There is no more important role in the modern workplace than the manager. People develop when they are taught, guided, and led by someone who has more experience.
The best companies seek to develop the most effective managers—the trickle-down effect of amazing management skills is the most powerful force in business. You learn from your manager, and you then pass on the same lessons when you become a manager yourself.
What skills does an amazing manager possess, and how do you demonstrate these in your manager resume? Keep your job search on-track with an engaging, attention-grabbing resume that ensures you’re put in the “Yes” pile.
Take your management career to the next level with Resume.io. Our guides and resume examples cover more than 500 professions, and our resume builder is your partner in creating a great resume that gets you noticed.
This resume guide and corresponding manager resume example will cover the following:
Before you get started on how to write a manager resume, you need to know what goes into it. Your resume should contain:
It’s important to do some introspection and determine your management “style.” Perform some research about the company and the job itself to determine if your style is a good fit for what they’re looking for so that you can “pitch” yourself for the position.
To do this, figure out what the company needs and how your set of skills and experience can fulfill those needs. Your unique selling proposition is what makes you different from everyone else, and that is the center of your resume pitch.
The most important thing to start with is a great resume. Let your resume open the door with the following elements:
Optimize for the ATS
ATS stands for Applicant Tracking Systems, and they’re used by over 90% of mid-to-large companies to screen candidates. ATS algorithms scan resumes for keywords from the job description and rank them accordingly. The resumes that have a high ranking are seen by actual human beings, and the rest are eliminated from contention.
To do this, make sure you look closely at each job listing to get a handle on what the employer is looking for. While you shouldn’t claim experience or skills you don’t have, when you do, make sure to include those keywords within your resume. But don’t go overboard and use keywords too many times; that’s called “keyword stuffing” and it can cause your resume to get flagged as spam.
Other ATS tips to remember include:
To learn more about conquering the ATS, check out our article Resume ATS optimization.
A good manager is organized, efficient, and confident, and your resume should look the part as well.
The most common format for manager positions is reverse chronological. This format places the most emphasis on your job history, listed in reverse chronological order, and gives an overview of your career from its start to the present day. Below is an example of this format.
If you’re looking to take the next step in your career or if you’re changing careers, an alternative format, such as the functional format may work better for you. A function format highlights your transferable skills and places less emphasis on your specific work history.
There are a variety of resume templates in our resume builder, so there are many options that will fit your particular situation, with many varieties of reverse chronological, functional, and hybrid resumes available as resume examples.
A manager's resume should use an uncluttered, modern layout that is visually appealing and allows the hiring manager to find your relevant information quickly and easily.
When you make contact with a new client or vendor, you want to ensure they know how to contact you to continue your professional relationship. The header on your resume serves the same purpose.
To that end, your contact information must be placed front-and-center, and it should be clear and readable. To accomplish this, make sure to include the following information:
Don’t include:
Steven Gomez
The Manager You Need
White Plains, NY
914-804-6157
pizzamaster111@gmail.com
The summary is the managerial elevator pitch of your resume. Basically, it’s the resume version of the interview question, “Tell me about yourself.” How you see yourself as a manager will paint a picture of the impact that you have on those around you.
In two to three sentences, the summary has to convey your personality, highlight your experience and give a sense of how you bring out the best in those around you. The message of any manager’s resume summary should both inspire and reassure.
Choose action verbs that hint at how you go about your work—devised, managed, initiated, negotiated, spearheaded—and incorporate your accomplishments (supported by quantifiable date) when possible.
When writing your resume summaries, don’t just cut-and-paste information that can be found elsewhere on your resume. Your summary should provide “big picture” skills and traits that make you the best at what you do, otherwise known as your unique value proposition. For example, “Results oriented with a proven track record of working collaboratively with team members to achieve goals.”
How you choose to describe yourself here will say a lot about your management style, and as the summary is the first (and sometimes only) part of the manager resume to be scanned, those few sentences are critically important.
Need inspiration for your summary? Check out our related resumes:
You can find adaptable manager resume examples summary below:
Emerging management professional with foundational experience in retail and culinary operations, demonstrating a strong commitment to customer service and team collaboration. Skilled in basic sales techniques, visual merchandising, and adept at managing time effectively. Eager to apply adaptability and a methodical approach to further develop managerial skills and contribute to organizational success.
Experienced and self-motivated manager bringing forth valuable industry experience and a passion for management. Results oriented with a proven track record of working collaboratively with team members to achieve goals. Experienced in both retail and culinary settings, and adept at effectively managing all operations.
Distinguished manager with a robust background in leading regional operations and strategic business development. Spearheaded a 25% increase in regional sales and the successful launch of 5 new stores, showcasing a talent for market expansion and team empowerment. Renowned for advanced leadership, driving corporate vision, and implementing high-level marketing strategies to elevate customer engagement and brand presence.
When providing your work history in a reverse-chronological format, start with your most recent position at the top, and work backward, but don’t go back farther than 10-15 years. The only jobs you should include are those that are relevant to the position you’re applying for; other roles can be included in a separate section called “Other Experience.”
After providing the company name and your job title, use bullet points to describe your contributions, but don’t write it in the first person (i.e. using “I” or “My”). Keep your descriptions concise and use dynamic action verbs, aka “power verbs” : accelerated, influenced, organized, developed, coached, allocated, and enabled.
Don’t just list what you did day to day; provide the tangible outcomes of your work. For example, have you ever seen generic, task-related statements like these in a manager’s resume?
These statements are mere descriptors and don’t show anything about you as a manager, what you’ve achieved in the role, or the value you bring to a potential employer. Remember, you want to set yourself apart from the competition, not that you were simply competent at your job.
Instead, use results-based points that show, rather than tell, why you’re a good manager. Place the spotlight on the results you achieved, both personally and by facilitating your team: sales goals and bringing profitability to the company, improvements in operations efficiency, and so on.
You’ll also want to talk about things other than the bottom line, such as client retention, employee productivity, achieving company vision, identifying new sales opportunities, or improving recruitment and onboarding procedures.
Compare these “new and improved” versions of the statements above:
Take a look at the manager employment history resume sample below:
General Manager at H&M, White Plains
September 2014 - September 2019
Assistant Store Manager at H&M, White Plains
September 2012 - September 2014
Sales Associate at The Guilded Lynx
May 2009 - August 2012
You’ll include hard and soft skills on your resume that highlight your overall qualification as a manager. Hard skills like public speaking, spreadsheets, or point-of-sale systems might be the first to come to mind when filling out your skill section.
But soft skills like leadership, communication skills, time management, conflict resolution, and team building are what makes a good manager great, and hiring managers will definitely be on the lookout for them.
If you’re having a tough time coming up with the right skills to include, the resume builder can help by offering pre-written key skills from which you can choose as well proficiency ranges you can define. Or, if you’re so inspired, you can input your skills manually.
Here’s what the skills box looks like in our manager resume template.
Don’t limit your skills to the skills section. Create a vivid image of your management experience by including them throughout your resume. Demonstrate them in action by providing specific examples of your skills as well as any resulting achievements.
How would that look? In your job history and your professional summary, include examples to showcase your:
Unsure what skills you should include when tailoring your resume for each job you’re applying for? The job description should provide all the information you need.
Don’t forget your soft skills
Even in management, hard skills, like using technology, tend to get the lion’s share of attention. And while those skills are important, being a good manager is also about working with people.
Business strategist John Spence had an equation for management success:
(T+C+ECF) x DE = S
While it looks complicated, it breaks down this way: a manager should hire the right talent (T), support a positive team culture (C) and an “extreme customer focus” (ECF), and then use “disciplined execution” (DE) to achieve success. This shows that hard skills are moot if you can’t support their execution with developing the soft skills you need to make things happen.
The education section is cut and dried for a manager, as you’re going to list your schools and degrees in reverse chronological order, just like your work experience.
Don’t bother with listing your high school if you went to college. Start with your college degrees and any honors or achievements you had while there.
Beyond just listing where you went to school, this is where you would provide any relevant management certifications or training. For example,
While the role of manager is not something you’ll be applying for without extensive experience, if you’re a career-changer or switching industries, consider using a functional resume format that highlights your transferable skills and education over your work experience.
Associate of Communications, Purchase College, Purchase, NY
August 2001 - May 2005
High School Diploma, White Plains High School, White Plains, NY
May 1997 - September 2001
As a manager, you’re responsible for the visual merchandising of your location and making it appealing to the customer. The design of your manager resume plays a similar role in making sure that the most important aspects of your career are noticed.
There are no specific rules about which format to choose, but here is a guiding principle: ensure that it is visually clean, easy to read, and symmetrical. You will have a lot to say about your achievements, but the starring moments of your career will be lost if they’re too hard to find.
While you can always design your format yourself, resume templates can make the process much easier.
We recommend choosing a template that has clearly-defined sections, a no-nonsense font (no Comic Sans, please!), and a limited color palette. For the manager resume here, we used the Stockholm template, which is clean, uncluttered, and uses a bit of color for eye-appeal.
You can’t wave a magic wand and have the perfect resume appear, but our expert-crafted resume templates make the process much quicker and easier, providing you with the top-notch resume you need to get you noticed.
Profile
Experienced and self-motivated Manager bringing forth valuable industry experience and a passion for management. Results oriented with a proven track record of working collaboratively with team members to achieve goals. Experienced in both retail and culinary settings, and adept at effectively managing all operations.
Employment history
General Manager at H&M, White Plains
September 2014 - September 2019
Assistant Store Manager at H&M, White Plains
September 2012 - September 2014
Sales Associate at The Guilded Lynx
May 2009 - August 2012
Skills
Education
Associate of Communications, Purchase College, Purchase, NY
August 2001 - May 2005
High School Diploma, White Plains High School, White Plains, NY
May 1997 - September 2001
Every business needs a leader to move the team (and the company) forward to reach goals and increase profitability.
Fortunately, that means that despite advances in technology, there is still a need for effective, future-focused management professionals.
Managers are usually salaried employees, and may also earn bonuses, although the exact figure may vary based on education, experience, company, industry, and location, company size, and industry. Roughly, the current data suggests a range between $84k-$156k.
Salaries for similar roles:
A career as a manager can provide a great living for those who are driven, goal-oriented, have excellent leadership, organization, and time-management skills.
Skilled managers, at the end of the day, enjoy working with people, both as a customer and as a member of their own team, and strive for excellence and meeting goals, increasing client satisfaction, and increasing their company’s profitability and efficiency.
Begin your job search with our resume builder, but take it to the next level with Resume.io.
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