You excel at strategic planning, marketing, and decision making, and that makes you an outstanding product manager. These soft skills are designed to help you find a new job. You have the ability to see your career as a story, understand what your prospective employer needs and know how to balance your achievements with their needs.
The best product manager resumes do all that and more. Your resume should set your career profile apart from other candidates and answer all the key questions recruiters have: How do you eliminate my pain point?
This curriculum guide, along with the corresponding sample curriculum, covers the following topics:
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- What does a product manager do?
- How to Write a Product Manager Resume (Tips and Tricks)
- The best format for a product manager resume
- Advice on each section of your CV (summary, work history, education, skills)
- Professional resume layout and design tips.
Before we begin, remember that there are resources that can help. Resume.io provides writing guides andExamples of CVsfor product managers and related professions, backed by an easy-to-use CV builder that saves you time and puts your application in the hands of recruiters.
What does a product manager do?
In general, product managers are tasked with understanding consumer needs and designing products that meet those needs. However, their duties go much deeper. To beat the competition, they need to understand market forces, trends and forecasts. It's about staying one step ahead of the curve.
Any industry that produces products can employ product managers who take their creations from idea to reality. Depending on the specific role and size of the organization, they may be involved in all aspects of product development, from design and engineering to marketing, finance, operations and legal affairs.
Product managers work and communicate with all departments involved in their products. You need to think strategically and analyze feedback from both those who design and manufacture the product and the customers who use it.
There are a number of different roles within IT product management. They include:
- technician
- Product marketing
- growth
- data analysis
- mobile phone, mobile phone
- Software
Labor market and product manager perspectives
Product managers who also have technical skills are in high demand in the UK. The truth is,ITJobsWatchreports that in the six months ended January 2023, demand for product managers increased by 131%. Newcomers can expect salaries of around £50,000, while experienced product managers can earn salaries in excess of £85,000 a year.
How to write a product manager resume
You probably follow a process that makes it easy for you to organize your work. Your product manager resume should also follow a structure. This structure will determine which sections you should definitely include.
Your CV must contain the following elements:
- The resume header
- The resume summary (also known as a profile or personal statement)
- The area of employment history
- The skills section of the resume
- the education department
Need more help? If you are unsure of the best way to structure your document, always refer to our sample resume, written by experts.
Choosing the Best Resume Format for Product Managers
Consider the following two factors when deciding on the best format for your product manager resume:
- Have you taken a detour to product management?
- Do you have a variety of highly technical skills that you want to highlight?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, consider a hybrid resume format. However, we recommend reverse chronological order in most cases. That's because it's a style that recruiters are familiar with. It will also make applying online much easier since the Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) that scan your resume details and feed them into HR programs are organized that way.
The reverse chronological order primarily affects your employment history, where you start with your most recent position and work your way backwards. (But don't go back much further than 10 years unless this early work is highly relevant.)
expert tip
Customize your resume
Segmenting each employer and position makes a lot of sense: every position is different, if only slightly, and recruiters want to know if you have the skills and experience they're looking for. This extra step can make the difference in whether or not you get the interview. Make sure to customize your tone as well as the hits you want to emphasize.
Another important reason for the customization is the already mentioned ATS. The algorithms used will rank your resume based on keywords and phrases from the job posting. Make sure you include these key words (organically) on your resume to ensure you get through the electronic gate.
Sample resume summary
Personality, philosophy and strategic thinking play a major role in your career. The best section on your product manager resume to showcase these qualities is your resume. Those meager four lines of prose can show if you're a good fit for the role and the company.
This is where you need to grab your reader's attention. While this may not be the first section that draws their attention (it's likely the section about your skills), they're looking for additional information to help them decide whether to offer you an interview, if they do make it this far.
After introducing yourself and your career, focus on what you will bring to the role. What are the most important aspects of the job for you? How does your experience show that you will add value to the organization? Why do you want this job in particular?
Choose a tone that suits the company and its products. Pat yourself on the back without showing off.
If you're struggling to find inspiration for your resume (since this is the freest writing section of your resume), you can find additional writing material in our related resume examples, including:sample engineering resume,sample project manager CV,Business Analyst Sample Resume,Sample Data Analyst CV,eSample account manager resume.
Customizable Resume Resume example
Track record of leading highly successful product development programs. Excellent oversight of all aspects of product ownership and leading cross-functional teams in all facets of product design, delivery and sales. Is able to quickly decompose complex product requirements to create product roadmaps and plan/execute on-time deliveries.
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Example of professional career
If you've been in the job market for a number of years, the career section of your product manager resume will take up a lot of space in your 1-2 page document. Here you not only describe your tasks, but also your achievements.
Details and dates make your achievements more compelling and relatable, so use them whenever possible. "Communicating with colleagues" isn't as strong as "Weekly update meeting chaired and feedback shared from marketing and design departments."
expert tip
Try the STAR method
| Situation | Analysis of negative customer reviews |
| Task | and found that our payment application needed a redesign; |
| action | a comprehensive update |
| Result | resulting in a 30% increase in customer retention and 20% higher sales than projected |
The example of employment history below provides further guidance.
Sample resume with adaptive employment history
Senior Product Manager, Selfridges, London
February 2016 - present
- Lead the design and maintenance of the product backlog and continuously ensure well-defined and prioritized stories for development.
- Write user stories in close cooperation with business and IT departments to collect requirements and clarify details.
- Plan and start sprints and ensure featured products are prioritized.
Digital Product Manager, Bupa Global, Brighton
June 2013 - January 2016
- Directly contributing to all facets of the digital product lifecycle to meet business goals and customer needs.
- Continuously optimized digital products through analysis, requirements/feedback gathering and user research.
- Ensure continuous alignment with the company's digital strategy.
- Work with stakeholders to identify and drive new business opportunities and manage scope and requirement definition.
Junior Product Manager, Unity Technologies, Brighton
March 2011 - June 2013
- Users were surveyed to collect and document requirements.
- Interface with product management team members and direct manager in optimizing the effective application of user requirements.
- Skills acquired to ensure continuity of design and user experience throughout the product lifecycle.
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Sample resume of a product manager
Most product managers have a college degree in business, marketing, or a technical field. While these degrees are not mandatory, they will give you a boost when it comes time to start looking for a job. The education section of your product manager resume displays these credentials.
Start with your most recent degree, just as you did in the Employment History section. Include all of your references as they show determination and a desire to improve. Any online courses you have taken during lockdown will also show HR staff that you are focused on personal and professional improvement.
Depending on your industry, you may also have received certifications or awards. You can list them in this section or create a separate space to highlight these achievements.
Example of an adaptive curriculum
Bachelor of Science in Produktdesign, University of Sussex, Brighton
September 2006 - May 2010
• Degree with honors
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resume skills example
A great product manager resume showcases the talents and traits you possess that are essential to the job. There's no better place for that than the Skills section. Because it's a simple listing, recruiters often use this section to determine if you're a good match. Choose your skills carefully.
Product Managers need hard CV skills such as data analysis, technical knowledge, presentation skills and knowledge of the market and general industry they are employed in; however, they also need soft skills. Here are some very in-demand soft skills: communication, organization, flexibility, strategic thinking, and the ability to delegate effectively.
You can take the first step to creating a complete list of your professional skills. From this list you can select the skills that you think best represent your qualifications. Asking a trusted colleague to describe your work style and your best qualities can add to this list, especially if you're humble.
Create a mix of hard and soft skills for this section. Be sure to include keywords and phrases for the ATS.
Example of a resume in the Adaptive Skills section.
- product management
- product lifetime
- product growth
- Agile project management
- product metrics
- team consolidation
- gathering of requirements
- product design
- product strategy
- JIRA
- product rating
- leadership and management
- Relationships with stakeholders
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Continue layout and design
Product managers may not be designers, but design is certainly an aspect of product development they need to understand. This makes the layout and design of your resume even more important than usual.
The first visual impression HR gets of you is the layout and design of your resume. Which image do you want to project? This may depend in part on the industry you are in and the company itself. You want to remain professional at all times, but some environments are more casual than others. In these cases, a little whimsy in your design can indicate that your personality fits well with the department.
However, avoid too much color or bustle of any kind overall. Its main purpose is readability. That means a font no smaller than 10 points or larger than 12 points for your body type, an easy-to-read font, and 1-inch margins. You can save a little here, but no more than a quarter of an inch.
using aprofessionally designed resume templatelike ours and a resume generator with a spell check feature that will polish up your document in no time.
Key takeaways for a product manager resume
- Product managers in the IT industry are in high demand, but you need technical skills that match your managerial acumen.
- Every industry that produces products and services needs product managers to oversee the projects.
- Be sure to demonstrate your strategic thinking, market knowledge and analytical skills in your resume and professional history sections.
- Show off your design skills in a layout that exudes professionalism.