Résumé words · Analysis and research
Another word for “Found”
What it is trying to claim: That you discovered something that was not previously known.
Why it underperforms
One of the plainest and best verbs on a résumé, and its only real weakness is that people avoid it for sounding too simple. When it does fail it is for the reason every analysis verb fails: the finding sits there with nothing after it, and a discovery nobody acted on describes an organization rather than a person.
Stronger than "Found"
Not ranked. Each is right for one situation, and the situation is the column that matters.
| Word | Use it when |
|---|---|
| Discovered | The thing was genuinely hidden, not merely unnoticed. |
| Caught | It would have caused harm and you stopped it. |
| Traced | The work was following it to a source. |
| Proved | You settled a question people had been arguing about. |
| Quantified | The contribution was putting a number on it. |
A real bullet, fixed
Before
Found issues in the billing data.
After
Found that 3% of subscriptions were being billed a cycle late after a timezone change, worth about $40k a year, and wrote the reconciliation that now catches it nightly.
Scale, cause and the thing you left behind. The finding alone would have been half the bullet.
When “Found” is the right word
Very widely. It is shorter than "identified", carries no false formality, and puts the discovery at the front of the sentence where a reader will actually see it.
Common questions
- What can I say instead of "Found" on a résumé?
- Discovered, Caught, Traced, Proved. Pick the one that matches what you actually did, then follow it with a number. Scale, cause and the thing you left behind. The finding alone would have been half the bullet.
- Is "Found" bad on a résumé?
- One of the plainest and best verbs on a résumé, and its only real weakness is that people avoid it for sounding too simple. When it does fail it is for the reason every analysis verb fails: the finding sits there with nothing after it, and a discovery nobody acted on describes an organization rather than a person.
- When is it fine to use "Found"?
- Very widely. It is shorter than "identified", carries no false formality, and puts the discovery at the front of the sentence where a reader will actually see it.
Fix these next
- IdentifiedThat you spotted something others had not.
- AnalyzedThat you examined data and drew something out of it.
- DiagnosedThat you found the cause of a problem, not just the symptom.
- InvestigatedThat you pursued a specific question until you had an answer.
All 125 words are on the résumé words index. For the verbs grouped by what they claim, read résumé power verbs.
After the résumé
Fixing the words is the easy half. The applying is the slow half.
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