Most companies need a project manager: construction, banking or IT. In IT, such an employee leads the software development processes. She/he knows how to communicate with programmers, designers, customers, plans work, allocates resources, and manages risks.
A project manager is a person appointed by the executing organization to lead the team, also, he/she has responsibilities for achieving the goals of the plan. On the market, the concept of who the Project Manager is quite vague. Someone thinks that he/she should have programming experience. For someone, soft skills are more important.
One of the most important criteria for a project manager lies in the experience. Also, of course, HR managers will certainly take an interest in the education received, acquired hard and soft skills and personal qualities.
In our article, we will discuss how to tell about ourselves in the best way to get the desired position of the project manager.
Briefly about the manager’s resume format
In the resume, the project manager should not only tell interesting facts about her/his work history but also do it in the correct format. You can emphasize your professionalism in different formats: chronological, functional, hybrid style.
A functional resume structures information based on the experience rather than places of work. The applicants use this type of resume when you want to emphasize the correspondence of your knowledge, skills, experience to the types and fields of activity that are presented in vacancies.
The main part of the chronological CV lies in the experience – in the reverse chronological order, the place of work with the company name, position, responsibilities, as well as achievements are indicated.
A hybrid resume combines the virtues of a chronological and functional type. Here the emphasis lies on the candidate’s key qualities and the development of the applicant from position to position.
What a resume should contain
So, the manager’s resume contains:
- Title: desired position, name, and surname.
- Contacts: phone number, email address, skype, city, and willingness to relocate, if you’re looking for opportunities for relocation.
- Basic skills: 4-5 project management experience that you want to emphasize.
- Work experience: only the last 10 years, in some cases, list the previous experience in 1-2 lines.
- Education: general information about the university (universities, if there are several), specialties, year of graduation.
- Additional education: it’s advisable to list 5-8 especially interesting training that you attended.
It’s also possible to combine the style of writing a resume. For example, in a chronological order to describe the experience, in blocks to tell about the basic skills. The applicant has to briefly and concisely tell the necessary information, which will hook the recruiter, so he/she will have an interest in further communication.
Hard Skills of Project Manager: How to represent
Hard skills are professional technical knowledge that is easy to measure. For example, touch typing, language knowledge, knowledge of certain software. For such management, we attribute to hard skills primarily knowledge of the technologies (processes) of project management, ownership of specialized programs.
To indicate difficult merits is to talk about your professionalism, ability to perform basic tasks, the level of proficiency in your profession. It’s very important for the recruiter and employer. This you can do using a list or a hybrid resume to highlight basic skills and demonstrate your level of proficiency. Also, a great way to confirm the level are certificates of completed courses.
Soft Skills: why it’s important
Soft skills manifestation is difficult to track and demonstrate. For example, this group may include managerial and communication skills. Establishing relationships in a team, the ability to motivate other people, the ability to anticipate risks, negotiate, smooth out conflict situations. They are the main skills for a project manager.
According to a study conducted at Harvard University and Stanford Research Institute, researchers found that hard skills only affect 15% on the success of the project manager and the work itself, while soft skills take the remaining 85%.
This result is easily explained by the fact that the work of the project manager is connected with communication with other people. Therefore, it’s important to study the required soft skills for your position in order to indicate your skills in the right way and to attract the attention of the recruiter.
Do not complicate the resume
Do not forget that the applicant should make a clear to understand resume, the reading should not take a lot of time, because the recruiter can have dozens of candidates, and needs to find the best one as quickly as possible. Therefore, it’s advisable to tell more about yourself, but not write more than 2-3 pages. To do this, do the following:
- Write keywords so that the candidate search system does not weed you out.
- Tell more about the results: increased team productivity by 15%, successfully managed 10 projects, etc.
- Tell about your functions in the work, the role in the team, how many people were in the team.
- Tell about 1-2 major works. Write in simple sentences, pay attention to details.
Also, prepare for the interview. Think about what you will tell the recruiter: how to solve difficult problems, how to save difficult projects.
Proof your level with certificates
Certificates of professional courses are one of the best ways to clarify:
- professionalism;
- interest in work;
- desire to develop;
- ability to apply acquired knowledge.
Remember that a certificate of training will give you certain advantages, especially if these are famous courses, or they were taught by a respectable coach.
