Times are tough for Project Managers, especially those who contract out their services. There aren't many jobs, and there's a lot of competition for the jobs that do become available.
Whilst a resume won't get you a job, it can determine whether or not you even get to the interview stage. So let's look at what you need in a great project management resume.
Key Information
Contact Details
Include your name, address, phone number, mobile and email (professional email address only – not spanky24@hotmail.com). Make sure your name and phone/email contacts are on each page in case the pages get separated at any stage.
It is no longer usual to include details such as gender, age, marital status, religion, ethnicity or health. Some experts strongly counsel against including these details. It can make your resume look dated and this personal information is not relevant to your ability to do the job.
Career Objective?
There are differences of opinion over including a career objective. They are certainly fine for school leavers/uni grads and can be helpful when you want to change industries or careers. However, assuming you are a professional project manager, a career summary will be better.
Career Summary
This is a one paragraph overview of your career to date and includes highlights of your professional, academic and industry training. Personal attributes are optional. You can also finish the career summary with a career objective eg - "While currently a project manager, my career goal is to move into general management". If you do use one, expect to rewrite it, even slightly, to match each job you apply for.
Key Strengths
The aim is to give the person reading your resume a quick snapshot of what you have to offer. As a guide, six points is good but there is no real rule. Also, be specific. Don’t just write "Excellent Communication Skills", say what skills exactly and how you acquired them.
Career History / Professional Experience
This section outlines your career history and/or transferable skills depending on the resume style chosen. In a traditional or chronological resume you would document your work experience, starting with your most recent or current job first and go back in reverse chronological order.
For jobs you want to emphasise list the following: job title, company name, dates of employment (months and years), company description if organisation is not well known, responsibilities and achievements .
If a recruiter is not likely to be familiar with a former employer, as would be the case with overseas companies and small to medium sized businesses, then you should include a description of the employer.
Be specific, succinct and clear when listing your responsibilities. Think about what you actually do or did in your role. What were your responsibilities? What were you accountable for? Each statement should commence with an action verb, followed by a description of the task.
Action verbs usually end in ‘ed’ and describe how you performed the task or action.
Transferable Skills
Many job adverts today want specific skills or industry exposure that you may not have. That's where transferable skills come in. Say the job is in retail, but you've only ever worked in finance. You may have picked up some transferable skills through volunteer work or in your earlier years.
Here’s how you go about recognising and developing a list of your transferable skills:
Make a list of all transferable skills you’ve acquired through study, hobbies, sports and paid and unpaid employment. Find out what skills are required for the job you’re applying for. You can do this by scanning the advertisement or skimming the job description for clues. Tick off any transferable skills that match to the job. Select skill headings that relate to the job, then create a skills-based resume or functional format resume.
Achievements
Although potential employers are interested in your past duties and responsibilities, they’re more concerned with what you accomplished that went beyond ‘just doing the job’, as this shows how you could potentially contribute to their company’s success in the future. Achievements include things like staff awards, special commendations, suggestions you put forward or helped to implement that led to cost savings or an increase in revenue, access to new clients, higher levels of customer service, time efficiencies and so on.
The top ten achievements most employers would desire in an applicant:
• Saving money or reducing costs
• Improving a system or process
• Introducing a new system or process
• Exceeding targets or objectives
• Solving problems
• Exceeding customer expectations
• Generating income
• Improving employee morale
• Developing staff
• Taking on extra responsibility
Be sure to list the benefits to the organisation as a result of your achievement. Did you reduce costs? Save time? Increase efficiency and productivity? Detail specifically what you did and outline what was achieved. Did you invent or design something? Did you initiate the development of something new? Did you streamline a process or procedure?
Where possible try to back up your claims with numbers, percentages and dollar amounts (without giving away company secrets) to give yourself credibility. Please note: meeting a target is not an achievement - it's doing what you are paid to do. Coming in ahead of schedule and under budget by 10% is an achievement.
Education and Training
Start with your highest qualification first and leave your secondary school history out. This section can cover university, Technical training, industry courses, in-house courses, and any other professional training. A typical format lists the name of the qualification, the date you graduated (or commenced if still studying), the institution which granted it and your major. You can add the name of any scholarships or awards you have won to the second line.
Professional Memberships/Licences and accreditations
Include only those relevant to your career and include any positions held.
References and Referees
This should be the last thing on the resume. Include the name, company and phone number of your referees. Remember, you must gain someone’s agreement before you list them as a referee. A new employer generally won’t contact referees until they have selected a preferred candidate or couple of candidates. For that reason it’s perfectly acceptable to write “Referees are available on request”, “References will be provided at interview” or "Written references available upon request" if you wish.
Optional Extras
A good resume is succinct and only includes items that are relevant. Only include the items listed if they will truly strengthen your application. Optional extras include knowledge of foreign languages, Publications, interests & hobbies, marital status, age and other personal information.
If you include any of the optional extras you should put them immediately before References.
So that's it – they key information you need in a great resume. Look out for my next article where we'll look at style and presentation for your resume.
Diane Ellis has been a Project and Program Manager for over 25 years, and has recently released a new simple guide to project management called Project Management Made Easy. You can learn more about Diane and her new book, as well as sign up for a free course on Troubleshooting the Most Common Challenges Project Managers Face, at www.ManageThatProject.com .
www.ManageThatProject.com
