A project leader can often be confused with a project manager. This is understandable because both roles can overlap. However, there are a few differences between a PM and PL. The project manager usually acts as the project’s coordinator and focuses on the bigger picture, such as budgets, goals, and strategy.
The project leader, on the other hand, is more oriented toward team members. That’s why they identify the team’s strengths, weaknesses, and needs to implement strategies that help them reach their potential. The PL’s goal is to help the team achieve the project milestones. Therefore, they will motivate team members, provide feedback, and gather information to promote a healthy and efficient work environment.
Your project leader resume should reflect your ability to coordinate a team and motivate them. That’s why you should include managerial experience in which you guided a group towards a particular goal.
If you don’t have extensive experience on your resume, you can also include extracurricular projects in which you used your leadership skills. This will help you make a better impression on recruiters. Below, you will find more relevant tips to help you showcase your value and get past ATSs.
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Project leaders promote the project’s vision and motivate the team to accomplish their goals. That’s why they have a focus on employees. They try to understand their needs and find resources to help them grow their potential. Hence, they offer emotional support and implement incentives to keep employees committed to the project.
As a project leader, you will have constant communication with upper management to indicate the team’s progress. Therefore, you should include your reporting skills in your resume to make a good impression.
Team management should be represented across your entire resume. A high-performing project leader is able to plan strategies, oversee team members, determine schedules, and delegate tasks. You should demonstrate this to let recruiters know you are a good fit for this position.
Another crucial responsibility you’ll have is to promote collaboration among team members, and sometimes, you’ll come across any conflict. A good project leader should know how to act in these situations. That’s why it is important to demonstrate your conflict resolution skills on your resume.
A project lead must meet with stakeholders and managers to find out about project expectations and goals. Then, they must communicate them with team members and implement a strategy to achieve them. This involves determining schedules and priorities and delegating tasks.
You could mention on your resume your ability to work remotely. Many remote teams out there need a project lead to motivate them, but not everyone is prepared for such a challenge, so that might help you impress recruiters.
Time management skills are essential for a project leader role. You must coordinate schedules and stay on top of the team to ensure they meet deadlines. Additionally, you also have to deal with other tasks such as reporting, meetings, interviews, coaching, etc. That’s why you must demonstrate your organizational skills on your resume.
A software project lead helps the engineering team work more efficiently and meet their milestones. They usually work in the product development team and help the project manager coordinate with members. You should indicate your ability to direct the team through Scrum and Agile principles on your resume since these are two of the main approaches to project management in the engineering industry.
Your software project lead resume should demonstrate seniority in the computer science industry. That’s why you should keep it focused on that field. Only include relevant work experiences and skills to indicate your expertise.
Another great way to demonstrate your knowledge is by including relevant certifications in your resume. Some ideal credentials are the Agile Certified Practitioner (ACP) and the Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM).
We spoke with hiring managers and recruiters from top companies like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft to gather their best advice for project leader resumes. They shared insider tips on what they look for when hiring project leaders and how to showcase your skills effectively. The following tips will help you create a resume that stands out and lands you an interview.
Hiring managers want to see evidence of your ability to lead and manage projects. Highlight your leadership experience by:
Avoid simply listing your responsibilities without showing the impact. Instead of:
A resume summary for a Project Leader role is optional, but it can be a great way to provide additional context and highlight your most relevant skills and experience. It's especially useful if you're changing careers or have a diverse background that may not be immediately obvious from the rest of your resume. However, avoid using an objective statement, as it's outdated and doesn't provide value to the employer.
When crafting your summary, focus on showcasing your project management expertise, leadership abilities, and industry-specific knowledge. Be objective and use metrics to demonstrate your impact in previous roles. Keep your summary concise, ideally no more than one paragraph, and avoid duplicating information that's already in your resume.
As a project leader, your work experience section needs to demonstrate your ability to lead teams, deliver projects on time and within budget, and drive business results. Here are some key tips to make your work experience section stand out:
Project leaders should be excellent communicators in order to motivate the team and drive them toward their goals. That is exactly what you should reflect on your resume. To showcase your communication skills use easy-to-understand vocabulary and structure. This is where action verbs can help you. They synthesize what you want to express in a single word and you could use them to describe your work experience.
To determine the ideal words, you can identify your skills and synthesize them into action verbs. This will help you maintain word economy and efficiently illustrate your competencies. Keep in mind that the action verbs you use should be varied; you should not repeat them. If you need help finding diverse action verbs for your project leader resume, take a look at our list.
For a full list of effective resume action verbs, visit Resume Action Verbs.
A project leader’s resume template should prioritize your technical skills and industry knowledge. That’s why you should include skills, such as project management, conflict resolution, and scheduling.
A project manager can work in a wide multitude of industries, such as software development, marketing, manufacturing, etc. That’s why it’s important to demonstrate industry knowledge. To demonstrate this, you can include your familiarity with related tools or techniques.
Below, we have included some relevant skills you can include in your project leader resume. Remember this is just referential, you should always consult job posts and your potential employer’s requirements to identify more skills.
You can include the above skills in a dedicated Skills section on your resume, or weave them in your experience. Here's how you might create your dedicated skills section:
This word cloud highlights the important keywords that appear on Project Leader job descriptions and resumes. The bigger the word, the more frequently it appears on job postings, and the more 'important' it is.
Thank you for the checklist! I realized I was making so many mistakes on my resume that I've now fixed. I'm much more confident in my resume now.
