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A resume that shows results: used to and action verbs for a tech resume

Learners practice resume action verbs and used to in this B1 English for IT lesson plan on resumes that show results.

Grammar
Used to for past habits and states (I used to work in IT support), didn't use to and Did you use to…?, and the past simple for one event.
Topic
Hiring a junior QA engineer at a fictional payments startup, with words such as candidate, achievement, bullet point and migrate.
Activities
A story about a resume formula, a team post with two resumes, a call, self-checking drills, a recruiter chat and a wheel, then resume lines to write and a career story to record.

What's inside

  1. Chapter 1Warm-up: Your Career So Far

    • PictureUnlock
    • Open a box and answer the questionOpen the boxUnlock
    • Study the words for resumes and resultsVocabularyTry it
    • Look at the pictures and choose the wordChoose by pictureUnlock

  2. Chapter 2The Story: One Line, Three Parts

    • Read the story: a formula for every lineArticleUnlock
    • Choose the correct answer about the storyQuizUnlock

  3. Chapter 3At Work: Two Resumes, One Job

    • Read Kenji's post and the team's repliesReal-life documentTry it
    • True or false? Check Kenji's postTrue or falseUnlock
    • Pick the stronger resume lineQuizUnlock

  4. Chapter 4Listen: The Resume Pile

    • Listen to Kenji and Iryna talk about resumesListeningTry it
    • Transcript, for the teacherUnlock
    • True or false? Check the callTrue or falseUnlock

  5. Chapter 5Grammar: I Used to Work in Support

    • Study the scheme: used to and the past simpleGrammar schemeTry it
    • Choose the correct form: used to or the past simple?Choose the optionUnlock
    • Fill in the gaps: rewrite with didn't use to or Did … use to…?Fill in the gapsUnlock
    • Fill in the table: then and nowFill in the tableTry it
    • Drag the words into the gaps in a tester's resumeDrag and dropUnlock

  6. Chapter 6Speak Up: Then and Now

    • Choose the best reply to the recruiterChatTry it
    • Spin the wheel: then and nowSpin the wheelUnlock

  7. Chapter 7Homework: Your Resume Lines

    • Read your phrase bankReal-life documentUnlock
    • Choose the correct sentenceQuizUnlock
    • Match the words with their meaningsMatchUnlock
    • Write your resume summary and three linesWriting, checked by the teacherUnlock
    • Record your career storySpeaking, checked by the teacherUnlock

24 exercises in 7 chapters. Start a 7-day free trial to open all of them, copy any part into your own lessons, and teach the lesson live.

Resume vocabulary

12 words and phrases from the lesson, each with a picture and audio in edio.

+9 more with pictures and audio in the lessonMore words

  • a recruiter
  • an achievement
  • a bullet point
  • a career change
  • a formula
  • measure
  • reduce
  • automate
  • migrate

Grammar: used to for your career path

A resume summary and a recruiter's first question both ask for a career path: what you did then, the move, and what you do now. Learners keep used to for habits and states that are over, the past simple for one event, and the present simple for today.

used to: your career path, then and now

used to + base verb: a past habit or state that is not true now. One event in the past: the past simple. Now: the present simple.

Then, one event, now

A career story has three times. A habit that is over takes used to (I used to answer tickets), the move takes the past simple (I took a coding course), and today takes the present simple: Now I build Android apps.

pastnow
  • I used to answer tickets (a habit, over now)
  • I took a coding course (one event)
  • Now I build Android apps

One form for every person

Used to stays the same after I, she or we: She used to be a teacher. In negatives and questions, did carries the past, so write use to: We didn't use to write tests. Did you use to test by hand? Both spellings sound the same.

The form: the same for every person

FormPatternExample
Positiveused to + base verbI used to work in IT support.
Negativedidn't use to + base verbWe didn't use to write tests.
QuestionDid … use to + base verb?Did you use to test by hand?
Short answerYes, I did. / No, I didn't.Did you use to code? No, I didn't.
Wh- questionWhat / Where did … use to…?What did you use to do before QA?

use or used?

After did and didn't, write use to: Did you use to…? I didn't use to… (American spelling; it sounds the same as used to). used to is only for the past: for now, say Now I… or I usually… With a date, a number of times or one event, use the past simple.

Used to or the past simple?

Used to describes repeated actions and states over a stretch of time: We used to deploy once a month. A date, a number of times or a single event needs the past simple: In 2022, I moved to QA. I changed jobs three times.

What you talk aboutFormExample
a habit that is overused toWe used to deploy once a month.
a state that is over (be, have, live, like)used toShe used to be a teacher.
one event at one time (in 2022, two years ago)past simpleIn 2022, I moved to QA.
a number of timespast simpleI changed jobs three times.
nowpresent simpleNow I build Android apps.

Career paths from the team

The examples come from a team chat and a call about a pile of resumes. One of them sums up a whole career change in two sentences: She used to be a chemistry teacher. Two years ago, she moved to QA.

  • I used to work in IT support.Iryna, on the call
  • I didn't use to think about numbers.Iryna
  • Did your resume use to look like that?Kenji
  • I used to build iOS screens all day. Now I build them between meetings.Kenji
  • She used to be a chemistry teacher. Two years ago, she moved to QA.Iryna, about a candidate
  • I used to write “responsible for” on every line.Iryna, in the team chat

Typical mistakes

  • I use to work in support.

    I used to work in support.

    positive: used to

  • I didn't used to code.

    I didn't use to code.

    after didn't: use to

  • Did you used to test by hand?

    Did you use to test by hand?

    after Did: use to

  • I used to move to San Francisco in 2022.

    I moved to San Francisco in 2022.

    one event: past simple

More lessons on this grammar: Used to lessons and exercises

Try the used to for careers exercises

Try them yourself: these are the same exercises your students do in edio.

More exercises

What's in the lesson

  • 12 auto-checked exercises
  • 2 games
  • 2 teacher-checked tasks
  • 2 real-life documents
  • 1 article
  • 1 grammar scheme
  • 1 set of word cards
  • 1 audio clip
  • 1 picture
  • 1 transcript

The main objectives of this lesson are to:

  • tell a career path with used to, one event in the past simple and the present: I used to work in support. Two years ago, I moved to QA.
  • ask and answer about past jobs with Did you use to…? and didn't use to, with no d after did
  • write resume lines that open with an action verb and show a result: Reduced bugs found after release by 30% by adding a release checklist.
  • answer a recruiter's questions about a resume line: what you automated, what changed and how you measured it

Lesson 22 opens Your next job, the last unit of English for IT B1 · Inside the Team, which prepares learners to present their experience with clear examples and answer common interview questions. It takes used to and didn't use to from A2.2 lessons 17 and 18 into a career path, beside the past simple, and lesson 23 moves on to the past perfect for interview stories.

The warm-up opens boxes of questions about first jobs and resumes, then teaches twelve words with pictures and audio, from candidate and job opening to automate and migrate. The story is Laszlo Bock's 2014 LinkedIn post, written when he was Google's head of people operations: a formula for resume lines, offered as his personal advice. At work, a tech lead posts two resumes for a junior QA job without names, and a quiz asks for the stronger line for six roles. Two developers then screen resumes in an AI-voiced call, and four self-checking drills follow the scheme, among them a then-and-now table.

In the chat, students play a candidate whose resume says Worked on test automation and answer a recruiter with numbers; a wheel adds then-and-now questions, two discussions and a recruiter role-play. After a phrase bank, the homework's quiz and word match check themselves, and a resume summary with three lines and a recorded career story go to the teacher.

Grammar:
used to · used to vs past simple
Topic:
resumes · career · hiring

Teaching tips

  • Collect weak lines before the reading: each learner writes one Responsible for… line about their own job, then rewrites it after the team post as a result, a number and how.
  • Draw one learner's career on the board: a wavy line for used to, a dot for the move, a star for now. The class asks What did you use to do? and When did you move?
  • With an in-company group, agree on real numbers first: build time, tickets closed, releases a month. Each learner turns one into a resume line with by + -ing.
  • One-to-one, play the recruiter with the learner's real resume: after each line, ask What changed? and How did you measure that?, as the chat does.

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The whole course: English for IT B1 · Inside the Team

24 lessons at B1 for people who build, test or run software, in American English. Learners follow Iryna, a junior developer, through her first year at Kestrel Cloud, a fictional payments startup: standups, tickets, code review, chats across time zones and job interviews. Each lesson is built around a true story from software history.See the course

  1. Unit 1 Hello, team

    roles, stacks and first days: the present simple, the present perfect with for and since, question forms

    1. Lesson 1How big is a two-pizza team?Present simple for jobs and responsibilities
    2. Lesson 2Your first "Hello, World"Present perfect with for and since
    3. Lesson 3Write your personal READMEQuestion forms for getting to know colleagues

  2. Unit 2 The daily standup

    updates and blockers: the present simple and continuous, just, already and yet, have to and need to

    1. Lesson 4Why is it called a scrum?Present simple vs continuous and state verbs
    2. Lesson 5Done, not done yetPast simple, present perfect and going to for updates
    3. Lesson 6Help, I'm blocked!Have to, need to, don't have to and can't

  3. Unit 3 Bugs and tickets

    clear bug reports: the past continuous, imperatives and the zero conditional, quantifiers

    1. Lesson 7The first actual bugPast simple and past continuous for bug stories
    2. Lesson 8Steps to reproduceImperatives and the zero conditional for bug reports
    3. Lesson 9The email that couldn't go 500 milesQuantifiers in bug tickets

  4. Unit 4 Code review

    kind, useful comments: -ed and -ing adjectives, modals for suggestions, the first conditional

    1. Lesson 10What's a nit?-ed and -ing adjectives in review comments
    2. Lesson 11Could we maybe…?Modals for suggestions in code review
    3. Lesson 12Your first pull requestThe first conditional and unless in code review

  5. Unit 5 How it works

    explaining systems step by step: time clauses, the passive, relative clauses

    1. Lesson 13What happens when you type a URL?Time clauses with as soon as, until and once
    2. Lesson 14How is a barcode read?The present and past simple passive
    3. Lesson 15Draw it, then say itDefining relative clauses

  6. Unit 6 Remote and async

    chat, email and time zones: polite requests, future forms, the present perfect continuous

    1. Lesson 16Just say what you needPolite requests and indirect questions
    2. Lesson 17Your 9 a.m. is my noonFuture forms for plans across time zones
    3. Lesson 18Write it downPresent perfect continuous for status updates

  7. Unit 7 Users and clients

    user stories and plain explanations: verb + to or -ing, reported speech, comparisons

    1. Lesson 19As a user, I want…Verb + to or verb + -ing
    2. Lesson 20"The client said it was broken"Reported speech for client calls
    3. Lesson 21Explain it in ten hundred wordsComparisons for plain explanations

  8. Unit 8 Your next job

    resumes and interviews: used to, the past perfect, the second conditional

    1. Lesson 22 · you're hereA resume that shows resultsUsed to for your career path
    2. Lesson 23Tell me about a time when…The past perfect for STAR stories
    3. Lesson 24What would you do if…?The second conditional for interviews

Questions about this lesson

What are good action verbs for a resume?
Good resume verbs name what you did and what changed: built, reduced, led, migrated, automated, improved, cut. Open each line with one, with no I, then add a number and how you did it: Reduced app crashes by 40%, from 50 to 30 a week, by fixing the three most common bugs. The B1 English for IT lesson A resume that shows results on edio.ai collects them in a phrase bank.
How do you use "used to" to talk about your career?
Use used to for what is over, the past simple for the move and the present simple for now: I used to work in IT support. Two years ago, I moved to QA. Now I build Android apps. Used to takes the base verb, with the same form for every person. A recruiter may ask What did you use to do there?, so add detail: I used to answer about forty tickets a day.
Can you use "used to" with a date or a number of times?
No: dates and counts need the past simple: I moved to San Francisco in 2022, not I used to move…; I changed jobs three times, not I used to change jobs… Used to is for past habits and states: We used to deploy once a month. The recruiter chat in A resume that shows results, a B1 English for IT lesson on edio.ai, offers I used to move to QA two years ago as a wrong reply.
What can you write instead of "responsible for" on a resume?
Write a strong verb and the result it led to. Responsible for testing the company's mobile app only names a duty; Cut test time for each release from three days to one by automating 120 manual checks shows what changed, how much and how. Ask three questions about every duty: what changed, by how much, and what did I do? The answers give the verb, the number and the by + -ing part.
How do you write accomplishments on a resume?
Write each accomplishment as a result, a number and the method: Reduced bugs found after release by 30%, from 20 to 14 a month, by adding a release checklist. A before-and-after number makes the line stronger. If your work is hard to measure, count something anyway: time saved, customers helped or how often something happened. Lines outside code work the same way: Answered 45 tickets a day, 10 more than the team average, by using saved replies.
What is the XYZ resume formula?
The XYZ formula is a pattern for one resume line: what you achieved (X), the number that measures it (Y) and what you did (Z). Laszlo Bock, then Google's head of people operations, wrote it in a 2014 LinkedIn post as Accomplished [X] as measured by [Y] by doing [Z], calling it his personal formula, not a company rule. For example: Cut test time from five days to two by automating 80 manual checks.
Should a resume line say "I" or "we"?
Show your own part inside the team's result. Resume lines usually start with the verb and drop the pronoun, so make the verb yours: Automated 60 checks for login and checkout, not Worked on test automation. When a recruiter asks whose work it was, name both: Both. I wrote the checks, and a developer helped me add them to the pipeline. Claiming everything, or nothing, sounds weaker.
How do I teach resume action verbs to B1 learners?
Rebuild one weak line together: Worked on test automation becomes a line with a verb, a number and a method. Learners then pick a verb for their own work (reduced, built, led), add a before-and-after number and say how with by + -ing; testers and support staff can count bugs found or tickets answered. In A resume that shows results, a B1 English for IT lesson on edio.ai, a quiz asks for the stronger line for six roles.
What's good homework for practicing resume lines?
Good homework is a short resume summary plus three lines with results, using both the grammar and the verbs: I used to work in IT support at a bank. Three years ago, I moved to a backend team. The homework of A resume that shows results, a B1 English for IT lesson on edio.ai, starts with a quiz and a word match that check themselves; the written lines and a recorded career story go to the teacher.
Are there interactive exercises for used to and resume English?
Yes: tables and chats that check each answer let learners practice career language on their own. This page plays four parts of A resume that shows results, a B1 English for IT lesson on edio.ai, without an account: a team post comparing two resumes, a call about screening them, a then-and-now table (I used to work in IT support. Now I work on a mobile team.) and a chat with a recruiter. The other exercises are locked.
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