Welcome to the best guide for writing resumes in 2021. In this guide you'll find product manager resume example together with advice and best practices. We'll help you bring your most important accomplishments forward and choose content wisely, so there's no wasted space on your resume.

What will you will learn

• How to best demonstrate the value of your skills as a product manager
• The top hard and soft skills that companies want to see
• How to make up for lack of experience in your resume if you’re just starting out

Product Manager Resume Examples

Associate Product Manager Resume

Paradoxically, recruiters can be very picky when it comes to entry-level product managers jobs. The reason is simple: they realize that people in these positions will grow into future company leaders.Below are some tips to give your some competitive edge when applying for Associate Product Manager jobs:

• Compensate lack of experience with skills. Recruiters are always looking for hidden gems in entry-point candidates. But the key word here is relevance.

If you’re applying for a data-driven company, make sure to mention your data mining or data modeling skills to get an edge. If you’re applying for a less technical company, show soft skills in a real-world context, e.g. “led university presentations class for a year” in your skills section.

• Feature side projects relevant to the job. Frankly, anything can be labeled as “project: these days, and that’s why it becomes so important to mention only projects relevant to the job application. Also, make sure to include two key components when describing your projects to stand out: managerial qualities and tangible impact.

Senior Product Manager Resume

Senior Product Managers are not your typical executives, and specific experience and even the way you frame your experience in a Senior Product Manager resume can go a long way.

Below are some tips to increase your chances of successful application for a Senior Product Manager job:

• Frame experience as ROI-driven. Senior Product Managers are here to make an impact. If you attach your work to tangible results, you’ll gain an extreme advantage over candidates that list all possible cliches on their resumes and hope for the best.Remember, a targeted resume approach works best when combined with business outcomes for a particular industry or a product. 
• Double-down on strategic skills. Things like “product strategy”, “global technical debt”, or “milestone deliverables” are no empty boast to senior product managers. It’s what they are paid to do. Make sure to check job applications for keywords and weave the most common ones into your experience and skills sections. 
• Showcase exceptional product or industry knowledge. Senior Product Managers should know their product in and out. Mentioning a relevant background of successful experience with similar products will give you an upper hand over other candidates.

By the way, one of the most common questions for leadership positions we hear is Should I Include My Photo On My Resume? [Expert Advice]

Software Product Manager Resume

In a way, the Product manager position emerged from the software engineering field. Hence why software engineering trends tend to affect global product management trends.

The following tips will help you more successfully apply for Product Manager jobs in the software industry:

• Experience with non-technical software development practices is paramount. Agile, Scrum, Kanban, DevOps, extreme programming. Entire companies and teams are built and rebuilt following specific development practices.Make sure to feature relevant Agile experience and skills or you risk getting sidetracked too early in the process.
• Prioritise technical background that impacts the product. A big chunk of great software product managers came from software backgrounds, so make sure to feature your technical skills and how they affected the product's performance all throughout your resume.Don’t simply list technical skills. Demonstrate how they helped you improve the product and its performance, e.g. “reduced technical debt with...”, “improved customer satisfaction after..” and so on. Follow the “skill-action-results” pattern.

Tip: If you are having problems fitting all your experience into a one-page resume, check out best practices for two-page resumes.

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5 Best components of a Project Manager Resume:

• Experience relevant to the job you’re applying for
• The right skills for the job (based on the posting)
• Quantifiable achievements (Provided technical support for the online certification of 2000+ companies from 19+ industries across 4 languages)
• Examples of what makes you unique (Your usual day or your favorite books)
• What you’re most proud of (displayed creatively)

Product Manager resume formats

You’ve got three main resume formats:

• Reverse-chronological resume
• Functional resume
• Hybrid resume

Whichever you choose depends on your years of experience, as well as whether you’re coming from the same or adjacent industry.

• Reverse chronological resumes are best for experienced individuals who stuck in their niche for a while.
• Functional resumes are used by less experienced job seekers or career changers. Note that it’s not a format that recruiters prefer, as most are used to the classic chronological alignment.
• Hybrid resumes are great for both experienced and entry-level candidates, as well as people coming from adjacent industries. They combine the best of both worlds.

Here are more resume tips regarding your layout and style:

• Clear and legible 12p resume font size;
• Use 10’’ resume margins - that’s default for a great resume design;
• Use a one-page template resume length if you’ve got less than 10 yrs of experience; Otherwise, opt for a two-page resume;
• Pay attention to your resume spelling - don’t lose your interview chances on a technicality;
• Save your resume as PDF before sending it to the recruiter.

Check out how your resume can stand out without leaning too much on the creative side.

Product Manager Resume Header: How to Form The Best First Impression

Your resume header will be the first thing recruiters read. It’s essential that you make a great first impression.

This section is straightforward, but getting it wrong can mean the difference between being approved for an interview or getting rejected.

Let’s take a look at two examples of a Product Manager resume header.

This first example has a few mistakes that need to be resolved. First, the role of “Product Manager” can apply across many industries. From industrial to banking to technology, this role can look very different depending on where you work.

Hiring managers will prioritize applicants who have relevant industry experience. That’s why it’s important that you’re specific about your title in your resume header.

Just putting “Product Manager” isn’t enough. You should also include the industry you specialize in.

Also, it’s bad practice now to include your full address. It’s unsafe to have your full address floating around, and at this point in the hiring process, it’s unnecessary to include. Simply stating your city and state/province is enough.

Now that we’ve covered those tips, let’s take a look at a resume header that checks all the boxes.

This example is much better.

For one thing, the title is descriptive. The hiring manager will know right away that the applicant has experience in the SaaS industry.

They also included the URL to their LinkedIn profile for more context.

And finally, they included the right amount of information about themselves, including:

• Name
• Descriptive title
• Phone number
• Email address
• City and state/province

If you want more ideas for stand-out resume headers, read through our guide Perfecting Your Resume Header so You Get Noticed.

What does the experience section in a product manager resume need to cover

What every product manager resume needs to include is a strong list of professionally presented experience. Let’s take a look at how to do that. When writing your product manager consultant experience section, remember that it's more important to show than just tell. Make each bullet point of your product manager resume experience section count, mentioning the impact you had in your previous positions. Make sure every point comes together with a concrete example. So don’t just say you’re great at product management, demonstrate it.

This example only lists the responsibilities in the role. Boring.

Every other candidate applying has done and can do the same things. You won’t stand out with this resume.

Hiring managers want to be confident that you can make a positive impact in your role. That you will make the company more money with your exceptional product management skills.

You only have a few seconds to prove this in your resume. Here’s how you can inspire that confidence.

Now the hiring manager is ready to call you for an interview!

You can make a real impact in your role as a product manager. Your past accomplishments prove this!

By using real percentages and statistics to back up your claims, you will stand out from other candidates.

Quantitative data adds more trust and confidence in your resume, and your abilities.

We already covered that your experience needs to be focused on impact. The next step is to start selecting which experience to include in your product manager resume and how to order it. It's best to keep your experience chronological. That means starting from the most recent position and continue further down. Also, carefully curate what experience you show (don’t just overwhelm the reader with everything you’ve ever done). The key here is to make tough choices and only include what a product management recruiter wants to see. For more ideas on how to create an actionable resume experience section, check out our guide How to Describe Your Resume Work Experience.

Best skills for a Product Manager resume

What steps to follow when adding skills to your product manager resume:

• List all the skills you believe you have.
• Read the job description for a product manager position carefully and list all the skills mentioned inside.
• Write the skills that correlate into one place, and then carefully sprinkle them in your product manager resume.

For more examples on stand-out skills sections, read our Resume Skills Section That Impress guide

Unique content ideas for a Product Manager resume

Recruiters and hiring managers read hundreds of resumes every day. That's why you need to make your product manager resume point out your best qualities. Adding your personality, not just your professional experience, can do the trick. Recruiters and hiring managers are far more likely to remember you, if you seem like a genuine person and not a robot. Do this by including your passions, share your favorite books, or even the words you live by.

Other sections to include on your resume

Depending on the company, job seniority level and your location, you may want to include more sections to your product manager resume:

• Language skills
• Hobbies and interests
• Projects
• Volunteer work
• Highlights
• References
• LinkedIn on Resume
• GPA
• Resume Awards
• Publications

Tell them what you’re proud of!

The Most Proud Of is a section we're not used to seeing in traditional resumes. But in 2020, give it a go! This section can help you stand out as a candidate and an individual. Include something interesting about yourself, show where your true passions are. You can share a story about overcoming hardship, learning an important lesson, or just a triumph you had that means a lot to you. Either way, this is one of the best places to make your product manager resume really stand out.

Cover Letter for a Product Manager

In case the job description says you need to provide a cover letter, do include yours. Otherwise, you can always leave it out.

Nowadays, job application forms include questions like “why do you want to work here”, or “explain why you’re the best fit for us”, which makes you wonder are cover letters really necessary?

Still, they help you tell your story in a way that, if written right, it’s captivating and engaging.

In any case, you should pay close attention to the following tips when a cover letter is a must:

• Make sure you go over a cover letter checklist, not to forget what your cover letter should say;
• Match the cover letter design with your resume’s;
• Address your cover letter properly;
• Keep an eye on your cover letter length;
• Use a proper cover letter ending;

If you need more inspiration for a Product Manager cover letter, check out this PMP cover letter example.

Key Takeaways when writing a Product Manager resume

• Use quantitative data to back up your claims about your accomplishments. Did you improve revenue with a new product launch? Use real numbers to show your impact.
• Include a mix of soft and hard skills on your resume, and mirror the same keywords and phrases that are listed in the job description.
• To write an entry-level Product Manager resume, highlight your side projects, education and skills to prove your passion and potential.

This guide shows the basics of writing a modern and effective product manager resume. We hope you find our techniques useful and will use them wisely when creating your resume. Let us know when you get the job you love!