IT and technical support are vital jobs in many organizations. Technical support representatives and customer service specialists tackle all kinds of technical issues, ensuring everything from network connections to cybersecurity tools are functioning properly; if something breaks, they escalate the issues to specialists. Given the importance of the role, hiring managers and recruiters want a user and technical support resume to feature key skills and experience.
If you’re writing a user and technical support resume and cover letter, you’ll want to highlight your professional experience and education (such as a computer science degree or customer support certifications). You’ll also want to convey your impact at previous jobs via strong power words and power verbs. Power verbs bring your resume to life and allow you to highlight your skills and accomplishments, affirm your communication skills, and ultimately help you land the job.
Preparing Your Resume
Remember: you need to tailor every element of your cover letter and resume for each individual job you apply for. Customization is key: you’ll want to show how your experience and skills are relevant to this new position. In your work history and branding statement, begin each statement or phrase with a power verb. Remember to use present-tense verbs in your profile and qualifications summary and when creating task, responsibility and accomplishment bullets for a current position. For example:
- “Escalated and prioritized key issues to specialists within the organization. Boosted the organization’s closure rate by 50 percent in six months.”
- “Investigated crucial issues and logged critical cybersecurity vulnerabilities, resulting in an overall decline in incidents.”
- “Corrected several critical issues before they reached production, boosting customer satisfaction.”
Use past-tense verbs to describe prior positions and experience in your work history. The best verbs accurately convey your impact in IT and technical support roles:
| • Appeased | • Formatted | • Resolved |
| • Allayed | • Inspected | • Responded |
| • Ascertained | • Inventoried | • Satisfied |
| • Assisted | • Investigated | • Scheduled |
| • Assured | • Issued | • Served |
| • Cabled | • Labeled | • Serviced |
| • Closed | • Located | • Set up |
| • Connected | • Logged | • Shipped |
| • Corrected | • Monitored | • Supported |
| • Diagnosed | • Performed | • Sustained |
| • Dispatched | • Pleased | • Ticketed |
| • Dissected | • Prioritized | • Tracked |
| • Eased | • Racked | • Trailed |
| • Escalated | • Remedied | • Triaged |
| • Expedited | • Repaired | • Troubleshot |
| • Fixed | • Requisitioned | • Uncovered |
The Role of A.I. in Power Verbs for Resume-Writing
We get it: you’re applying to a lot of jobs. It’s tempting to use generative A.I. tools such as ChatGPT to rapidly craft resumes and application materials. If you go this route, it’s very important to review any A.I. output and tweak it as much as you can by hand. Dice’s Optimizing Your Tech Career e-book breaks down how to use this new generation of A.I. tools in a responsible way, with an emphasis on re-reading and editing your IT and technical support resume for maximum impact.
