Best Project Manager CV – How to Write It

Creating a winning project manager’s Curriculum Vitae (CV)

As a project manager, having a winning Curriculum Vitae (CV) is vital if you want to ensure that your CV is picked out by prospective employers.  Independent of what sector you choose to work in, project management is a very competitive employment market. A winning project manager’s CV is the key to being noticed and being picked out from hundreds of applicants.  Firstly, you need to assess your key skills, strengths and personal capabilities.  Next, you need to look at the different kinds of project management jobs that are being advertised on-line either on the many job-boards, company websites or on LinkedIn.

The process of writing a CV can be a very daunting one especially if you haven’t written a CV for a long-time.  It can also a very positive experience as it gives you the chance to look at and assess your education, training and career-to-date.  You also get the chance to match your skills with the various jobs that are currently available.

Targeting your Curriculum Vitae (CV) is vital

It is important that you target your CV towards the job in question and focus on what you believe the prospective employer is looking for.  Project management is now a very common profession and job title. Your CV has to highlight your key career achievements within the area of managing projects and not document your whole career journey as employers do not have the time to read through pages and pages of information.

Cut out the non-essential details of each project that you have managed

As a professional project manager, it is best therefore to cut out all irrelevant and minor information and focus purely on how you have contributed to each project that you have worked on recently.   Be selective with what you include on your CV and avoid getting bogged down in the CV writing process of listing everything. Depending on the duration of each project that you have managed and the stage of career that you are at, you will either have loads of information to cut down or very little. Remember that employers are far more interested in what you have delivered and achieved in your role rather than what you do on a day-to-day basis.  Therefore, take time to think about each project in turn and decide what was delivered as a consequence of its completion.

Writing a covering letter to go with your project management CV

Including a covering letter with your job application is a good idea.  It is best if you can personalise and target your covering letter to the project management job on offer.  Ideally, the covering letter writing style needs to be professional and fairly formal.  Avoid quirky, funny or an out of the ordinary covering letter.  The employer wants to gauge from your CV and covering letter how you can benefit the company in terms of what you feel that you can contribute.  You, therefore, need to make reference to what you have achieved in the past and why you feel that you can benefit the organisation that you are applying to.  Talk in terms of what you project management experience you can offer the company and how this relates to the advertised role rather than just recite the past.

Asking for help from someone who specialises in project management

If you are in any doubt about how to write a winning CV or covering letter for a project management position or role, you may wish to enlist the services of a CV writing professional who specialises in writing CV for project managers.  Project Management may be your thing but CV writing may and so it best to leave the task of marketing your skills and expertise to a professional CV writer.