INDUSTRY STATS
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, IT and Software Engineering positions are at a much faster than average growth rate, which is 22%. With that said, there are currently 1,847,900 jobs in the market right now. The total number of jobs is expected to increase by 409,500 to 2,257,400 in the period of 2020-30.
What’s more, the median annual wage for the IT and Software Engineering jobs was $110,140 in May 2020. The lowest 10% earned less than $65,210, and the highest 10% more than $170,100.
Our conclusion? The IT and Software Engineering job market is facing competition due to decreasing demand.
Top software product manager sections that make the best resume
- Header
- Professional summary
- Experience (with numbers and results)
- Relevant skills
- Education
- Certifications
Writing a job-winning experience section: Software Product Manager resume edition
Software product manager resume experience section: dos and don'ts
- List 4-6 bullet points per position;
- Include only relevant job experience;
- Make sure to highlight your strongest skills by focusing on the challenges you’ve faced and the results you’ve achieved;
- Don’t use buzzwords that carry no meaning;
- Don’t share confidential information about your previous employers.
If you prefer to be led by example, check out some great Software Product Manager resume experience section snippets below!
- Worked side-by-side with software programmers to design industry-leading product offerings
- Creativity & Innovation: imagined and realized a suite of innovative features for ControlTouch's new upper level controls platform
- Road Warrior: traveled to Anchorage, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, and San Diego to meet directly with clients
- Collaborate & Build: connected with technical and non-technical stakeholders inside and outside of the organization to ensure buy-in for features implemented in the new software platform
- Product Owner: compiled and prioritized an Agile Software Product Backlog containing 150+ detailed user stories
- Secure Video Conferencing Web Application (rhi2i): developed a ground-breaking application which is currently in-use connecting patients and healthcare providers (HCP's)
- rhi2i was 3x more usable than the competitor's software
- SaaS Healthcare Application Roadmap: captured and prioritized a complete, multi-phase Product Backlog using Atlassian Jira. Created robust wireframe mockups using Axure RP 8
- Interviewed, hired, and managed a team of 20+ technical and non-technical contractors
- Imagined, realized, and launched a fully functional iOS application for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, which made initiating calls over 2x faster, and synced client data to the cloud via secure connection
- Led weekly company board meetings, website development activities, and outreach to third party information and funding sources in addition to envisioning future product lines
- Reporting to the SVP - Product, I am responsible for the product strategy for Data, Reporting, and Analytics for Marketron's diverse product portfolio.
- My responsibilities include the Product Leadership of coming up with Reporting Solutions, working with Data Engineers and third party vendors to expose new data sources, strategizing on the current and future Data and Analytics needs, combining a plethora of data sources to enable reporting on Cross Revenue management, and evaluating third-party data analytics and business intelligence providers.
- My job spans across a vast domain where I get exciting experience as a Strategizer, Product Owner, Data Engineer, as well as a Data Scientist. I get to create the long term roadmap for the data and analytics, manage a very active Data Engineering and a Reporting backlog, and solve fascinating data issues by writing some R programs which expose the hidden patterns.
- Overall Product ownership of the 70M Pearson MyLabsPlus program.
- Design and Manage integrations between 3rd party LMSs, MyLabsPlus platform, Pearson other 3rd party educational content providers.
- Work closely with sales teams, content providers and institutions to come up with ideal solutions which meets learner, educator and administrator needs.
- Product Subject Matter expert for the 100M LearningStudio Learning Management System.
- Key member and represented Product team in the LearningStudio Core team
- Lead the Pearson LearningStudio Web Services on Demand API program which extends the functionality of Pearson LearningStudio products.
- Digital Accelerator Awards - Winner of Best Developer Experience 2014
- Lead research oriented product development work on content interoperability and platform interoperability (SIS Integrations).
- Lead integrations such as Turnitin integration for Plagiarism management, Respondus integration for secure assessment delivery.
- Product manager for the Adaptive Learning Platform Services - SaaS platform which enables adaptive instruction and remediation across multiple Pearson higher education products.(Pearson MyLabs | Pearson Mastering | Pearson WizardPlus | Pearson Revel)
- IBM Watson Smart Tutor AI Tool - I product Managed some tools used to train IBM Watson on Pearson Content as an integral part of the overall Integration with IBM Watson
- A dashboard I developed using R statistical language to track the progress of on the tools - a tool to gather student variant answers for some Pearson content can be found @ http://rpubs.com/manocodes/Bowerbird
- Developed a couple of reports using R to analyze user behaviors on specific Pearson content and titles. A report can be found @ http://rpubs.com/manocodes/TitleAnswerAnalysis
- I use my knowledge on R programming language, .NET, SQL, NoSQL, AWS and API testing to be closer with the work being done by the development team.
- Product Subject Matter expert for the 100M LearningStudio Learning Management System.
- Key member and represented Product team in the LearningStudio Core team
- Lead the Pearson LearningStudio Web Services on Demand API program which extends the functionality of Pearson LearningStudio products.
- Digital Accelerator Awards - Winner of Best Developer Experience 2014
- Lead research oriented product development work on content interoperability and platform interoperability (SIS Integrations).
- Lead integrations such as Turnitin integration for Plagiarism management, Respondus integration for secure assessment delivery.
- Overall Product ownership of the 70M Pearson MyLabsPlus program.
- Work closely with sales teams, content providers and institutions to come up with solutions which meets learner, educator and administrator needs.
- Design and Manage integrations between 3rd party LMSs, MyLabsPlus platform, Pearson other 3rd party educational content providers.
- Manage two software development teams focused on GIS Application Development and Web Application Development.
- Led a team of 6 developers to develop an internal software application from inception to launch utilizing technologies such as React, MongoDB, Azure, and ASP.NET MVC 5.
- Wireframed and created prototypes of all web applications developed based on stakeholder feedback and research.
- Managed customer requirements from external clients and internal stakeholders and relayed that to the software development team.
- Managed software development backlog by setting priorities and timelines according to business needs and developer bandwidth for areas such as IT, Construction Services, Make-Ready Engineering, and Telecomm.
- Worked with several business units across the organization to implement & maintain Kronos time keeping system.
- Overall Growth-stage product life-cycle management, incl. functional specifications, requirements engineering, wireframing and prototyping of existing and new services.
- Created functional specifications, mockups and flows for a hybrid Flutter-based mobile application from scratch.
- Improved user experience, design and flows of the web interface.
- Improved landing pages and organized existing content.
- Writing User Stories and managing the backlog of the product (using Atlassian Jira).
- Successfully conducted a 4444-users airdrop campaign.
- Managing the product presence of ORBISE10 token (ORBT).
- Active participant in crypto exchanges relations management: successfully integrated with CoinDeal, DOBI Trade, etc.
- Team management.
- Using modern front-end web technologies (HTML5, CSS3 & Vue.js) to deliver technical solutions to users. Technical writing.
- Managing the backlog of the product.
- Team management.
- Product life-cycle management, requirements engineering, functional specifications development.
- Design digital media using Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Sketch for mock-ups, UX/UI design of web projects.
- Contributing to the community with useful tips, solving technical issues about the application.
- Managing start-up partnerships and relations. Preparing conference participation (Web Summit Lisbon, STEP Dubai, TNW Amsterdam, etc)
- Building up a strategy for a brand new product, market fit planning, setting up marketing channels - blog, social media, mailing lists.
- Organized a low-resource crowdfunding campaign and raised 300% of the initial goal.
- Increased conversion rate by 30% over 5 months
- Increased mobile application order share by 20%
- Responsible for creating a product vision, business goals a Responsible to make development team engaged with business results and drive them to build customer centered and profitable product roadmap while making sure they are aligned with business strategies
- Accountable for developing team’s annual Objectives and Key Results, and break them down into quarterly key actions which map to both product roadmap and product backlog
- Responsible for launching our new website, gathering requirements and identifying different phases for transforming all product lines into the new site and all transformation elements
- Accountable for identifying stakeholders’ requirements
- Responsible for prioritizing the product backlog and making sure it’s thorough and visible to all team members
- Leading ideas through the product discovery phase in conjunction with UX and development team
- R&D about customer loyalty programs in e-commerce, especially in the leisure and travel industry, to develop the proper plan which can be used in the website
- Working closely with our Marketing Team to establish proper brand and marketing strategy, through market research and marketing campaigns analysis
- Created product roadmap based on data and company strategy
- Increased conversion rate by 20% in a year
- Built UX and CRO team from scratch
- Stablished testing culture in company
- Responsible for increasing Average Order Value and Conversion Rate
- Collaborating with our Customer Service supervisors and analyzing the CRM reports to identify customers’ concerns and improve the product
- Continuously assess international and local competitors
- Identify key success metrics and analyze the result of product changes
PRO TIP
Show off real numbers that display your accomplishments in past roles. Instead of listing out your responsibilities as Software Product Manager, talk about the measurable impact you made to their business. Did you boost their revenue? Increase customer retention? Mention your proudest points on your resume.
Action verbs for your software product manager resume
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an impressive skills section for your software product manager resume
Writing a skills section that stands out:
- Check the job advert for keywords that you can use: this will help you pass ATS;
- Focus on relevant and valuable skills that will support your application;
- Make sure to include both hard and technical skills, leaving soft skills for other sections of your Software Product Manager resume;
- Don’t list skills you don’t have.
Top skills for your software product manager resume
Python
Java
Javascript
GIT
SQL
HTML
Teamwork and communication
Creative problem solving
Analystical thinking
Owning up to errors
Self-learning
Time management
PRO TIP
Don’t feel obliged to spend a separate section for your soft skills - you can weave them throughout your job experience or career summary. But, don’t just write empty words - back them with examples.
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Software product manager resume header: tips, red flags, and best practices
Checklist for your software product manager resume header
- Your name and surname in a legible and larger resume font
- The job title you’re applying for or your current job title as a subheading to your name
- Link to your portfolio or online profile, such as LinkedIn
- Address (City and State for the US; just your city for rest of the world)
- Email address
- Headshot (required or welcomed in the EU; not required and sometimes frowned upon in the US)
Stick to popular email providers such as Gmail or Outlook. And use these professional formats to create your username:
- first.last@gmail.com
- last.first@gmail.com
- firstlast@gmail.com
- f.last@gmail.com
- first.l@gmail.com
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PRO TIP
Some companies, states, and countries have non-discrimination policies about what kind of information can be included on your Software Product Manager resume. This might include a photo (which is often included in a resume header and might be on personal web pages you link to). You can always email the company’s HR department to ask about their policies before you apply.
The software product manager resume summary: tips and tricks
Making a strong first impression.
- Keep your summary section short and easy to read; avoid long sentences;
- Highlight your total years of experience in the field;
- Mention 1-2 of your biggest achievements and strengths;
- Add a couple of keywords from the job advert.
Resume summary formula:
PRO TIP
You’re not going to get hired simply because of a good summary or objective. However, your recruiter can bump you up in front of similarly experienced candidates who didn’t demonstrate such passion and drive.
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Software product manager resume: a strong education section
What to include in your education section:
- Your highest education degree (incl. major, duration, name of institution);
- A bit more about the certifications you’ve got (if they are relevant to what you’re applying for);
- Some extracurricular activities that have helped you develop and strengthen your skills;
- If you’re an entry-level applicant: Relevant courses and projects.
Top Certifications for your Software Product Manager Resume
Become a Product Manager | Learn the Skills & Get the Job
The most complete course available on Product Management. 13+ hours of videos, activities, interviews, & more
Great Product Manager: Product Management by Microsoft's PM
Become a Great Product Manager! Land your dream job with Microsoft's Senior Product Manager. Free CV review included!
Advanced Product Management: Vision, Strategy & Metrics
Learn the skills Product Managers use every day. Vision, strategy, & advanced metrics for Product Managers
Product Management 101
Learn to become a more strategic product manager - and have a greater impact on your company and your products
Product Management A-Z™: A Hands-On, Real-World Simulation
From Beginner to Modern Product Manager with Just One Course!
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PRO TIP
There are dozens of certifications that you can claim as a Software Product Manager. But, some are more effective than others. That’s why you mustn’t include every certificate other applicants might have. Try instead to earn and list a few of the difficult ones.
Software Product Manager Resume: How to Choose the Right Format
The content of your resume is necessary for showcasing your expertise, skills, and education. Great formatting, on the other hand, is essential for highlighting your attention to detail, creativity, and ability to stand out.
There are three basic resume formats to choose from:
- Reverse-chronological resume format;
- Functional skills-based resume format;
- Combination (or Hybrid) resume format.
Which one of these you choose depends on a couple of things, but most importantly: the industry and your level of experience.
The reverse-chronological resume format, for example, is great if you’re a Software Product Manager with many years of experience and no career gaps. It doesn’t really matter if your company of choice is a multinational corporation or an early-stage startup – this resume format is considered to be a safe bet.
If you’re someone with little or no experience, however, we advise you to go for a functional skills-based resume format. It focuses on skills, competencies, and education, rather than experience. This makes it great for entry-level applicants, career changers, and graduate students.
And if you’re tired of traditional formats and want to go over the top when it comes to your application, the combination or hybrid resume format is here to help. Here, you can focus on both your experience and your skills, there’s even space for you to highlight your most spectacular personality traits. If you want to give a modern feel to your Software Product Manager resume, this resume format is just what you need. Add a ‘my life philosophy’ section for additional bonus points!
Looking for ways to perfect your Software Product Manager resume layout and style?
- Don’t risk it: choose standard 1-inch resume margins;
- Go for traditional resume fonts (sized 10-12p);
- Match the length of your Software Product Manager resume with your years of experience – choose a one-page template if you’ve got less than 10 years of experience; otherwise, opt for a two-page resume;
- To be on the safe side, save your resume in PDF. This will help you avoid formatting issues and unauthorized editing.
Recommended Reads:
PRO TIP
Sometimes you’ll want to go after a job which requires more experience than you have. Instead of using a typical Software Product Manager resume layout, you can use a creative layout. Getting noticed is the most important challenge and a creative resume layout might help you get invited for an interview as most of other accountants have boring resume designs.
Your software product manager resume: Other sections to include
Tired of resumes that focus only on your professional side? Want to show you’re an actual human being with a real personality that goes beyond your work experience? Then add some other sections to your Software Product Manager resume!
Depending on the industry, company, and position, you can go for a more creative or less creative approach. Choose 1-2 of the following:
Making your software product manager resume shine
In a pile of boring black and white resumes, a creative Software Product Manager application feels like a breath of fresh air. And trust us, recruiters love this.
There are two ways to add a splash of creativity to your resume. You can either go for a creative layout (bright colors, modern fonts, etc.) or add some creative sections (e.g. ‘what my typical day looks like’).
It’s up to you! Just make sure to keep the position, company, and industry in mind. Otherwise, you risk going over the top. And that’s not always a good idea.
What makes a great software product manager resume: key takeaways
- Choose a resume layout that sends the right message across and fits your current career situation;
- Create a resume header that shows your desired job title, and easy to find contact numbers;
- Be specific about your experience, accomplishments and future goals in your summary;
- Feature detailed metrics and specific examples that show the impact you made in your previous roles when describing your experience;
- List soft skills backed by examples;
- Add all of your technical skills and certifications that you have and match the job description;
- Show off a dash of personality in your resume that will demonstrate your culture fit and the right mix of hard and soft skills.
