Project Manager resume example & writing guide

What should your project manager resume include?

Your project management resume needs to highlight your ability to spin many plates while remaining calm and effective under pressure. Project managers oversee everything, creating project plans, managing budgets, monitoring the progress of key milestones, strengthening stakeholder relationships, and much more! 

Why use this project manager resume example?

If you’re looking for a job as a project manager, we can help! With this project manager resume example and writing guide, we’ll demonstrate how to highlight your skills and background to find the best job for you. Our project manager resume opens with a concise and impactful professional summary that outlines your level of experience, specific industry knowledge, and contributions in the workplace. This is followed by bullet-pointed key skill areas that provide an impressive snapshot of your core expertise.

The professional experience section combines a punchy paragraph of core duties with bullet-pointed achievements, enabling recruiters to clearly see what you have accomplished. Additionally, this resume example is full of useful phrases and keywords specific to project management. Using these phrases boosts your resume’s chances of getting noticed by both humans and the applicant tracking software (ATS) many recruiters use.  

Which skills are relevant for a project manager resume?

When listing skills for a project manager resume, make sure they are relevant to the job you’re applying for. Consider doing some research on the most in-demand skills and see if any of them apply to you and your experience. Here’s some of the top skills to include:

• Project management

• Requirements gathering

• Budgeting and cost control

• Agile / Waterfall methodologies

• Process improvement

• Risk mitigation

• Vendor management

• Motivational leadership

How should you describe your work experience in a project manager resume?   

It’s always good to start with the basics. First, study the job description that you are applying for and write down the key functions and keywords associated with tasks. Use these while you are compiling your information and creating your resume. Customizing the resume to match the job description will impress the recruiter as they hate seeing generic resumes that could be used for any job. 

Your job experience descriptions should focus on your actions that result in benefits to the organization, as well as things that are a good fit for the new role. To make your resume stand out from the competition, emphasize your quantifiable achievements (utilizing specific metrics or results) and pack some punch into your core responsibilities by incorporating action verbs such as planned, steered, or orchestrated.  If you're fairly new to the field, include any projects you managed, even if you weren't the project manager, such as moving an office, managing budgets, and working with vendors. Every bit helps!

How can you create a professional summary for a project manager resume?   

The professional profile is your initial pitch, so it needs to hook the reader and promote you as the perfect project manager for the job opening. Keep your professional summary to three or four key sentences that highlight your core experience and success in steering projects to successful completion. Your soft skills such as relationship building, creative thinking, and multi-tasking capabilities are also attributes you want to shine the spotlight on.

Tips on developing an on-point education section for your project manager resume 

Creating a targeted education section will improve the performance of your recruiter resume. Here’s some key areas to focus on:

• Start with your highest degree first. Keep this information to the type of degree, subject you have majored in, and the university name and location. If you completed your degree in the last three years you can also include the year of completion

• Include any professional certifications you’ve completed or are working towards. You can also include a section with relevant professional memberships and affiliations. These credentials demonstrate that you have the desired expertise and that you're focused and committed to project management as a career for the long term. 

How to select the most impactful project manager resume template?

The best format to use is a clean and modern resume design in reverse chronological order, placing your most recent experience first. In this format you can list projects under the relevant role and the hiring manager can clearly see your progression in the workplace. If you’re a freelance project manager who’s hopped about a bit across different contracts, a project resume may be a better option.