Project Manager CV checker
Budget and scope, the industry, and your certification if you have one. Scope is what sorts project managers.
What recruiters search
For this role: certification, such as PMP or PRINCE2, methodology, budget size.
The parsed text
What a parser pulled out of your file, so a broken layout is visible rather than invisible.
Specific rewrites
The weak lines replaced with ones you can use, not a note telling you to be more impactful.
One payment
First check free with no account. After that a single payment, never a subscription.
Project management is one of the few fields where admitting a schedule slip and explaining it reads as more credible than a run of flawless deliveries. Readers in this field know the flawless version is rare.
What a project manager CV has to establish first
Budget and scope, the industry, and your certification if you have one. Scope is what sorts project managers.
A reader decides whether to keep going within a few seconds, and that decision is made on the top third of page one. Everything after it is evidence for a judgement that has already started.
The terms recruiters search for
Recruiters find candidates by searching the database, so a term the posting uses and your document does not makes you absent from the results rather than rejected. For this role the searches tend to be:
- certification, such as PMP or PRINCE2
- methodology
- budget size
- industry
- the PM tool in use
Cross off anything untrue, then make sure what remains appears in a real sentence about real work rather than in a keyword block. The method, and where its limit is.
Three mistakes project manager CVs make
1. No budget or team size
Managed multiple projects is unreadable. A reader needs the magnitude: the money, the headcount, the duration.
2. Certification buried
PMP and PRINCE2 are searched terms and often hard requirements. If you hold one, it belongs near your name.
3. Methodology as identity
Listing Agile, Waterfall, Scrum and Kanban together signals nothing. Say which one the work actually ran in.
One line, rewritten
| What people write | What a reader can use |
|---|---|
| Managed a cross-functional project team to deliver on time | Ran an £800k ERP migration across four sites with a team of eleven, delivered a month late after a vendor slip, within budget |
The left column describes a job that existed. The right describes a person who did something. You do not need impressive numbers, only actual ones.
What differs outside North America
PRINCE2 is the dominant certification in the UK and much of Europe, where PMP dominates in the US; both are recognised but the posting tells you which they value. Currency matters too: quote budgets in the currency of the role you are applying for, or state both.
The general conventions apply too: two pages is normal for a UK or Australian CV, no photo in the UK, Ireland or Australia, and leave off age, marital status and nationality. The full comparison.
Before you send it
Select all the text in your CV, copy it, and paste it into any plain text editor. That is close to what the screening software receives. If your name and number are missing, or your job titles have merged into your dates, you have found something worth fixing before anything else.
Questions people ask
- What should a project manager CV lead with?
- Budget and scope, the industry, and your certification if you have one. Scope is what sorts project managers.
- Which keywords matter for a project manager?
- Recruiters tend to search certification, such as PMP or PRINCE2, methodology, budget size. Use the posting's own wording for anything that is true of you, in a sentence about real work rather than a keyword list.
- How is a project manager CV different from a resume?
- PRINCE2 is the dominant certification in the UK and much of Europe, where PMP dominates in the US; both are recognised but the posting tells you which they value. Currency matters too: quote budgets in the currency of the role you are applying for, or state both.
- How long should it be?
- Two pages is standard in the UK, Ireland and Australia with a few years of experience. One strong page is right early on, and padding to reach two is worse than a full one.
- Is the first check really free?
- Yes, with no account and no card. After that it is one payment for unlimited checks rather than a monthly subscription.
See what your project manager CV really says
The parsed text, the score, the recruiter's read and the rewrites. First one free.
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