Looking for product manager resume tips to help you land your dream job? We've got you covered. From writing a PM resume summary to listing your accomplishments, it can be challenging to make sure that your product manager resume is up to the standard.
Aside from ensuring that your product manager resume has all the details, you must present it in an appealing way as well! This guide will help you create an excellent product manager resume that lands interviews.
Format Your Product Manager Resume in the Correct Order
Formatting your resume in reverse chronological order is the best way to display your most recent experience first, which is what you want to get across. For example, if I have 5 years of experience in product management and have been working for three years as a product manager at Company A and two years as a product manager at Company B, my resume would be formatted like this:
- Company A - Product Manager (3 Years)
- Company B - Product Manager (2 Years)
You can see that the most recent experience is at the top. This makes it easier for recruiters reading your resume to determine whether you're a good fit for their company based on what they need right now.
Write a Compelling Product Manager Resume Summary or Objective
What's the first thing people see when they look at your resume? The summary or objective statement. This is the paragraph that you write in lieu of a traditional "objective" on your resume, so it needs to be impactful and attention-grabbing.
It should showcase why you're the perfect candidate for the job. Here are some tips on how to write a good summary statement:
- Include a key achievement like increased revenue or improved customer satisfaction. Use powerful action words, e.g increased revenue by 25%, launched new product line, and quantify as much as possible, e.g: helped increase company revenues by $1 million.
- Highlight relevant skills, such as communication skills and project management skills in case they're not already obvious from other parts of your career history section on your resume.
Include a Work Experience Section
While your resume will be short, it's still important to include a section for work experience that highlights your most recent positions first. List the company name, the city and state where the company was located, and then list the title of each position you held there.
Next, provide a short description of your responsibilities for each role. Lastly, list your accomplishments for each position and across all roles as one-liners bullet points and maintain a cause-effect relationship to provide context and impact of your work.
Add Relevant Product Manager Skills
If you're applying for a product manager position, make sure that the skills listed on your resume are relevant to the job. If a company is looking for someone with experience leading teams and communicating goals to stakeholders, don't list self-reliance as one of your specialties.
Do some research on what skills they're looking for and then highlight those in your resume. Try to add a minimum of 5-7 skills based on your work experience and the company job description.
Personalize Your Resume for Each PM Job
The first step in personalizing your resume for each PM job is to use the company’s website and social media accounts to get a feel for the mission statement.
- Look at where they mention their focus on innovation, customer experience, or growth.
- What do they say about their culture? Are they fun and supportive? Do people work collaboratively?
- Are there any projects that you are interested in or want to contribute to?
Conclusion
Creating a product manager resume can be difficult if you do not know where to start. Here are some tips to help you out:
- Choose the reverse-chronological resume format so that you can list the most relevant experience at the top.
- Draft a summary in 3-5 lines talking about your accomplishments and the impact of your work.
- Include a work experience section for each employment experience, detailing your achievements and work responsibilities.
- Add a key skills section to highlight your areas of expertise and align yourself with the job description by extracting keywords from it.
- Personalize your product manager resume for each job to avoid rejection and portray yourself as their ideal candidate by meeting the requirements they list in the job description.