How To Create a Strong Resume Bullet Point with 4 Questions

There are a TON of methods and formulas that have been created to help you explain your job to people who don’t 100% get what you do. The most popular ones are STAR, PAR, and Google’s XYZ’s methods.

These formulas are great, but they mostly focus on how to answer job interview questions. That means that they’re not as helpful when it comes to creating impactful resume bullet points.

If you have no clue what I’m talking about, here’s a breakdown of the job interview question/answer formulas I mentioned above.

• STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, and Result)
• PAR method. (Problem, Action, Result)
• Google’s XYZ method (Accomplished [X] as measured by [Y], by doing [Z])

Enter: Breakroom Buddha’s 4W’s Resume Bullet Point Formula. (I totally just made this up. haha but it works, I promise). The 4W’s formula was created to help you explain exactly what you do, as clearly as possible in one resume bullet point.

This formula works so well, that you could also use it to explain your impact during any of your upcoming interviews as well!

The 4Ws Resume Bullet Point Formula:

Create your resume bullet points by answering the following questions:

• What did I do?
• Who did I help?
• Why did I do it?
• What was the outcome?
• Bonus Question: How long did it take?

Every answer to your question doesn’t need to show up in your resume bullet point. You should however aim to include at least 3 answers.

Try It Yourself: Resume Bullet Point Generator

Try building out your own resume bullet points using the generator below!

Impactful Resume Bullet Point Examples:

Here are a few resume bullet point examples that use the 4Ws Resume Bullet Point Formula:

• Successfully managed 3 calendars, scheduling 30 meetings, 7 conferences, and 20 travel bookings (what) for the head of 3 marketing teams (who) in the span of 30 days (how long).

• Consolidated company marketing services (what) in 45 days (how long); Resulted in a 15% increase (outcome) in company-wide sales (who).

• Revamped a failing (why) on-boarding program, including curriculum development and training (what), which skyrocketed quarterly performance (outcome) of 10 new hires (who) by 20%

• Successfully juggled 30 projects (what) from inception to launch on a 2-week deadline (how long), resulting in the closing of 4 high-value client contracts (outcome)

• Dropped negative customer (who) post-sales complaints by 40% (outcome) after partnering with the VP of Sales to develop and deploy a customer-centric digital claims system (what).

Use an AI Resume Analyzer + Bullet Point Generator

Okay, okay, I’ve made you work hard enough, here’s an AI tool that can help you analyze your resume and generate even more bullet points for you! Check it out now! (Note: You must make an account to use this tool!)