subject: Project Manager Resume – 7 Ways To Make Yours Incredible [print this page] In the current business world titles do not hold the value they once did. A teenager could be a CEO, an accountant could be CFO and a Project Manager could be anyone! As you're a fully qualified project manager with years of experience how do you compete within the sheer volume of resumes that recruiters see day in and day out.
You need to separate yourself from the crowd in a professional manner, but how is this done?
Here are the top 7 things I've done in my project management resume to make it rise above the rest.
1. Make the first page "scannable"
Recruiters scan resumes. They quickly read over the first page looking for keywords relevant to the job they are seeking a candidate for. If you aren't placing those important keywords into your first page you'll simply fail to get a call. Think about putting keywords like Prince2, PMP, scope, time, quality and qualified on your front page.
2. Are you clear enough about your experience?
Can a recruiter clearly tell what jobs, roles and responsibilities you've performed? Can a recruiter tell easily what projects you've worked on by skimming through your resume? Don't assume a recruiter will work hard to find out about your experience, you need to give it to them.
If a recruiter can't quickly tell what you've done in your recent career you're toast!
3. Big Numbers
Don't be afraid to pump yourself up a bit quote some big numbers. We all manage budgets, resources, and time. Why not total those up and really make a statement on your resume. If you can't show big budgets why not describe "potential" savings or sales as a result of your project.
For example try writing something like: "Successfully delivered $5M Process Improvement project resulting in widespread measurable process efficiencies"
4. Create a career achievements section
Create a section titled "career achievements" and list one career achievements per line in this section. Again, don't be afraid to pump it up, pull out all your big impressive statistics. The bigger the statements the better, you want to encourage the reader to read the next line.
5. List your Certifications in the career achievements section
Regardless of your beliefs about experience vs certifications, know that the more certifications you have the better off you are. However, sometimes we tend to list courses and certifications in the back section of our resumes, bad. There is a more important place to put them. On the front page!
6. Don't point to any websites
Pointing to a personal or portfolio website can spell disaster. It's just too easy for someone to post negative comments, negative pictures or links on your website. Recruiters also don't have the time be looking at website, put everything you want to show in your resume.
7. Use a current project manager's resume template
A current template provides you with the following benefits:
Helps you to apply for jobs faster as most of the work is already done, you just need to populate it
Ensures you're submitting documentation in a current format
Allows you to spend your time more productively on writing instead of fighting with Word.
These 7 simple but powerful changes to your resume will add that extra oomph to your resume ensuring that a recruiter knows they are dealing with a true professional.
Project Manager Resume 7 Ways To Make Yours Incredible
