Résumé words · Results and numbers
Another word for “Completed”
What it is trying to claim: That something finished.
Why it underperforms
Finishing is the minimum expectation of assigned work, so as a claim it is self-limiting: the strongest thing it can mean is that you did not abandon it. It is also frequently attached to training and courses, where it describes attendance with a certificate at the end. The word is not wrong; it just rarely deserves the front of a bullet when a more specific verb is available.
Stronger than "Completed"
Not ranked. Each is right for one situation, and the situation is the column that matters.
| Word | Use it when |
|---|---|
| Delivered | There was a recipient and a deadline. |
| Shipped | Software that reached users. |
| Qualified | The completion produced a credential. |
| Finished | Plain, and useful when you inherited it half-done. |
| Closed | Cases, tickets or deals. Give the count. |
A real bullet, fixed
Before
Completed a data migration project.
After
Finished a warehouse migration that had already slipped twice, moving 40 dashboards over 5 weeks with no reporting downtime.
That it had failed before is what makes finishing it an achievement, and that context costs one clause.
When “Completed” is the right word
Where completion genuinely was in doubt or is itself the credential: a qualification, a program with a real failure rate, or a project that had already been abandoned once.
Common questions
- What can I say instead of "Completed" on a résumé?
- Delivered, Shipped, Qualified, Finished. Pick the one that matches what you actually did, then follow it with a number. That it had failed before is what makes finishing it an achievement, and that context costs one clause.
- Is "Completed" bad on a résumé?
- Finishing is the minimum expectation of assigned work, so as a claim it is self-limiting: the strongest thing it can mean is that you did not abandon it. It is also frequently attached to training and courses, where it describes attendance with a certificate at the end. The word is not wrong; it just rarely deserves the front of a bullet when a more specific verb is available.
- When is it fine to use "Completed"?
- Where completion genuinely was in doubt or is itself the credential: a qualification, a program with a real failure rate, or a project that had already been abandoned once.
Fix these next
- DeliveredThat something finished and arrived.
- AchievedThat you reached a target.
- SuccessfullyThat the thing you are describing worked.
- BuiltThat you constructed something from parts.
All 125 words are on the résumé words index. For the verbs grouped by what they claim, read résumé power verbs.
After the résumé
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