About This Resume

Hiring managers screening project manager applicants want to know how each project ended, and many resumes never say. Listing every tool you have touched makes the problem worse. That habit costs interviews. The title covers everything from office moves to hospital wings, so the details on the page have to do the explaining.

To earn the Project Management Professional (PMP) certification, you will need documented project experience and a passing exam score, and many postings ask for it by name. And, as long as a project has a budget and a deadline, hiring managers will look first for proof that yours finished on both.

What to Include

  • Project size in dollars, people or both, with the type of project named plainly
  • Results against the plan: early, on budget, under budget or with the scope changed and the reason why
  • Methods and tools you've used, such as critical path scheduling, Agile sprints, MS Project or Primavera P6
  • Certifications with dates, such as the PMP, the Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) or a Scrum certification
  • The people you coordinated: owners, contractors, vendors, engineers or executives
  • Risks you caught early and what you did about them

Project Manager Resume Sample

Sample resume. The person, employers and contact details are fictional.

Vivian Osei

Project Manager
Richmond, VA | vivian.osei@example.com | (555) 018-6607

Summary

PMP-certified project manager with nine years in commercial construction and university facilities. Runs four to six projects at a time worth $2 million to $18 million each, and gives owners early, plain warnings when something slips.

Experience

Project Manager, Shockoe Row Construction, Richmond, VA 2021 to present

  • Manage four to six commercial renovation projects at a time, from $2 million to $18 million
  • Delivered a $14 million medical office fit-out three weeks early and $260,000 under budget
  • Cut change-order approval time from 12 days to 5 with a shared log reviewed at each owner meeting
  • Publish a one-page status report every Friday for owners, architects and the field team

Assistant Project Manager, Facilities Planning, Westover State University, Richmond, VA 2017 to 2021

  • Coordinated 30 or more classroom and lab upgrades each summer break
  • Tracked budgets and prepared monthly cost reports for the facilities director
  • Scheduled contractors around final exams, graduation and move-in weekend

Education

B.S., Construction Management, Hanover Ridge University, 2016

Skills

Scheduling in Primavera P6 and MS Project, Budgets, forecasts and cost reports, Contracts and change orders, Risk registers, Owner, architect and trade coordination, Construction safety, Excel and Power BI

Certifications

  • Project Management Professional (PMP), 2022
  • OSHA 30-Hour Construction, 2021

Tips for Your Project Manager Resume

  • Put the result next to the project. "Managed a medical office renovation" is a start, and "Delivered a $14 million medical office fit-out three weeks early and $260,000 under budget" finishes the thought.
  • If you're moving into project management from another role, give the projects you ran inside that job their own bullets, such as a system switch or an office move you coordinated.
  • Give every project a size. Use dollars where you can share them and team size where you can't.
  • Project manager responsibilities include planning the schedule, guarding the budget and keeping owners informed. To move up from coordinator, you should have experience with at least one full project and a flair for delivering bad news early.
  • Although a project that ran late can feel like a bad story to tell, a bullet about how you recovered it shows judgment under pressure, as in "Resequenced a delayed network rollout by site and finished two weeks behind the original date, down from a projected eight."
  • Tell your network you're looking. Referrals from former clients, architects and vendors usually carry more weight than a cold application.
  • Scheduling software shows up in many construction postings, especially Primavera P6, so a certificate in it may help if you're moving into that industry.

Next steps: the resume writing guide covers every section in detail, and the template library has layouts for other fields and career stages.