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Resumes for Project Managers

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Project managers lead the planning, documentation, execution, and close of a project that might span multiple functions, business units, and geographies. If you are a project manager or considering a career in project management, your resume should focus on the following facts:

  1. Your experience as a team leader and your ability to interact with people from other areas. Few projects are self-contained and even fewer are led and executed by one person. Your ability to lead cross-functional and cross-geographic teams is important.
  2. Your education and certifications. In addition to formal education (and many colleges offer a degree in project management), a certification from the Project Management Institute provides assurance that you are able to work with many different projects and employers. Your career may also benefit from certifications in techniques or programs such as lean manufacturing or agile management practices.
  3. Specific achievements as a project manager or lead. You should be able to produce numbers: for example, hours saved; costs reduced; revenue generated; and size of budgets controlled. Part of a project manager’s job is to forecast and track numbers. You should share the problems you were facing, and what it took to overcome them. If you have been a long-time project manager, you may forget current information when you move on to a new project, so begin now to record it.
  4. Technology you have handled. Most projects involve some form of technology, whether for documenting the project itself or for solving a business problem (for example, implementing Customer Relationship Management or Salesforce software). Your credentials in using or implementing software are important.
  5. Evidence of analytical and communication skills. Because you are solving business problems, you must be able to analyze the situation and the best solution, given the resources available. You may need to convince others that your analysis is correct and you will certainly need to communicate any positive or negative results along the way.

Project management is an excellent career, with opportunities in many industries. You want your resume to be focused enough to appeal to the companies where you are applying and broad enough to show your expertise to advantage. Contact Robin’s Resumes® today for a resume that will accomplish both those goals.

Resume Q&A: LinkedIn Profile vs. Resume

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Q. Everything on my resume is on my LinkedIn profile. I don’t understand why I even need a resume. I think companies should just ask for an email expressing interest with a link to your LinkedIn profile or online portfolio—why bother with a separate resume? It is so old-school.

A. Maybe in the future job applications will be handled the way you suggest: everyone will simply look online. But right now there are three major reasons why companies have not discarded resumes.

  • One is the simple fact that all of us still print out important information. The “paperless society” never took root, and that is unlikely to change in the immediate future.
  • The second reason is that resumes create a “standard template” that ensures every applicant supplies the same essential facts, from contact information to previous positions to education.
  • The third, related reason is that most companies now rely on applicant tracking systems (ATS), in which all resumes are loaded for comparative analysis. There is no equivalent automated method for gathering up individual online resumes from LinkedIn, Pinterest, Indeed, or private sites and then comparing them.

Think of your LinkedIn (or other online) profile and your resume as separate but equal documents. Instead of making them completely identical, use your LinkedIn profile to expand on information that might not fit in your resume; for example, use “Projects” under the Accomplishments tab to give more detail about specific projects or accomplishments. You can list up to 50 skills on LinkedIn—excellent for keyword searches although far too many for a resume. More important, LinkedIn encourages your peers and clients to give you endorsements for those skills. Finally, LinkedIn allows for multiple recommendations at length, something that would weigh down your resume.

You can also use your LinkedIn profile to show more of your own professional personality. For example, in my own LinkedIn profile, I go into the history of Robin’s Resumes®, something I would not do on a formal resume or job application.

Precisely because your resume and LinkedIn profile are different in some ways, you should make sure they are equally professional, clear, concise, and focused on the job you want. If your resume gives one impression and your LinkedIn profile gives another, hiring managers and recruiters will be confused and less likely to trust either version.

How do you achieve that different-but-equal balance? Contact Robin’s Resumes® and I will be delighted to help you.

The Perfect Graduation Gift: A Professional Resume

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If you are coming up to graduation in the next year and plan on starting your working career immediately, you may want to ask generous family or friends for the gift of a professionally written resume. If you ask now, your resume will be ready to send out early in the year, so that your career can start as soon as possible after graduation.

Why is a professional resume so important?

  1. You are facing the huge transition of moving from high school or college to career. You may feel underprepared, over-prepared, or simply overwhelmed. Unlike family, friends, and even teachers, a professional resume writer will give you an objective but experienced viewpoint, as well as freeing you from yet another end-of-school burden.
  2. You have just spent years trying to figure out what you want to do in life and maybe have come to the conclusion that you still do not know. It is hard to write a resume when you are not sure what career you are aiming at. As a Certified Job and Career Transition Coach and Master Career Director, I can help you focus in on your career objectives—a very necessary part of writing a resume. I also probably know more about potential careers that might match your skills and education, having written thousands of resumes in different fields.
  3. Unless you are a professional writer, you may find that the mechanics of writing and formatting a resume are daunting. If you are a college graduate, your college’s career departments will help you, but their focus is on preparing a resume suitable for businesses that come to campus to recruit. The resume you need for the wider world is quite different, and you may not have the skills or confidence to write it.
  4. As a new graduate, you may not realize how to make the most of the experiences, education, and skills you already have. Family, teachers, and friends may not realize how today’s job market operates and where a resume fits in. A professional resume writer knows what hiring managers and recruiters are looking for and how they want it presented.

I have helped new graduates move into many professions, in both technical and nontechnical industries, with for-profits and nonprofits. When family and friends ask what gift you would most like for your graduation, please send them to my website. I look forward to working with you.

Words That Cause Resume Problems

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The English language is filled with words that sound and look almost the same but have quite different meanings. Here are a few you want to watch out for.

  • Prospective means “happening in the future.” Perspective means “a point of view.” So you are most likely to have a new perspective on a company’s problems—not a prospective.
  • Compliment means “a polite expression of admiration or praise.” Complement means “something that completes or brings to perfection.” So you are most likely to add skills that complement ones you already have—not compliment.
  • Insure, assure, and ensure overlap in certain meanings. But most people use insure in the sense of “providing compensation after damage”; assure in the sense of “telling someone something positive to dispel their doubts”; and ensure in the sense of “making certain something will happen.” So you are most likely to ensure that the right people are chosen for a team—not insure or assure.
  • Forward means “toward the front.” Foreword means “a short introduction to a book.” So you are most likely to move a company’s goals forward—not foreword (“foreward” is simply wrong).
  • SaaS, IoT, iOS, IaaS—be very careful when using technical abbreviations like these. saas, iOT, IoS, and IAS are wrong or mean something else entirely. Define each abbreviation or acronym first – using both the acronym and spelled out version helps with Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) and being found in searches.
  • Principle means “a rule of action or conduct.” Principal means “most important or influential.” So if you are talking about the leader of a firm or school, you want principal. Principal is also the right word for discussing the principal of a loan. If you are talking about the way you approach a job or situation, then you act in accordance with your principles.
  • APAC, APJ, APSG, CALA, CEMA, EMEA, IMEA, SEMEA, and similar abbreviations for worldwide regions have very distinct meanings. Make sure you are using the right acronym and always define it first.
  • Corps means “a subdivision in the army.” Corpse means “a dead body.” Corp. is the abbreviation for “corporation.” So you are most likely to talk about Samsung C&T Corp. or the US Marine Corps—not Samsung C&T Corpse or US Marine Corp.

Many people find themselves mixing up similar sounding words and acronyms in English. Part of my job as a professional resume writer is to make sure the right word or acronym is in the right place. Contact me today for help with your resume.

Resume Q&A: Talking about Bad Work Experiences

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Q. I know you should not say negative things about your managers or your old company when you are applying for a job. But how else can I mention these two bad work experiences on my resume? Right now, I want to leave my job because a new manager is basically forcing me out after I worked there for 5 years. I think he wants to hire a friend of his for the position and so he keeps complaining about me and ridiculing me. In my previous job, the company I worked for failed. Even though I accomplished good things, the company went out of business. There is no other way to say it. So what do I say on my resume?

A. You raise two interesting examples of bad work experiences. When I talk about removing negative information from a resume, I am concerned about a resume that is filled with “excuses” for poor results. You have good results despite bad experiences. Concentrate on what you accomplished; that is what hiring managers and recruiters really want to hear.

Let me take the first case, where a new manager is on your case. Your personal relationships at work have no bearing on your skills and accomplishments. Keep your resume focused on what you have accomplished during the best years you worked at the company. All that a recruiter or hiring manager needs to know is that you are ready to move on to new experiences; they do not need to know why. However, do not use that unpleasant manager as a reference! Most companies will not expect to interview your current manager. Either use a former manager as a reference or someone you work with closely who will give you a good review.

In the second case, the company went out of business. That is not your fault. Plenty of companies go out of business—in fact, I have worked for a few myself. Again, focus your resume on what you accomplished, not on the company’s failure. You might mention the failure if it involved a learning experience; for example, you helped search for funding or purchasers, or the failed company inspired you to launch your own business.

If you need help writing your resume after some bad work experiences, please contact me today.

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