To be a successful product manager, you need a unique combination of technical expertise, business acumen, and leadership skills. But, in order to get to do the work you know and love, you need a captivating product manager resume.
A well-written resume is essential for highlighting your knowledge and prowess to your potential employers. It allows you to convince them that you’re good at what you do.
That’s why we’ve created an all-in-one guide that will give you everything from general guidelines to expert tips and tricks on how to write a compelling product manager resume.
Without further ado, let’s dive in!
Key Takeaways
The best format for a product manager resume is chronological.
After including mandatory sections such as contact information, resume summary, work experience, education, and skills, optional sections like certificates, languages, conferences, awards, and publications could help you stand out.
Your resume should be one page long in most cases, with a clear structure and distinct sections that concisely convey information.
Write a position-specific cover letter that matches your resume and submit it to show dedication and further highlight your product manager skills and professional accomplishments.
What is the Right Format to Use for a Product Manager Resume?
A go-to format for a product manager resume is the chronological one. It presents information in reverse-chronological order, emphasizing your latest and most important achievements and experiences.
Recruiters prefer this format since it’s neat and well-organized, which enables them to find the information they need quickly and easily. Furthermore, the chronological format is optimized for the ATS, which is why your resume won’t have trouble passing the scan and reaching recruiters.
However, if you’re new to the industry and you don’t have a lot of work experience, it might be better to opt for a functional resume format. This format puts your skills in focus and allows you to compensate for the lack of professional history, but it might not be as ATS-friendly as the chronological one.
Finally, if you’re a seasoned veteran, you could use the combination (hybrid) resume format. Its purpose is to highlight your skills and back them up with valuable professional achievements to present you as an ideal candidate for a specific position.
Resume Layout
A good resume layout ensures you convey a lot of information as neatly as possible. Since recruiters sometimes spend less than a minute reading through a single resume, you want to catch their attention right away.
Due to this, your product manager resume ideal length should generally be one page long. Follow these guidelines to ensure your document looks clean and professional:
Resume Layout Guidelines
Choose a clean, professional, not over-the-top font for your resume.
Use 14–16 pt font size for your headers and 10–12 pt for the body of text.
Make your margins at least 1 inch on all sides.
Use bullet points instead of blocks of text to convey information in a neater way.
Adjust white space between sections to make your resume eye-pleasing and readable.
What Sections Should a Product Manager Resume Contain?
To make sure you’ve given recruiters all the information they want, you should include these five mandatory sections in your product manager resume:
Mandatory Sections
Contact info
Resume summary or objective
Work experience
Education
Skills
Of course, you don’t have to stop there. If there’s room left on your resume and you have more valuable information to share, consider adding some optional sections such as:
Optional Sections
Certifications
Conferences
Awards
Publications
If all this sounds like a daunting task and you would rather use some help, you can take advantage of our resume builder. It offers beginner-friendly features and high-quality templates.
Simply pick the one that suits your needs, adjust the layout based on your preferences, fill in the blanks with your information, and your product manager resume will be ready to wow recruiters within minutes!
Product Manager Resume Template
Name and Surname
Phone number: 000-000-0000 | Email: namesurname@gmail.com | Location: City, State
[Adjective] [your job title] with [years of experience, if applicable] in [your area of expertise, if applicable] looking for a [position] job at [company name]. Eager to apply [relevant skills] gained through [work/volunteer/other experience] to help [company name] [mention what you can do for the company].
Work Experience
Most Recent/Current Job Title Company City, State [Start date] — [End date]
For recent jobs, use 5-6 bullet points to list your top achievements and responsibilities
Use action verbs to make your responsibilities and achievements stand out
Add numbers to quantify your achievements
Previous Job Title Company City, State [Start date] — [End date]
For recent jobs, use 5-6 bullet points to list your top achievements and responsibilities
Use action verbs to make your responsibilities and achievements stand out
Add numbers to quantify your achievements
Oldest Job Title Company City, State [Start date] — [End date]
For older jobs, use 2-3 bullet points to list your top achievements and responsibilities
Use action verbs to make your responsibilities and achievements stand out
Add numbers to quantify your achievements
Education
[Degree] in [Major] [University/college name] [Start date] - [Graduation date]
Skills
Soft Skills
Skill #1
Skill #2
Skill #3
Skill #4
Skill #5
Hard Skills
Skill #1
Skill #2
Skill #3
Skill #4
Skill #5
Additional Sections
Add any relevant additional sections (languages, licenses, publications, hobbies, etc.)
Resume templates
Resume templates that are designed to help you win a jobProduct Manager Resume Contact Information
You should start your resume by giving recruiters the option to contact you if they like what they see on your job application letter. Contact information goes in a resume header, and, at minimum, it needs to offer the following:
What to Include
Your name
Job title
Phone number
Professional email address
Let’s check out an example:
Contact Information Example
George West
Product Manager
+ 123 555 1234
georgewest@example.com
linkedin.com/in/georgewest76
georgewest.com
You’ll notice two additional pieces of information in this example. One is the candidate’s LinkedIn account, which is often used in a professional setting.
The second is their personal website or portfolio. Portfolios are great for featuring your work, as they allow you to show so much more than fits in a project manager resume.
Your physical address on a resume is another bit of information to consider, but only add it if you’re applying for a position abroad or if the job posting explicitly asks for it. However, don’t provide your full address—your city and state will be enough.
On the other hand, you should leave out your personal photo, as well as websites and social media accounts that aren't relevant to the job you’re applying for. Lastly, proofread everything to ensure impeccable grammar and style.
Product Manager Resume Objective or Summary
The best way to entice recruiters to keep reading your resume is to start it with a short but catchy paragraph, which is usually called a resume objective or resume summary.
If you are new to the industry and lack relevant work experience, you will write an objective for your resume to highlight your skills and talk about your career goals.
Experienced candidates will use this paragraph to summarize their resumes while also emphasizing their key career achievements to show they’re a strong candidate right off the bat.
Junior Product Manager Resume Objective
Let’s start with a good example of how a junior candidate can leverage their college endeavors to highlight their skills despite their lack of a decent work history. Here’s how they can show some experience in the field through a resume objective:
Correct Example
“Analytical project manager with a passion for technology and innovation. Led a team of 5 engineers and 2 designers to win a campus-wide hackathon consisting of 39 teams. Supervised by a senior product manager while determining the drop in subscribers and modeling a solution that increased it by 9%. Looking to bring my skills and passion to increase [name of the company]’s revenue.”
On the flip side, here’s a bad resume example that lacks any concrete information:
Incorrect Example
“Recent graduate looking for a project manager position. Passionate for technology and able to effectively lead a team.”
Product Manager Resume Summary
As a seasoned professional, you must be specific when writing a product manager resume summary. Show concrete results of your hard work by mentioning specific details of your professional endeavors, and you’ll immediately stand out from the competition. Let’s see what this may look like:
Correct Example
“Savvy product manager with 5+ years of experience in the tech industry. Proven track record of bringing profitable and innovative products to market. Successfully launched 3 products in the previous year, resulting in a 23% increase in company revenue. Looking forward to using technology to solve real-world problems at [your company].”
Now compare that to a bad example where the candidate offered no substantial results or achievements:
Incorrect Example
“Experienced product manager looking for a new position in a tech-oriented company. Looking to bring my leadership skills and product development knowledge.”
Product Manager Resume Work Experience
The work experience section is the core of your product manager resume. It directly shows your workplace proficiency, which is why it’s the first thing recruiters will check out when skimming through your resume.
General Tips
For starters, list your previous jobs in reverse-chronological order. Also, don’t include every job that you ever had—stick to the relevant and important ones.
For every job position you held, add the title, the company you worked for, the start and end dates of employment, and a bullet-point list showing the responsibilities you had and the results you achieved within the role.
Even though you might want to show your entire work history, it’s more about quality than quantity. You generally want to use 3–5 bullet points per employment, and there’s often no need to mention the jobs you did decades ago.
To make those bullet points more prominent, add numbers and percentages whenever possible. They quantify your achievements and results obtained, making them more substantial.
You should also use action verbs and power words instead of overused, bland terms to make this section memorable. For example, words like “spearheaded” and “executed” sound much more impactful than “led” and “completed.”
Entry-Level Product Manager
If you're creating an entry-level product manager resume and you don't have much professional experience, you can leverage your academic achievements, college projects, internships, volunteer work, and similar activities. Check out the example:
Correct Example
Work Experience
Project Manager Intern
CAPCorp Philadelphia, PA
June 2022–September 2022
Created an Excel macro, boosting data collection efficiency by 40%.
Collaborated with other team members to develop an Android app that received 3000 downloads.
Participated in product meetings and presented updates to key stakeholders.
The candidate used numbers, percentages, and action verbs to create an irresistible work experience section out of their internship resume.
Experienced Product Manager
As a product manager with a lot of experience, you want to highlight the things you've done that will impress recruiters the most. Don't fill your product manager resume with a lot of useless bullet points. Instead, focus on the ones that are most relevant to the job and best show off your skills.
Check out the following example:
Correct Example
Work Experience
Product Manager
XYZCorp Plymouth, IN
July 2020–Present
Conducted market research and analysis to identify customer needs and pain points, increasing customer lifetime value by 27%.
Developed and managed product budgets and schedules and tracked progress against KPIs, improving the team’s output by 23%.
Traveled 20% of the time each quarter to meet clients, vendors, and stakeholders across the nation.
Technical Product Manager Experience
Technical product managers often have backgrounds in specific fields, such as engineering or software development. You want to demonstrate that skill and competence through work-related achievements.
Check out the example:
Correct Example
Work Experience
Technical Product Manager
Softwary
New York, NY
March 2021–Present
Led a 9-person team of designers and software engineers to conceptualize, develop, and launch an e-commerce store website, creating 50+ unique new features.
Revised legacy code for 3 production applications and implemented adjustments, which resulted in a 49% performance increase.
Improved outsourcing strategy, increasing the number of offshore employees from 7 to 56.
Product Manager Resume Education Section
The education section might not be as important as the work experience one, but it’s great at further validating your skills and knowledge. It should include the following information:
Education Section Essentials
Your degree
The institute that issued it and its location
Your enrollment and exit dates
Bulleted list of prominent achievements (optional)
Here’s what that looks like in practice:
Education Section Example
Education
BA in Mathematics & Economics
University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY
2016–2019
Magna cum laude
GPA: 3.9
In general, your latest and highest diploma is the most important. But if there’s a valid reason for you to list more than one degree, do it in reverse-chronological order. Still, don’t include your high school diploma unless it’s the highest one.
On the other hand, don’t skip a degree just because it’s unfinished. Simply mark the graduation date as “expected” or omit it and write “current.” And if you dropped out, mention how many credits you earned toward a degree.
This section will also be beneficial for you if you don’t have a lot of professional experience because you can use it to put more emphasis on the achievements that aren’t career-related. In that case, you should use bulleted lists to talk about your academic results, relevant coursework, extracurricular activities, and more.
Product Manager Resume Skills
There’s more to adding skills to your product manager resume than just creating a list of all the abilities you possess somewhere on the document. Skills encompass your knowledge, proficiency, and workplace expertise all in one, making it crucial to highlight them properly.
For starters, you want to check out the product manager job description to figure out which skills your potential employers are looking for. This is a vast field, and every position might require a different skill set.
Once you’ve created a list of relevant skills, you want to compare them to the ones you possess, choose the most prominent ones, and use them throughout your product manager resume. You can also back some of them up with relevant accomplishments in the summary or objective of your resume and in the bullet points within your work experience section.
Add this section after listing your education information, and make sure you keep soft and hard skills separate since they are rather different in nature.
Hard Skills
Hard skills are career-specific. They are taught and learned skills that give you the ability to work as a product manager in the first place. Some examples of hard skills for product managers might include:
Hard Skills for Product Managers
Product development processes and methodologies (e.g., Agile or Lean)
Prototyping tools
Product iteration
SDLC
UX
Product design
Soft Skills
Soft skills are broad, transferable skills obtained through real-life experience. They make you more organized, productive, effective, better at interpersonal relationships, and more. Some of the soft skills highly valued by recruiters are:
Soft Skills for Product Managers
Leadership
Management
Problem-solving
Teamwork
Attention to detail
Communication
Flexibility
Product Manager Resume Optional Sections
Optional sections can give you the edge over other candidates. They further describe your skills and expertise while also demonstrating your willingness to go above and beyond.
Certifications
Product manager certifications are offered by professional organizations or industry associations. They give product managers recognition for their skills and experience. Furthermore, they grant additional opportunities for development and networking. All that makes them a valuable part of your product manager resume.
Some examples of product manager certifications are:
Certifications Section Example
Certified Product Manager (CPM)
Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO)
Languages
Generally, the language section is optional, but it may be necessary if your job requires you to communicate with clients, coworkers, or stakeholders from other countries. In that case, you might want to move it up on your product manager resume.
List your language skills based on the proficiency level, starting with the highest one. The proficiency levels can be:
Language Proficiency Description
Native/bilingual
Fluent
Proficient
Intermediate
Elementary
Conferences
Product manager conferences represent events that bring together industry experts and professionals in the field. They are perfect for networking and staying up-to-date with the latest trends.
If you've been to conferences, taken part in their workshops, or given speeches, put that on your resume. That way, you’ll show that you're an active and engaged candidate who is always looking to further develop their skills and knowledge.
Awards
Awards are recognitions given to teams and individuals for demonstrating excellence in a specific field.
These are usually given based on criteria such as product innovation, market success, or customer impact. All those are attention-grabbing achievements that are bound to leave a lasting good impression on recruiters. As such, they are more than welcome on your resume and can help you stand out from other candidates.
If you have any prominent awards you want to feature, add them in a brief and concise section after all the mandatory parts of your product manager resume.
Publications
Having relevant publications shows that you’re a person of authority in the field. Whether you’ve published books, articles, blog posts, or other written material, include that in your resume. Keep the section brief and use a proper citation method to get the most out of your publications.
Should You Submit a Cover Letter With Your Product Manager Resume?
Cover letter templates
Create a cover letter by filling in a free template and sharing it for freeSubmitting a cover letter that matches your product manager resume is one of the easiest ways to get ahead of the competition. By doing this, you will show your diligence and get a chance to talk about your skills and professional achievements in greater detail.
Many candidates don’t write a cover letter, not knowing it can be done in a few simple steps, such as:
Product Manager Cover Letter Essentials
Expert Tips for Creating a Product Manager Resume
Let’s finalize this comprehensive guide with a couple of expert tips that will help you iron out the details and get the best product manager resume possible:
Make all links in your contact information section clickable in a digital copy of your resume. It allows recruiters to easily access them or contact you.
Use a professional email address—not something you made back in high school. Furthermore, the ATS scans your job title for specific keywords, so use the correct one and avoid referring to yourself as “Product Wizard,” “Product Guru,” or similar.
Unless you’re a seasoned veteran with decades of experience, your resume shouldn’t exceed one page.
Ensure a clear structure and a complete absence of grammatical, spelling, and formatting errors. Proofread your resume before submitting it and, if possible, ask a friend for a review.
Closing Thoughts
And that’s it! You now know everything needed to complete a product manager resume-building project from start to finish. We made sure to provide you with all the necessary information on the process—from basic guidelines to comprehensive explanations and expert tips and tricks.
Save the article so you can come back to it whenever needed, and use the examples given for inspiration and practice. You’re also more than welcome to use our resume-building tool and templates if you want to save yourself some time and headaches.
