Working in a project management office (PMO), you’re going to be great with numbers and analysis, but writing about you and your skills might not come so naturally. To help you get the job you deserve in a PMO, we’ve put together this guide for writing a great CV for a PMO job.

First, let’s address language briefly. In the UK, Australia, and many other parts of the world, CV is used to mean the document that outlines your career and education history. In the USA, the word resume is commonly used to indicate the same thing. We’re going to stick with CV in this article.

You’ve already got the skills and experience working in one of the roles within a PMO; now you need to know how to communicate that to work up the career ladder. To help, we’re covering:

  • Whether you need to add a photo to your PMO CV
  • Which sections you should include in your CV for a PMO role
  • How to optimise the information you include to find success

Does a photo belong on a PMO job CV?

In short, no – you don’t need to include your photo on CV for a PMO role, or most roles for that matter. You want your experience to speak for itself – how you look isn’t going to affect your job performance.

If you’re really proud of your professional-looking headshot, add it to your LinkedIn profile. Many recruiters will hunt you down on the professional social network if they like your CV and will find your image on there.

How do I format my CV to get a PMO job?

There are all kinds of advice available about writing your CV and where to add your information. We say to keep your CV simple and direct – you want your future manager to see that you can communicate effectively, after all.

This is a brief overview of how to handle each CV section for your PMO job application.

Personal details

Be sure to include your full name, or the name you use professionally if it’s different. Don’t overwhelm the recruiter with contact information – your phone number, email, and link to your LinkedIn should suffice.

No one needs to check out your Instagram account to hire you. However, if you blog about project management and your work in a PMO, a link to that would be useful to show your dedication.

Career summary

Your career summary is a brief description of your career achievements to date. It should be two or three short sentences that highlight your achievements over your years in the industry. Use active words and make sure it’s relevant to the job description of the new role.

Work experience

Put your work experience in a PMO front and centre. This is a chance to show what you can do with fact-based statements about what you’ve achieved in your career.

If you start writing like this:

Responsible for the delivery of all IT projects, ensuring they are on time and on budget

Consider shifting a gear up to something like this:

Implemented new project schedule software, seeing 98% of projects delivered on time and 97% delivered on budget

You will know the statistics for your PMO wins and how you’ve achieved and exceeded your KPIs. These facts will show the person hiring you that you can bring the same success to their office.

Add your most recent role first, and include relevant jobs working backwards. Do you need to add your work behind a bar when you were at university? Probably not.

Key skills and qualifications

Read the job description that you’re applying for carefully and tease out the skills they are looking for. Find examples in your background that show you can meet what they’re looking for. If they want someone with leadership skills, consider writing:

Led a team of five analysts and administrators to build a PMO achieving all KPIs

As an example.

Include relevant professional career development certifications you’ve undertaken, such as short courses and online programmes.

Education

Add the highest academic qualification you have, such as your Master’s or Bachelor’s. Don’t worry about adding your high school.  However, make sure you did attain the qualification as organisations will check and require evidence, normally by checking with the awarding body.

The take-home

Writing a great CV for a project management job requires you to follow a template and plug in your variables – a skill you most certainly already have.

Try and cover only one page, but two will be ok if you have an impressive background. Keep your language active and your layout simple – bright colours and funky fonts aren’t appealing and won’t pass through application tracking software.

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