Project manager CV

How write a Project Manager CV

Even if you’re perfect for a job, your CV can easily get lost amongst the multitude of other applicants.

Avoid this fate by following our step by step guide on how to write up a best in class Curriculum Vitae that will make you stand out. Learn how to not only pack it with what the recruiter wants, but also in the professional and appealing way they want it.

Winning that all important interview is no easy task, but by following the advice below it’s certainly doable.

Guide overview:

• CV Structure
• Contact details
• Personal summary
• Project Manager work experience
• Skills section
• Education
• Hobbies and interests
• Project Manager Frequently Asked Questions

Do’s and Don’ts for a Project Manager CV

Do’s:

• Target your CV at the job you’re applying for. Analyse the vacancy’s job description to identify the employer’s requirements, then mimic these in your CV.
• Shout about your achievements and highlight your career accomplishments.
• Be concise and get straight to the point.
• Use statistics, numbers, percentages and figures to back up your claims.
• Proofread your final version before submitting it. Ensure that its flows well and is free from spelling, grammar, and formatting mistakes.

Don’ts:

• Focus too much on the past, instead concentrate on the present. Recruiters are interested in what you’ve done recently, not what you did 10 years ago.
• Use two words when one will do. Re-read your CV a few times to spot unnecessarily long sentences.
• Write a CV longer than 2 pages, you want to avoid information overload.
• Use lazy clicks that too many jobseekers use like ‘work well in a team’, or ‘honest, reliable and trustworthy’. Instead write something that is unique and relevant to the role.
• Ignore the format of your CV. A badly structured CV can be difficult to read and may not effectively communicate your strengths.

CV Structure

A well-structured CV is a job seekers best friend. It can help you get seen by recruiters and win that all important interview.

That’s why it’s a must for serious job seekers to make it easy for employers to find their strongest points. Do this by having a clearly laid out format that puts categories and keywords in logical order and prominent places.

Want to know how to make your CV layout error proof? Read on and learn how create one that blows the reader away, and not your chances.

CV Layout

You need a layout that allows recruiters to quickly pick out the information you want them to see and thereby reinforce your suitability for their vacancy. Below is a list of the main sections to optimise.

Create a simple well organised one that is easy on the eye, and which can be quickly scanned and navigated.

Avoid using over the top graphics, fonts and bright colours which can pollute a design and distract the reader from your biggest selling points. Instead go for a clean style that uses plenty of white space to break it chunks of text.

CV Length

A lengthy CV can do you more harm than good. Instead of trying to cram everything into your document, use the ‘less is more’ philosophy when writing your CV. Ideally your CV should be no longer than 2 pages, however, if you are applying for specialist positions i.e. Academic roles, then 3 pages is also acceptable.

The simple way to keep it short is to firstly only include relevant information and secondly not to repeat what you’ve already said in other parts of your CV or your cover letter.

Related: How long should a CV be?

Contact details

Start your CV with your personal contact details. This is an important section where recruiters go to when they want to contact you. It site at the top of your CV, above everything else, meaning your name and job title is the first thing a recruiter will see.

Failing to include your correct details could result in a missed opportunity. If a potential employer wants to invite you to an interview, but can’t get hold of you, they’ll see this as sloppiness on your behalf. In this scenario they’ll just go to the next candidate.

Begin with your name, address, and contact details. Although they will appear prominently at the top of the page, they should not take up too much valuable space. If applicable you can also include a link to your LinkedIn profile.

You details need to be accurate and easy to find.

What to include in your contact details:

• Full name
• Professional job title
• Address (city or town only)
• Phone number
• Email address
• LinkedIn profile

What not to include in your contact details:

• Age
• Date of birth
• Marital status
• Nationality

Project manager CV contact details example:

Project Manager CV personal summary

Also known as a career summary, profile or statement, it’s a paragraph or two of between 100 to 150 words in length, that sits at the top of your CV.

It introduces you as a candidate by giving recruiters a quick overview of your background and what you can do for them. Use it to immediately emphasize and demonstrate your ability to make an organization more competitive, efficient, and profitable.

Introduce yourself with a hard-hitting statement telling the employer exactly what you can offer them. Do this by drawing attention to your accomplishments and achievements. Avoid generalities and instead strengthen what you’re saying by concentrating on experiences and competencies specific to the role you are applying for.

As it’s the first thing a Hiring Manager will see, it needs to be snappy, to the point and immediately pitch you as the ideal candidate for the role. Its aim is to arouse their interest in you enough to continue reading your application. Being the ultimate quick sales proposal, it should show employers how you’ve previously excelled as a Project Manager.

In it include any or all the following:

• A list of your most relevant project management skills.

• Details of your professional achievements.

• Any related work experience.

• What are you hoping to be able to achieve in this job.

Related: How to write a personal summary

A diagram showing the breakdown of a personal summary:

Project Manager work experience

The purpose of this section is to list your employment history in a way that reinforces your suitability for the role. Do this by keeping things simple, clear, and to the point.

When listing your work duties, use a maximum of six bullet points to describe them. It’s best practice to list your most relevant responsibilities at the top of this list. Tailor this section as much as possible to the vacancies job description y mimicking the keywords used in it.

Convince recruiters to take you seriously by giving them an achievement focused account of your work experience. Because project management is a results-driven field, prospective employers ideally want to see your track record of hitting objectives, boosting productivity, making efficiencies and cutting expenses etc. When doing this make sure to quantify them further with numbers, data and statistics.

Remember to concentrate as much as you can on those project management work duties and responsibilities relevant to the job you are applying for.

How to catalogue your career summary;

• Reverse chronological order is best format, where you start with the most recent position held and works backwards.

• Include your job title, company name, location, and the dates of employment.

• Use roughly 6 bullet points to list your duties and accomplishments.

How to lay out your CV’s employment history;

Skills section

In here put those hard and soft abilities that are most relevant to the job you are applying for.

Hiring Managers always scan this section looking for proof that you are the best fit their role. Give it to them by showcasing how you have up skilled yourself and can bring new knowledge to their operations.

Give yourself a further edge over others by identifying the most in-demand project management hard and soft skills a company expects in a candidates, and then putting examples of them in this section.

Use up to 6 bullet pointed sentences to emphasise a range of industry-specific competencies. Sprinkle them with jargon and keywords from the job description.

Related: Project manager skills

Skill sets to include in your CV

Troubleshooting

Highlight your ability to identify present and future risks and to come up with solutions to deal with them. Mention your skill at identifying unreasonable project timelines, poorly defined requirements and unclear project objectives.

Management skills

Mention your leadership skills and ability to influence project staff to get the best out of them. Furthermore, stress that you are a mature  individual who is prepared to take overall responsibility for the successful planning, execution and outcome of a project.

Multitasking

Provide examples of how you effectively use your time to control several tasks at once. For instance how you manage a project for 50% of the time, then perform business analysis for 30% and do administration for the remaining 20%.

Project accounting

Demonstrate your experience at analyzing a projects feasibility, profitability, revenue margins and costs. Show how you can keep a tight control on budgetary costs and expenses.

Include an Education section

This is the place to mention your academic achievements, relevant project manager qualifications, formal training and related certification.

It’s where you state the number qualifications achieved and general grades you attained. It’s a great way to show that you have the dedication, as well as study and learning skills needed to pick up knowledge.

Place your education section towards the end of your CV, below everything else.

Briefly name the School, College and University attended, along with the dates, subjects studied and grades you achieved. Also include anything that you feel could be of interest to the Hiring Manager, such as relevant certificates, or intellectual areas of excellence.

Your aim is to show that you are a well educated applicant who has the discipline and intellect needed to learn and gain knowledge. Do this by mentioning training courses you’ve completed and certifications you’ve gained such as Project Management Professional (PMP), PRINCE2, Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM), and PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP) etc.

Example of how to layout you academic qualifications;

Hobbies and interests

Whilst a CV tells your professional story, a hobbies section will tell your personal story.

This is not a mandatory section to include, but a optional one. The best pastimes are those that show you as a sociable individual who finds it easy to make friends and work as part of a team.

Hiring managers are inquisitive by nature and want to know as much as they can about a good candidate. This is the place to tell them. Reveal more about yourself by telling them about your leisure time activities and what you do for fun. Doing this can round off your job application by revealing your human side.

As always, give priority to those interests that are relevant to the job you’re applying for. Focus on hobbies that signal positive personality traits such as determination, willpower and of course teamwork, which will show you’ll a good addition to any existing setup.

Are they important?

Yes, especially if you are up against other equally matched candidates and the final decision is close. In this case what you do in your off time may show you as someone who fits in more closely with the employer’s culture. This could be the final straw that seals the deal. In most cases however, bear in mind that they are only read if the rest of your application ticks all the right boxes.

Where to place them

The interests section usually sits at the bottom of a CV, propping up the more important categories above it.

Who uses them

Although usually seen as space fillers and the remit of less experienced applicants, they can also be useful to highly qualified candidates who want to stand out from equally matched opponents.

What to avoid

Do not mention hobbies that may expose aspects of your private life that you’d like to keep secret. Also avoid those than may be interpreted as being dangerous, weird, controversial or antisocial.

List of individual and team hobbies;

Project Manager CV Frequently Asked Questions

Mistakes to avoid when writing a Project Manager CV?

There is a long list of common mistakes that many job seekers make when putting together their CV. Any of these on their own can derail a job application and spoil your hard work. Below is a list of the most common and easily avoidable ones.

Grammar and spelling mistakes

They are hated by hiring managers, because they show a lack of attention and professionalism on the part of the job seeker. These are easy to spot, and a simple error can get your CV binned in an instance. Avoid them by carefully and slowly reading out your completed CV loudly to yourself. To make doubly sure, you can get a reliable friend to read it as well and also use a spell checking tool.

Bad CV structure

In the competitive world of job hunting, how you write, layout and present your CV is important. That’s because a poorly structured one is hard to read and find key information in. Recruiters typically spend less than 10 seconds scanning your CV to find the skills and experiences they are looking for in a candidate. A badly laid out document will make it infinitely more difficult for them to see your strongest points.

Tip: Experienced project managers should always use a chronological CV format.

Not targeting your CV at the job

Too many jobseekers write a generic CV that they send into every role they apply for. This is a big mistake. Your CV should be written for the job you are applying for. Although it requires more work, it’s definitely worth the effort. It stands more chance of getting past any ATS and hiring managers will appreciate that you’ve taken the effort to research the role and write something specifically for them.

What is the most important Project Manager skill? 

It must be collaboration. The ability to operate as part of a team and work with others is the cornerstone of any project.

Being able to communicate with both junior and senior colleagues helps you get work done quickly and more efficiently. It also ensures that instructions are clearly communicated, and duties delegated in a tactful and non-confrontational manner.

All in all, it leads to a better atmosphere within a group and moral, which means a happier work place and increased productivity.

How often should I update my CV?

You should overhaul your CV whenever you develop new skills, achieve a milestone in your career or gain additional work experiences. Doing this on a regular basis reflects progression and success on your behalf. Any new relevant competencies should be reflected in both your CV and online profiles.

Remember your CV and long-term career management plan should be a work in progress and never a one off document.