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Second in command is a misnomer. You’re a change agent, marketer, communications pro, and operations manager. Prove it with a chief operations officer resume that gets interviews.
The goal? Get hired as a COO of a Fortune 500 company. The time frame? Two months. The challenge? You know the BoD and CEO won’t hire just anyone. They can’t afford to take the chance that you’re not up there with Mary Barra and Marc Benioff. The wrong person in this role could crash the company.
But yikes.
How can you prove your COO skills on a thin sheet of 8x11? And most people do it exactly wrong. They talk about their job duties. Instead, they should pack their resumes with Netflix-worthy leadership accomplishments. Check out the steps below to write a job-winning COO resume.
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COO / Chief operation officer resume made with our builder—See more templates and create your resume here.
Want other leadership resume examples? See these guides:
Isabella Pense
isabellazpense@gmail.com
612-518-6131
linkedin.com/in/isabellazpense
Energetic chief operations officer with 9+ years of experience as a change agent, leader, and communicator in a tech company with over $500M in annual revenue. Seeking to improve ROI for HubSpot. At MicroWorks, cut product development times by 50% through modified Agile workflow and employee-led programs.
Chief Operations Officer
MicroWorks, Minneapolis, MN
June 2013 – June 2020
Drove 180+ employees in a consumer electronics company to grow revenue from $200M to $500M in 7 years. Managed operations, marketing, production, research, and development.
Operations Manager
Insara Tech, Inc.
June 2009–March 2013
Augsburg University
BS in Finance
Graduated: May 2007
Here’s how to write a job-earning chief operations officer resume:
As a COO, you might be anything from a foil for the CEO to the acting leader of the business. That matters to the BoD, so they’ll judge everything about your COO resume. Your margins, font choice, line spacing, and paragraph styles are all under the lens. Don’t leave your job search up to chance.
So what does the perfect resume look like? It follows these resume format success steps:
Read more: Best Resume Styles
“I keep sending my resume, and nobody replies.” That’s frustrating, but it’s got two simple reasons. The first and easiest to fix is that your resume introduction isn’t compelling enough. That’s the paragraph at the top that teases all the best features of your resume.
You won't write a resume objective statement. Those are strictly for inexperienced job seekers, and you’ve got more experience than Ursula Burns.
Instead, write a resume career summary statement. The goal? Get the BoD to sit up straight in their Herman Miller Aerons. The way to do it is to use the most Fortune-5000-level moments from your resume.
Read more: How To Make Your Resume Stand Out
Would you like to know the biggest mistake you’ll almost certainly make in your COO resume? You’ll focus on your job duties and qualifications. “But wait—aren’t I supposed to focus on those things?” Nope. To get the job, you need to zero in on the most wow-getting times you’ve moved the needle.
Here’s how to add relevant experience to a resume so it blows their hair back:
Read more: Resume in Past or Present Tense? What Tense to Use
You don’t need to show cum laude on your resume to get the job. In fact, the business world is jammed with leaders who never went to college. But if you’ve got a degree, flaunt it. There’s a way that works, and then again there’s a way that makes board members shrug.
To show your education in a resume:
Read more: How to List a Degree on a Resume
If you wrote down all your skills right now, how many would you have? A thousand? But nobody will read all those, even if they’re all amazing. But how can you choose which ones to put in, and which ones to toss out? First, list about 10 COO skills, max. Second, make them the ones the company wants most.
Here's how to show your chief operations officer skills will take the company from good to great:
Pro Tip: Need the right resume keywords? Those are just the skills and qualifications the business wants most. Put them in your skills list and bullets for an ATS-friendly resume.
When making a resume in our builder, drag & drop bullet points, skills, and auto-fill the boring stuff. Spell check? Check. Start building your resume here.
When you’re done, Zety’s resume builder will score your resume and tell you exactly how to make it better.
Experience and education on a resume aren’t the only ways to show your skills. In fact, some skills only come from volunteer work and other activities.
Read more: What Sections Go in a Resume?
“Do I need a cover letter for my COO resume?” Yes, you do. If you send your resume without one, they’ll have no way of knowing you’re not just auto-applying to every job opening in the book. You’ve got to write a personal appeal that shows this particular company is important to you.
After all, what is a cover letter for if not to show your passion for helping the company succeed?
Include the right parts in your cover letter:
The right cover letter length is not a matter of opinion. If you can’t say it in a single page, you can’t say it at all.
Read more: Cover Letter Salutation and Best Greeting Examples
Plus, a great cover letter that matches your resume will give you an advantage over other candidates. You can write it in our cover letter builder here. Here's what it may look like:
See more cover letter templates and start writing.
That’s it!
That’s everything you need to write a great chief operations officer resume!
Thanks for reading! Do you have another question on how to make a Bezos-level chief operations officer resume? Give us a shout in the comments section!
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