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Author: Tanvi Shah
In the past few years of mentoring junior product managers and reviewing their resumes, I have realized that writing a resume is hard and requires multiple edits and eyes before making the cut. After multiple iterations, I have landed on a framework that seems to work well.
See below a shell of my resume. Feel free to use it to create your own and tweak it as needed.
First and foremost, your resume needs to pass two tests
- The ATS scanner test (machine scanner) which looks for specific words and skills
- The human scanner test, where the recruiter and hiring manager only spend around 5-10 to make a decision to move forward
To ensure that your resume passes both these tests, I have 5 tips for you.
What should be the information hierarchy?
The information hierarchy of a resume is important to help find different sections of information quickly and easily. Below is an example of the hierarchy that has worked for me.
- Name, email address, phone number
- Work experience
- Education & Skills
- Volunteer work (if any)
I am sure there are other frameworks and hierarchies that may work. Let me know in the comments what has worked for you.
What kind of details are needed in a resume ?
After the ATS scan test, the hiring manager needs to understand the work that you have done and if it aligns with his/her needs.
Below is a list of things that are needed on the resume which involve minimal bandwidth for scanning.
- Job title, Name of company, period of work
- 3-5 bullets under each job title
- Each bullet should roughly follow the framework.
- Did X to achieve Y metric.
- X being the feature or product
- Y being the metric that measures the success of the product. Metrics could include business metrics (revenue, ) or user metrics (customer care tickets, etc.)
- Use verbs that showcase PM skills like collaboration, leadership, execution.
- Words like “Created, collaborated, Worked with, Led the team”
What to surface and what to not surface?
Ensure you add only the relevant experiences and have a “Other work experiences” section if the resume starts to get too long. This helps to highlight the extensive work experiences you have while keeping it short and simple.
How long should the resume be?
- Associate, Junior PMs - 1 page
- Senior and above - 2 pages
Technologies used to create resumes
- Google docs/ MS word to pdf
- Canva
Don’t forget to product manage your own resume, put yourself in the shoes of the hiring manager and recruiters, and give them what they need in terms of words, verbs and business impact. And good luck in your job search!
Feel free to comment with other tips that I may have missed