Manager Resume

About This Resume

Getting promoted to manager inside a company is often less difficult than getting hired as one somewhere new because the people choosing have already watched you work. Applying elsewhere involves proving your results to strangers and describing numbers that are sometimes confidential. Your resume has to carry that proof.

Hiring managers read a manager's resume for a few things, including the size of what you ran; the results you delivered, such as revenue, costs and staff turnover; and your people record, as most bosses want managers who can grow the next supervisor. Your title comes second.

What to Include

• Team size and makeup, including how many supervisors or managers reported to you
• Budget or profit and loss (P&L) responsibility in dollars, and the part you controlled
• Results tied to the business: revenue, costs, customer counts, quality or safety
• People results, such as promotions from your team, lower turnover or hard roles filled
• Changes you led, such as a new system, a reorganization, a new location or a turnaround
• Training and credentials that matter in your industry, such as safety, licensing or management courses

Manager Resume Sample

Tips for Your Manager Resume

• "Managed a team" leaves every question open. "Led 45 technicians, dispatchers and office staff on a $9 million budget" answers three of them in one line.
• If you're applying for your first management job, lead with the times you acted as the manager: covering a vacancy, training a group or running a project with people who didn't report to you.
• A promotion from your team shows not only that you hired well but also that you trained someone who was ready for a bigger job than the one you gave them.
• Pair every result with a time frame. "Grew service agreements from 2,100 to 3,400" means more once the reader knows it took three years.
• Keep turnaround work on the page. Boards and owners look for it in director and general manager candidates.
• Larger companies tend to ask for the most detail on budgets and headcount and smaller ones generally care more about how many different hats you wore. Adjust the summary for each, such as "ran a $9 million service business" for one and "handled hiring, dispatch and customer complaints" for the other.
• Finally, trim the early years. While many people list every job since school, it is a good idea to keep only the last 10 to 15 years in detail, with older roles in a single line each. This allows you to spend the space on the jobs a hiring manager cares about.