Project Manager Resume

Update

This is an update to my previous resume post.

Please review my revised resume, and recently added cover letter below. Constructive criticism welcomed!

First off, thank you all so much for all of the feedback. I feel much better about the content after working through some of these changes with this community. Honestly, this has probably been the most time I've spent actually strategizing my approach to applications instead of punching air aimlessly. You guys are amazing! It's also my hope that by documenting my progress that other job seekers will gain some invaluable insights from your feedback.

I have done my best to apply most of everyone's feedback

If I didn't incorporate your feedback, please don't take it personally! For this resume in particular, I am following the guidelines established in the wiki's resume guide. I have also created an alternate "pretty" version with a summary for in-person use cases. This "simple" version is optimized for ATS and online submissions only.

Resume

Last Post Edits:

1. Replaced general experience for my Project Management role with project specific experience using the What, Problem, Solution, Results formula.
2. Revised all experience to pertain more directly to PM responsibilities
3. Removed Certified Scrum Master (CSM) to avoid confusion for my use case.
4. Made small changes to the formatting such as bullet type, font type, and header spacing.

New Edits:

1. Set maximum bullet length to 2 lines.

Resume Strategy:

• Keywords will only be used if I have the professional experience. I am not trying to cheat the system. My objective is to stand out by highlighting the right skills that I know and to communicate my experience/value effectively.
• My Project Manager role is obviously the most relevant when applying for project management jobs so I am putting emphasis on it.
• I will address being laid off in a brief, and direct way in my cover letter.
• I will list the same 2 projects at the top of my Project Management experience for brand recognition, and some skills keyword consistency for typical software development PM roles.
  • i.e. product roadmap, project plan, scale, Agile, Scrum, Kanban, test, iterate, API, Rest, Angular, SaaS, software development, application support, GTM strategy, MVP, cross-functional teams, bugs, SDLC, encryption, integration, stakeholder management, user retention, user interviews, user research, etc.
    • Most importantly these are all skills that I feel most competent using professionally, and can easily expand on during an interview.
• Project 3 will be reserved for a relevant/tailored project when applicable. If I haven't worked on a relevant project then I will highlight a project that is the best fit.
• I may choose to showcase Project 3 first in some cases, but my gut tells me that brand recognition is important. You tell me.
• Keywords for resume/applicant scoring will be integrated throughout CV and cover letter to achieve a high resume score.
• No skills section. No summary. ONLY experience, results, and education.

ATS compatible PM resume by AnteaterEvening2376

Cover Letter

I've omitted most of the details, but would like feedback on my strategy outlined here.

New Edits:

1. Removed mention of layoff.

Cover Letter Strategy:

• Keywords will only be used if I have the professional experience. I am not trying to cheat the system. My objective is to stand out by highlighting the right skills that I know and to communicate my experience/value effectively.
• I need to touch on the fact that I was laid off in 2024, to do this I kept it brief and optimistic.
• For tailoring my cover letter, I've created 12 unique paragraphs, 4 for each [REASON] so that I can systematically tailor my paragraphs for ever job application depending on what the primary requirements are for the job listing.
  • For example, some PM job listings put a major emphasis on stakeholder management, probably because of difficult stakeholders or poor communicators is my guess - I digress. So in the cover letter below, I've used an example for what I would include explicitly for that requirement.
  • When it comes to keywords I will use a chrome extension to extract keywords from the job listing and replace the placeholders with them if it's a skill that matches my experience.
    • I am able to do all of this within 5-10 minutes so it's not terrible inefficient. It may be a bit of overkill, but that doesn't seem like too big of a commitment to stand out.
• If I don't care about the job, I will use an alternate generic cover letter.

Cover letter excerpt by AnteaterEvening2376