My Account

You control your data

We and our partners use cookies to provide you with our services and, depending on your settings, gather analytics and marketing data. Find more information on our Cookie Policy. Tap "Settings” to set preferences. To accept all cookies, click “Accept”.

Settings Accept

Cookie settings

Click on the types of cookies below to learn more about them and customize your experience on our Site. You may freely give, refuse or withdraw your consent. Keep in mind that disabling cookies may affect your experience on the Site. For more information, please visit our Cookies Policy and Privacy Policy.

Choose type of cookies to accept

Analytics

These cookies allow us to analyze our performance to offer you a better experience of creating resumes and cover letters. Analytics related cookies used on our Site are not used by Us for the purpose of identifying who you are or to send you targeted advertising. For example, we may use cookies/tracking technologies for analytics related purposes to determine the number of visitors to our Site, identify how visitors move around the Site and, in particular, which pages they visit. This allows us to improve our Site and our services.

Performance and Personalization

These cookies give you access to a customized experience of our products. Personalization cookies are also used to deliver content, including ads, relevant to your interests on our Site and third-party sites based on how you interact with our advertisements or content as well as track the content you access (including video viewing). We may also collect password information from you when you log in, as well as computer and/or connection information. During some visits, we may use software tools to measure and collect session information, including page response times, download errors, time spent on certain pages and page interaction information.

Advertising

These cookies are placed by third-party companies to deliver targeted content based on relevant topics that are of interest to you. And allow you to better interact with social media platforms such as Facebook.

Necessary

These cookies are essential for the Site's performance and for you to be able to use its features. For example, essential cookies include: cookies dropped to provide the service, maintain your account, provide builder access, payment pages, create IDs for your documents and store your consents.

To see a detailed list of cookies, click here.

Save preferences

Our customers have been hired by:

Good project management skills are what guarantees that things get done. Better yet: done on time and within a budget.

If you'd like to learn how the top skills needed for project management can be best displayed on your resume, you came to the right place. We'll guide you through all the key aspects of project manager skills.

This guide will show you:

  • Useful project management skills lists focusing on essential soft and hard skills.
  • How to put your project management skills on a resume to land more interviews.
  • Why picking the right few project management achievements is key to proving and validating your PM qualifications.

Want to save time and have your resume ready in 5 minutes? Try our resume builder. It’s fast and easy to use. Plus, you’ll get ready-made content to add with one click. See 20+ resume templates and create your resume here.

Create your resume now

Sample resume made with our builder—See more resume examples here.

For the best tips about listing all kinds of skills on a resume, see our guide: 99+ Key Professional Skills to Put on a Resume & How to List Them (+Examples)

Need some help with creating a full resume for project management jobs? Check out one of these:

1

Project Management Skills Essentials

In 2021, Zety compiled statistics from 133,000 resumes. Yes, that's a bunch. Here's what skills we found on resumes written by project managers:

Project Management Skills (Resume)

  1. Project Management (21%)
  2. Communication (18%)
  3. Leadership (17%)
  4. Microsoft Office (16%)
  5. Microsoft Project (12%)
  6. Problem Solving (12%)
  7. Time Management (10%)
  8. Risk Management (8%)
  9. Strategic Planning (6%)
  10. PMP Certification (6%)
  11. Salesforce (5%)
  12. Team Management (5%)
  13. Organization (4%)
  14. Negotiation (4%)
  15. Adaptability (4%)

The list above is solid gold. It comes from actual resumes written by PMs. It's a convenient cheat sheet, but be warned: pick only the right ones for your know-how and job ad you're targetting. And don't simply plonk them at the bottom and move on. You need to write them up in a way that sells.

Read on to learn how.

Best Soft Skills for Project Management Jobs

The single most important skill for project managers nowadays? Problem-solving. By being able to use tools to lead groups through problem-solving sessions, you'll have a valuable skill that can be used in any situation. This is true whether your team follows waterfall or Agile. And with organizations needing to work more efficiently than ever, you'll be able to help your team identify ways to make improvements through your problem-solving skills.
Leigh Espy
Leigh Espy
Project Manager at FedEx and owner of ProjectBliss

What are project management skills when it comes to technicalities and hands-on PM experience?

Technical and Job-Specific Project Management Skills

  • Project Scheduling
  • Strategic Planning
  • Subject Matter Expertise
  • Project Lifecycle Management
  • Agile Software
  • Scrum Management
  • Meeting Facilitation
  • Financial Modelling
  • Kanban
  • Forecasting
  • Lean Thinking
  • Performance Tracking
  • Budgeting

As you can see, project management skills are healthy mix of soft skills and hard skills. The thing is—

Raw lists of PM skills are pretty useless. You need to learn how to make the most of them to supercharge your job search!

Project management skills are awesome, especially when combined with other great skills. We analyzed 11 million resumes made in our builder, and we found what are the top 10 most commonly added skills by our users (PM skills included):

  • Teamwork and Collaboration
  • Problem-solving
  • Excellent Communication
  • Multitasking
  • Attention to Detail
  • MS Office
  • Analytical and Critical Thinking
  • Data Entry
  • Project Management
  • Team Management

Creating a resume with our builder is incredibly simple. Follow our step-by-step guide and use content from Certified Professional Resume Writers to have a resume ready in minutes.

When you’re done, our free resume builder will score your resume and our resume checker will tell you exactly how to make it better.

And if you want to learn more about other job-winning skills, we've got you covered! Check out our dedicated guides:

2

How to Put Project Management Skills on a Resume

When it comes to listing project management skills on a resume, two notions are key:

Relevance and specificity.

First of all, the skills you choose to list have to match the position you’re eying.

Secondly, you can’t just randomly enter whatever is expected of you. You need to show specific, tangible proof of how you’ve put a given skills to use.

So use the examples of project management skills above only as a point of reference and put in a bit more work for your resume project management skills section to truly shine.

Here’s how to list project manager skills on a resume step by step :

  • Start with a spreadsheet with all your professional project manager skills and qualifications.
  • Read the job description carefully and look for skills-related requirements.
  • See which of these project management competencies match your skills listed in the spreadsheet. Quite a few, right?
  • Put those project management resume keywords in a separate skills section of your resume.
  • Don’t stop there: research the company online. Find what sort of software and technical knowledge, as well as "transferable skills" they value. Plug these into your resume as well.
  • Show both your soft skills and hard skills on your resume.
  • Provide proof for your most strategic skills instead of just listing them in bullet points.

See what I mean in this real-life example.

Here’s a sample project manager job description. Note the highlighted skills required.

Project Manager Job Description Example

  • Excellent in written and verbal communication(1).
  • Solid organizational skills including attention to detail and multi-tasking skills.
  • Strong working knowledge of MS Office.
  • Experience in data analysis a plus(2).
  • Experience with Agile Software(3).
  • Highly competent in project and program management, budgeting(4), scheduling, and task estimation.
  • Excellent team leadership skills(5), with the ability to motivate and inspire team members.

Now, here are two project manager resume skills sections—one tailored to match the job ad and another one, generic.

Project Management Skills for a Resume—Examples

right
  • Agile Software(3): employed Jira and Taiga to improve team velocity 35%.
  • Data Analysis(2): 3+ years of experience in Oracle 8i and MS Access.
  • Leadership(5): boosted team NPS by 32% by introducing incentive-based gamification.
  • Strong written and verbal communication skills(1).
  • Budgeting(4): saved $800,000 through a company-wide automation drive.

See this? The candidate listed her key skills relevant to the position and backed them up with evidence.

wrong
  • Written and verbal communication
  • Organizational skills
  • MS Office
  • Data analysis
  • Agile Software
  • Program management, budgeting, scheduling, task estimation
  • Leadership

Come on. “Tailoring,” doesn’t mean copy-pasting stuff.

One more thing to keep in mind:

While your key project management skills should be listed in a separate section, don’t limit yourself to that.

Mention project management technology and tools you know in the resume summary or resume objective.

Show how effective your project management skills have been in the work history section of your resume.

Finally: back up your skills with tangible proof.

On your resume, add an extra section with your unquestionable wins.

Include everything that fits into one of these categories:

  • Project Management Certifications
  • Projects
  • Conference participation
  • Courses taken
  • Awards and Professional Achievements
  • Publications

For more inspiration on how to spice up your project management resume, see: Achievements and Awards to Put on a Resume [Examples]

And by the way, don’t let your mind go blank in your interview. Check out our guides to make sure you always come out on top:

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.

Key Takeaway

Here’s everything you need to know about project management skills in a nutshell:

  • Some good examples of technical project management skills include: project scheduling, agile software, scrum management, meeting facilitation, financial modelling, kanban, and performance tracking.
  • The best soft skills for project management are: leadership, communication, time management, problem-solving, and risk assessment.
  • To list project manager qualifications on a resume the right way, customize your skills section so that it matches the requirements from the job ad.
  • Don’t just showcase your project management skill set in the skills section: sprinkle some skill-related keywords in your summary and the work experience section.

Have any questions? Need further assistance? Drop me a line in the comments, I’m here to listen, respond, and straighten out all your queries!

About Zety’s Editorial Process

This article has been reviewed by our editorial team to make sure it follows Zety's editorial guidelines. We’re committed to sharing our expertise and giving you trustworthy career advice tailored to your needs. High-quality content is what brings over 40 million readers to our site every year. But we don't stop there. Our team conducts original research to understand the job market better, and we pride ourselves on being quoted by top universities and prime media outlets from around the world.

Rate my article: project management skills
Article Helpfulness: 4.9 (40 votes)
Thank you for voting
Michael Tomaszewski, CPRW
Michael is a career expert and a Certified Professional Resume Writer. With his extensive knowledge of the job market, he provides practical advice and strategies for navigating the recruitment process and advancing your career.
Linkedin

Similar articles