Are you on the hunt for more Manager-level job offers?

You're going to need a strong resume. This comprehensive guide provides proven strategies, skills, templates, and examples for writing a job-winning manager resume based on data from coaching thousands of successful job seekers.

From top to bottom, this guide will give you the tools you need to create an excellent manager resume and increase the chances of you landing your dream job. I recommend reading the whole post but, if you're short on time, here is an overview of what we're going to cover:

• What To Know About Writing A Job-Winning Manager Resume
• The Best Skills To Include On A Manager Resume
• How To Write A Job-Winning Manager Resume Summary
• How To Write Offer-Winning Manager Resume Bullets
• 3 Manager Resume Examples
• The 8 Best Manager Resume Templates

Here's the step-by-step breakdown:

Manager Resume Overview: What To Know To Write A Resume That Wins More Job Offers

What do companies look for when hiring for a manager role?

When hiring for a manager role, companies look for candidates with a combination of technical expertise, leadership skills, and interpersonal abilities. Effective communication, decision-making, problem-solving, and organizational skills are also essential for success in a managerial position.

Managers should also possess technical knowledge that's relevant to the industry, and have strong interpersonal skills that are necessary for building strong relationships and working effectively with others.

Typically, organizations also look for candidates with prior management experience, as it demonstrates a track record of success in a leadership role. However, this isn't a requirement. Overall, companies seek candidates who can lead their team to achieve organizational goals, communicate effectively, and make timely and effective decisions.

Your resume should show your potential employer that both your personality and your experience encompass all of these things.

Additionally, there are a few best practices you want to follow to write a job-winning manager resume:

1. Highlight your leadership and management skills. Include examples of how you have motivated and led teams to achieve organizational goals.
2. Emphasize your communication and interpersonal skills. Provide examples of how you have effectively communicated with team members, stakeholders, and clients.
3. Include keywords from the job description: ensure your resume is optimized for applicant tracking systems (ATS).
4. Highlight your problem-solving and decision-making skills. Provide examples of how you have addressed complex issues and made effective decisions.
5. Include any relevant certifications, awards or professional development courses. Demonstrate your expertise in your industry or field.
6. Quantify your work: Use numbers to showcase the impact of your leadership on your team's performance. Some examples include improvements in employee productivity, increased team morale,  and boosts in overall team performance.
7. Proofread: Carefully proofread your resume for errors and typos, as these can give a negative impression to potential employers (I recommend using the Hemingway App).

Let's dive deeper into each of these so you have the exact blueprint you need to see success.

The Best Manager Skills To Include On Your Resume

Keywords are one of the most important factors in your resume. They show employers that your skills align with the role and they also help format your resume for Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS).

If you're not familiar with ATS systems, they are pieces of software used by employers to manage job applications. They scan resumes for keywords and qualifications and make it easier for the employers to filter and search for candidates whose qualifications match the role.

If you want to win more interviews and job offers, you need to have a keyword-optimized resume. There are two ways to find the right keywords:

1. Leverage The 20 Best Manager Keywords

The first is to leverage our list of the best keywords and skills for a manager resume.

These keywords were selected from an analysis of real manager job descriptions sourced from actual job boards. Here they are:

• Communication
• Management
• Operations
• Training
• Friendly
• Marketing
• Engaging
• Sales
• Team Member
• Performance
• Product
• Leadership
• Development
• Flexible
• Influence
• Consistency
• Interpersonal Skills
• Integrity
• Accountable
• Organization

2. Use ResyMatch.io To Find The Best Keywords That Are Specific To Your Resume And Target Role

The second method is the one I recommend because it's personalized to your specific resume and target job.

This process lets you find the exact keywords that your resume is missing when compared to the individual role you're applying for

Here's how it works:

1. Open a copy of your updated manager resume
2. Open a copy of your target manager job description
3. Head over to ResyMatch.io
4. Copy and paste your manager resume on the left and then do the same for the job description on the right
5. Hit scan and review the results

ResyMatch is going to scan your resume and compare it to the target job description. It's going to show you the exact keywords and skills you're missing as well as share other feedback you can use to improve your resume.

Here's a video walking through this whole process:

How To Write A Job-Winning Manager Resume Summary

Capturing an employer's attention is critical and you only have an average of six seconds to do it.

To increase the chances of getting more interviews and job offers, it's essential to make every second count. One way to do this is by putting the most relevant information at the top of your resume.

A quick Google search will tell you that a Summary or an Objective should hold this top spot but, unfortunately, that traditional advice simply won't capture your reader's attention. Winning in today's job market means using a more modern approach, what I like to call a “Highlight Reel.”

Here's how it works:

Highlight Reels: A Proven Way To Start Your Resume And Win More Jobs

The Highlight Reel is exactly what it sounds like.

It's a section at the top of your resume that allows you to pick and choose the best and most relevant experience to feature right at the top of your resume.

It's essentially a highlight reel of your career as it relates to this specific role! I like to think about it as the SportsCenter Top 10 of your resume.

The Highlight Reel resume summary consists of 4 parts:

1. A relevant section title that ties your experience to the role
2. An introductory bullet that summarizes your experience and high level value
3. A few supporting “Case Study” bullets that illustrate specific results, projects, and relevant experience
4. A closing “Extracurricular” bullet to round out your candidacy

For example, if we were writing a Highlight Reel for a manager role, it might look like this:

You can see how the first includes the Manager job title, the years of experience this candidate has, and it wraps up with a value-driven pitch for how they've helped companies in the past.

The next two bullets are “Case Studies” of specific results they drove at their previous employers, again driving home the measurable outcomes of their efforts with metrics. Their last bullet focuses on the results of a program they implemented to increase employee recognition that had amazing results.

This candidate has provided all of the info any employer would want to see right at the very top of their resume! The best part is, they can customize this section for each and every role they apply for to maximize the relevance of their experience.

Here's one more example of a Manager Highlight Reel:

While this candidate doesn't mention any management experience, they focus on their skills as a leader and what their team was able to accomplish with their guidance. You can see all the elements of a great Highlight Reel (especially the emphasis on measurable outcomes and results!).

If you want more details on writing a killer Highlight Reel, check out my full guide on Highlight Reels here.

How To Write Offer-Winning Manager Resume Bullets

Bullets make up the majority of the content in your resume. If you want to win, you need to know how to write bullets that are compelling and value-driven.

Unfortunately, way too many job seekers aren't good at this. They use fluffy, buzzword-fill language and they only talk about the actions that they took rather than the results and outcomes those actions created.

To help solve this, our team dove into bullets from the best resumes that have come across our desk. We used that data to create a formula for a great resume bullet. Here it is:

If you apply this framework to each of the bullets on your resume, you're going to make them more compelling and your value is going to be crystal clear to the reader. For example, take a look at these resume bullets:

❌ Responsible for managing a team of 10 client success managers to drive revenue. 

✅ Managed a team of 10 client success managers who worked collaboratively to increase sales revenue by $20 million in 12 months. 

The second bullet makes the candidate's value so much more clear. It gives information about what the candidate accomplished, how they accomplished it, and also gives a timeframe. That's what we're going for here.

That said, it's one thing to look at the graphic above and try to apply the abstract concept of “35% hard skills” to your bullet. We wanted to make things easy, so we created a tool called ResyBullet.io that will actually give your resume bullet a score and show you how to improve it.

Using ResyBullet To Write Crazy Effective, Job-Winning Manager Resume Bullets

ResyBullet takes our proprietary “resume bullet formula” and layers it into a tool that's super simple to use. Here's how it works:

1. Head over to ResyBullet.io
2. Copy a bullet from your manager resume and paste it into the tool, then hit “Analyze”
3. ResyBullet will score your manager resume bullet and show you exactly what you need to improve
4. You edit your bullet with the recommended changes and scan it again
5. Rinse and repeat until you get a score of 60+
6. Move on to the next bullet in your manager resume

Let's take a look at how this works for the two resume bullet examples I shared above:

First, we had, “Responsible for managing a team of 10 client success managers to drive revenue.”

ResyBullet gave that a score of 46/100.  While it includes a couple of action words and a metric to describe the size of the team this candidate managed, it has too many common words and no soft skills:

Now, let's take a look at our second bullet, “Managed a team of 10 client success managers who worked collaboratively to increase sales revenue by $20 million in 12 months.”

ResyBullet gave that a 60 / 100. Much better! This bullet had more content focused on the specific criteria the hiring team is looking for. We can see by exactly how much they increased sales revenue and in what timeframe. We can also see the skills used to achieve those results, by getting the team to work collaboratively towards a common goal, which is exactly what employers are looking for in an effective manager!

Now all you have to do is run each of your bullets through ResyBullet, make the suggested updates, and your resume is going to be jam packed with eye-popping, value-driven content!

And if you want to learn more about the underlying strategies behind writing great resume bullets, check out this guide.

3 Manager Resume Examples For 2023

Now let's take a look at all of these best practices in action. Here are three resume examples for different situations from people with different backgrounds:

Manager Resume Example #1: A Traditional Background

Manager Resume Example #2: A Non-Traditional Background

For our second Manager Resume Example, we have a candidate who has a non-traditional background. In this case, they are coming from the teaching field and looking to transition into a manager role and highlights their transferrable skills.  Here's an example of what their resume might look like when applying for manager roles:

Manager Resume Example #3: Experienced Manager With a Career Gap

For our third Manager Resume Example, we have a candidate who has 12+ years of experience in management but has a 3-year career gap. There are a few ways to explain gaps in your employment history, but here is an example of what your resume might look like when applying for manager roles:

The 8 Best Manager Resume Templates

At this point, you know all of the basics you'll need to write a manager resume that wins you more interviews and offers. The only thing left is to take all of that information and apply it to a template that's going to help you get results.

We made that easy with our ResyBuild tool. It has 8 proven templates that were created with the help of recruiters and hiring managers at the world's best companies. These templates also bake in thousands of data points we have from the job seekers in our audience who have used them to land job offers.

Just click any of the templates below to start building your resume using proven, recruiter-approved templates:

Key Takeaways To Wrap Up Your Job-Winning Manager Resume

You made it! We packed a lot of information into this post so I wanted to distill the key points for you and lay out next steps so you know exactly where to from here.

Here are the 5 steps for writing a job-winning manager resume:

1. Start with a proven resume template from ResyBuild.io
2. Use ResyMatch.io to find the right keywords and optimize your resume for each manager role you apply to
3. Start your resume with a Highlight Reel to immediately grab your target employer's attention
4. Use ResyBullet.io to craft compelling, value-driven bullets that pop off the page
5. Compare the draft of your manager resume to the examples on this page to make sure you're on the right path
6. Use a tool like HemingwayApp to proofread your resume before you submit it

If you follow those steps, you're going to be well on your way to landing more manager interviews and job offers.