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 project manager sections that make the best resume
- Header
- Professional summary
- Experience (with numbers and results)
- Relevant skills
- Education
- Certifications
How to write a software project manager resume experience section
Software project manager resume experience: checklist
- Use either chronological or reverse-chronological format when listing your previous jobs;
- Mention only relevant positions that add value to your resume;
- Briefly state the challenges you’ve faced and how you’ve overcome them;
- Highlight the results from your efforts (for bonus points, add numbers, percentage rates, etc.);
- Forget about buzzwords! Use power verbs instead.
Use the examples below to build your own experience section!
- Database management and maintenance
- Online system handling
- Asynchronous Development
- Project Management
- Prepares solutions to ensure its alignment with company strategy
- Managing Agile development projects Activities as a cross functional
- Defined the software development process; by choosing Agile Development as Scrum methodology
- Assist in scoping, planning tasks, and change management
- Lead the team to implement CI/CD methodologies
- Ability to plan and arrange activities to be completed in time with project expectations
- Communication with project stakeholders and manage expectations
- Facilitating software development teams to achieve high quality solutions
- Report on status of development, quality, operation, and system performance to management
- Gather functional specifications from the clients
- Manage and set client expectations
- Write functional specifications for developers
- Develop and implement plans for project completion
- Organize and facilitate sprint planning, daily stand-up meetings, reviews, retrospectives, demos, and stakeholder meetings
- Protect the development team from outside distractions, impediments or team conflicts, and maintain focus on product backlog and project timeline
- Take responsibility for the delivery and management of the tasks
- Prepares solutions to ensure its alignment with company digital transformation program
- Managing agile development projects activities as a cross functional
- Defined the software development process; by choosing Agile Development as Scrum methodology
- Assist in scoping, planning tasks, and change management
- Lead the team to implement CI/CD methodologies
- Ability to plan and arrange activities to be completed in time with project expectations
- Communication with project stakeholders and manage expectations
- Facilitating software development teams to achieve high quality solutions
- Report on status of development, quality, operation, and system performance to management
- Managed two streams (Continuous Delivery and Projects) consisting of Scrum Masters, Full Stack Developers, FE Developers, BE Developers, QA and SE Testers, In-Sprint BA, Enterprise BA, Product Owners, and Architect. Oversaw them carry out TDD, CI, CD etc and helped them deliver high-quality products.
- Managed and successfully delivered projects for CUK and LoRo ranging from £200,000 - £1.2 million.
- Worked alongside the Director of Delivery to introduce and implement agile processes (SDLC, Delivery Model and WoW)
- Reported on projects to internal and external stakeholders, managed expectations and ensured that a realistic approach is advised with regards to project delivery.
- Prepares solutions to ensure its alignment with company digital transformation program
- Managing agile development projects activities as a cross functional and Lead the team to implement CI/CD methodologies
- Defined the software development process; by choosing Agile Development as Scrum methodology
- Manage and control in scoping, activities, timeline, budget and change management by using project management techniques and software tools
- Lead vendors management by review RFP documents, budget control, ensure and negotiation obligations for the project and conflict resolution
- Ability to plan and arrange activities to be completed in time with project expectations
- Communication and negotiation with project stakeholders and manage expectations
- Facilitating software teams to achieve high quality solutions to be alignment with standards of satisfaction and performance
- Report on status of development, quality, operation, and system performance to management
- Identified project risks and issues and assessment, reporting, dependencies and recommended corrective actions
- Prepares solutions to ensure its alignment with company digital transformation program as per strategic plans and ensure abidance by internal policies and procedures STC's
- Managing agile development projects activities as a cross functional and Lead the team to implement CI/CD methodologies
- Manage and control in scoping, activities, timeline, budget and change management by using project management techniques and software tools
- Lead vendors management by selection of vendors, review RFP documents, milestones delivery, SLAs, budget control, ensure and negotiation obligations for the project and conflict resolution
- Identified project risks and issues and assessment, reporting, dependencies and recommended corrective and preventive actions early to ensure they are closed in a timely manner
- Defined the software development process; by choosing Agile Development as Scrum methodology
- Ability to plan and arrange activities with follow-up day-to-day activities to ensure continuity of work
- Communication and negotiation with project stakeholders and manage expectations
- Facilitating software teams to achieve high quality solutions to be alignment with standards of satisfaction and performance
- Report on status of development, quality, operation, and system performance to management
- Prepares solutions to ensure its alignment with company digital transformation program as per strategic plans and ensure abidance by internal policies, processes and procedures STC's
- Managing agile development projects activities as a cross functional and Lead the team to implement CI/CD methodologies
- Manage and control in scoping, activities, timeline, budget and change management by using project management techniques and software tools
- Lead vendors management by selection of vendors, review RFP documents, milestones delivery, technical support after deployed to production, SLAs, budget control, ensure and negotiation obligations for the project and conflict resolution
- Identified project risks and issues and assessment, reporting, dependencies and recommended corrective and preventive actions early to ensure the challenges and obstacles are closed in a timely manner
- Manage all deployed systems to production environment, provides technical support to internal business as per agreed KPIs and ensuring that all relevant tools, documentation and resources are delivered to IT Ops, internal business and other relevant parties
- Ability to plan and arrange activities with follow-up day-to-day activities to ensure continuity of work
- Communication and negotiation with project stakeholders and manage expectations
- Facilitating software teams to achieve high quality solutions to be alignment with standards of satisfaction and performance
- Report on status of development, quality, operation, and system performance to management and report an overview to top management
- Certification audit contributions
- Assisting the Software Project Manager tasks in planning the project
- Elaborate a service offer for In Service events management (Exchanges with Customer support, in service incidents analyses automation, analyses templates elaboration): this service is still applied, answer time on critical incidents has been lowered to the minimum and customer is highly satisfied
PRO TIP
Include quantitative data throughout your Software Project Manager resume to impress the hiring manager. Real facts and figures that show off your competency as an audit manager go a long way. Did you reduce the costs of audits? Manage a large team? Boosted efficiency? Show off the real numbers!
Action verbs for your software project manager resume
Recommended reads:
Software project manager resume: the skills section!
How to write a strong software project manager resume skills section?
- Make sure to include all types of skills - soft, hard, technical;
- Focus on skills that show your expertise in the field;
- Check the job description for keywords and make sure to add them to your resume – this will help you pass ATS;
- Leave room for discussion – elaborate on some of your strongest skills in other sections of your resume
Top skills for your software project 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
When picking skills to feature in your resume, make sure they'll be relevant to the position you’re applying to. The point of listing skills is for you to stand out from the competition. Stay away from repetitive, meaningless skills that everyone uses in their resumes. Or else, they’ll backfire and make you look like an average candidate.
Software project manager resume header: tips, red flags, and best practices
Checklist for your software project 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
Recommended reads:
PRO TIP
Some companies, states, and countries have policies about identifying information like photos on your Software Project Manager resume. Be sure to check all the relevant rules before submitting yours. If you’re in doubt, you can always try contacting the company’s HR department to ask for their policy.
A career summary for your software project manager resume
Things to include in your software project manager resume summary:
- Your total years of experience in the industry;
- 2-3 of your most remarkable achievements so far;
- How your experience relates to the position you’re applying for;
- A very brief description of your strengths.
Resume summary formula:
PRO TIP
Your summary section should act as a brief but informative introduction to your experience section. In this section you should go into more depth about what you have done, and how you did it.
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Software project manager resume: the education section
Things to include in your resume's education section:
- Your highest education degree – including course, year of graduation, institution;
- Awards received as part of your education;
- Extracurricular activities that have helped you gain relevant skills;
- Certifications that have helped you master new skills and increase your expertise;
- Entry-level applicants only: relevant courses and projects.
Top certifications for your software project manager resume
The Project Management Course: Beginner to PROject Manager
The Complete Course for becoming a Successful Project Manager
Project Management: Simple Software Project Management
Project Management for NEW Project Managers - knowledge, tools, techniques, skills, checklists, guidelines, pitfalls
Project Management using Microsoft Project
Learn the Right Skills and the Right Software to Become a Project Manager
Xcel Project Manager-An Awesome Project Management Tool!
Without expensive software, you can use Excel to manage your staff, projects, and your resources with ease!
Acing Project Management: Ultimate 8h Project Manager course
Built by experienced Project Manager - notions of Agile/Waterfall/Prince2/PMP.
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PRO TIP
If you hold a certain major and a minor, your majors should be mentioned first.
Choosing the right format for your software project manager resume
In general, there are three basic formats for your resume:
- Reverse-chronological resume format;
- Functional skills-based resume format;
- Combination (or Hybrid) resume format.
Some things to consider when choosing the right format for your Software Project Manager resume include the stage of your career, whether you have all the right skills required for the job or are looking for an industry change, and what field you’re looking to grow in.
The reverse-chronological resume format is the most common one. It lets you describe your most recent job and then move backward. This makes it great for people who have around or less than 10 years of experience and are looking to highlight only their work-related skills and qualities.
If you’re just starting your career journey and reverse-chronological resumes sound too demanding, go for the functional resume format. It’s ideal for showcasing your strengths, personal qualities, skills, education, and the courses you’ve taken, without putting too much pressure on experience and expertise.
Don’t worry if neither of these sounds suitable for you – the hybrid or combination resume format will surely match your needs. It’s similar to the reverse-chronological, but with a catchy twist. Combination or hybrid resumes are great for showcasing both your experience and work-related skills and your personal qualities. Add a “What my day looks like” section for enhancing the jaw-dropping experience!
Here are some more things worth remembering when it comes to formatting your Software Project Manager resume:
- Choose standard 1-inch resume margins;
- Go for traditional resume fonts sized 10-12p;
- Match the length of your Software Project Manager resume with your experience – choose a one-page template if you have less than 10 years of experience, and be careful with two-page templates – use them only when applying for executive positions;
- Save your resume in PDF to avoid formatting issues and potential unauthorized editing.
Tired of getting rejected? Check out this article on how to craft a resume that stands out!
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 Project 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.
Other sections suitable for your software project manager resume
Depending on the position and the industry, you can spice your resume up by adding some more sections. They will help the recruiter get a glimpse of who you are as a person, besides all your job-related skills and qualities.
Here are some examples:
How to add creativity to your software project manager resume
Gone are the days when creative resumes were frowned upon by recruiters!
What’s more, the right amount of creativity will make recruiters remember you and want to learn more about who you are – both as an individual and as a professional.
There are two ways to build a creative resume - add creative sections or go for a more creative design approach in general. Go for whatever suits you, the position, and the industry most!
What makes a great software project 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.
