Project Manager Skills

Use a simple, clean format that highlights your skills and experiences. Focus on readability by using bullet points and short phrases to present your skills. Properly organize your resume into education, experience, and skills sections.

“Adding a skills section to your resume is a great way to draw the recruiter’s attention to your most relevant strengths and competencies.”

– Ashley Watkins, NCRW, NCOPE, Job Search Coach

For example, a project manager’s bullet points might look like this:

• Coordinated with cross-functional teams to align project tasks, leading to a 20% increase in inter-departmental collaboration and project efficiency.
• Effectively communicated budget status and financial performance to stakeholders, resulting in a 25% increase in stakeholder trust and confidence.
• Led the implementation of a new CRM system, improving sales tracking and customer data accuracy, which resulted in a 20% increase in sales efficiency.

Hitting all the top requirements with your skills list will help you rank highly for a keyword search within an applicant tracking system. But don’t stop there. Add context for every skill elsewhere in your work experience.

As you list your responsibilities, it’s also important to highlight your specific accomplishments wherever you can.

“For soft skills, it’s often more effective to demonstrate them in the context of your past work experience. Instead of merely stating “excellent team player”, you are better off saying “collaborated with a cross-functional team of 6 on a new product launch that boosted sales by 30% in one year”. Examples of specific accomplishments or business outcomes speak louder than buzzwords.”

– Ana Lokotkova, Career Coach and Advisor

For example, if you successfully tracked large budgets, be sure to mention the accomplishment.

Instead of saying,

“Developed financial reporting templates that standardized budget tracking.”

You could say,

“Developed financial reporting templates that standardized budget tracking across multiple projects, resulting in a 20% improvement in financial management accuracy.”

This demonstrates your level of expertise with the skills you listed. It gives the recruiter more reason to be interested in you as a result.

If you’re applying for a role requiring a broad skillset, categorize your skills.

“If you opt to include a designated skills section on your resume, include up to 10 of your core competencies. Excessive skills lists are overwhelming and sometimes confusing to the reader.”

– Kelli Hrivnak, Marketing and Tech Recruiter

For example, someone applying for a role as a project manager might benefit from segmenting their skill list as follows:

Technical Skills

• Project Management Software such as MS Project, Trello, Asana, JIRA, and Monday.com.
• Technical Documentation
• Quality Assurance

Financial Skills

• Budgeting
• Cost Estimation
• Financial Reporting

Industry-Specific Skills

• Technical Proficiency
• Compliance and Standards
• Sustainability Practices

Use numbers to quantify your achievements wherever possible. This helps potential employers understand your abilities and the impact you can have on their organization.

“Recruiters and hiring managers are looking for relevancy of how and when you applied those skills, so provide examples of this in your experience section. Bonus tip: Don’t just insert the skill like a task–include results.”

– Kelli Hrivnak, Marketing and Tech Recruiter

Instead of saying,

“Created detailed post-project reports that captured lessons learned and best practices.”

You could say,

“Created detailed post-project reports that captured lessons learned and best practices, leading to a 25% increase in efficiency for subsequent projects.”

By using numbers, you give hiring managers a better sense of your value.

Read the description carefully and emphasize the relevant skills and experiences. Highlight the skills that the employer seeks and provide examples of how you’ve used those skills in your previous roles. Doing so can demonstrate that you’re a strong fit for the position and increase your chances of being invited to an interview.

“The ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach doesn’t work when it comes to your resume. For every job application, tailor your skill set to match the job description. Most companies use Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) that filter candidates based on keywords and skills listed in the job description. So, research the role you’re applying for and distill the skills required.”

– Ana Lokotkova, Career Coach and Advisor

In order to do this, “you must first understand what skills are most important for the target role,” says Ashley Watkins.

Here’s an example of how to tailor a project manager resume to a job description:

Job Title: Project Manager

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in Mechanical Engineering preferred.
• Experience with SAP, MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Project, and Outlook.
• Experience with managing project life cycle, cost & strong project management capability.
• Experience managing repair shop projects, creating quotes, and managing financials including communication internal and external.

Tailored Resume Description:

• Utilized SAP to streamline project management processes, improving data accuracy and reducing project tracking time by 20%.
• Developed comprehensive project plans using MS Project, resulting in a 25% improvement in project timeline adherence and overall efficiency.
• Leveraged MS Excel to analyze project data, track performance metrics, and generate detailed financial reports, leading to better-informed decision-making.
• Monitored project costs and managed budgets effectively, achieving a 10% cost saving across multiple projects by identifying and mitigating financial risks.

“Focus on the sought-after and in demand skills. A great way to figure out what is currently in demand is by researching current job openings from your preferred companies and reading through the posting. Pay close attention to the preferred requirements section and build your skills section based on this list.”

– Chelsea Jay, Career & Leadership Development Coach – Seasoned and Growing

Start each bullet point with an action verb. An action verb expresses an action, such as “create,” “build,” “manage,” “lead,” or “implement.”

Action verbs grab the reader’s attention and paint a vivid picture of what you accomplished at work.

Action verbs make your resume more interesting to read. They also show the kind of can-do attitude that employers are looking for.