asked questions
- Is "worked on" bad on a resume?
- It is weak rather than wrong. It uses the opening word of a bullet to say nothing specific. Swap it for the action you took: built, produced, executed, configured. Your bullet then tells the reader what skill you used, which is the thing a recruiter is scanning for.
- What should I say instead of "worked with" a team?
- Use "partnered with" or "collaborated with" and name the team, then add what you achieved together. If you served customers or clients, "served" or "supported" is clearer. The verb matters less than naming the counterpart and the result.
- How often do job postings use "worked"?
- "Worked" (counting "worked", "work with", "works with" or "working with" and related forms) appears in 35.2% of the 2,902 full-text S&P 500 job postings we analyzed. It is most common in Product postings (51.4%) and least common in Finance postings (15.3%), among role families with at least 40 postings.
- Which alternative to "worked" do employers use most?
- Of the 11 alternatives on this page, "built" appears in the most postings (81.2%). For the recommended picks: "built" 81.2%, "operated" 39.1%, "partnered with" 24.6%, "handled" 16.7%. A word being common in postings means recruiters will recognize it, but the best choice is still the one that matches the posting in front of you and what you actually did.
Related synonyms
Method. Share of 2,902 full-text job postings from S&P 500 careers sites, collected June 2026 (ATS Resume AI study). A posting counts once if any form of the word appears anywhere in its text (for "worked": worked, work with, works with, working with, work on, works on, working on, worked with, worked on). Equal-opportunity and legal boilerplate is removed first; where a word's noun sense would swamp the verb (for example "process" or "program"), only verb forms are counted. Role families with fewer than 40 postings are not reported. Data generated: 2026-10-29.