Small Business Consultant and Career Mentor
Project coordinators fall within the field of project management, which tends to be a field with a lot of opportunity. In short, project coordinators differentiate themselves from project managers due to the responsibilities related to their work. While project managers have a hands-on approach for managing a team, project coordinators ensure the success of a project from the background. They handle administrative and organizational tasks related to delegation, establishing project objectives, or performing digital administrative tasks.
While project coordinator jobs are on the rise, employers are still highly selective about who will fill these positions. Therefore, if you can explain your experience and achievements in a project coordinator resume, then you are likely to receive a callback for an interview. So, here are some essentials, tips, and an example to get you started.
How to Become a Project Coordinator
Project coordinators are in almost every industry and company, but the main industries are:
- public administration and safety
- business and professional management
- scientific and technical services
- health care
- social assistance
The wide variety of industries a project coordinator can work in provides a unique opportunity to land a project coordinator job without the hassle of worrying about substantial qualifications. While a bachelor’s degree in project management is ideal, you can still qualify yourself for a job by taking courses to earn diplomas or certificates. It is also beneficial to find entry-level or volunteer work that can help build your level of experience.
At the end of the day, doing all of these things can help your chances for being a great candidate, but none of it will matter if you can’t properly talk about your new skills and experience in a project coordinator resume. So, let’s start with the essentials.
Project Coordinator Resume Essentials
All project coordinator resume templates embody 6 essential sections.
- Header
- Resume objective/summary
- Education
- Skills
- Work Experience
- Additional Sections
Before you start gathering information to include in your newly minted resume, it is important to make sure you choose or create a template that follows a format best suited for where you are in your career.
Selecting the Best Format
Resumes are written in three different formats, and all of them have their own unique purposes.
Reverse-Chronological Format
This is the most popular resume format for candidates. This format lists your most recent jobs at the top, with your older jobs listed below in reverse-chronological order. Resume experts recommend using this format if you have extensive work history or employment gaps. Most employers prefer this format, as it provides more insight into your employment history.
Functional
A functional resume focuses predominantly on your potential to be a great candidate. In this format, your skills and education are listed first. A functional resume is most beneficial for college graduates, students and people who are looking to change careers.
Combination (aka Hybrid)
A hybrid resume is a combination of the reverse-chronological format and the functional resume. It focuses equally on work experience and skill set. Job searchers use this format if they are switching careers or if they have previous work experience (or education) that is related to their new career path.
Project Coordinator Resume Summary
Once you’ve chosen a format to create a template with, the next important piece is a resume summary. The resume summary appears just below your heading, which is made of your name, email, phone number, and address.
In short, a project coordinator resume summary should clearly convey your ambitions, qualifications, and past achievements. Moreover, it should reveal how all of this could potentially benefit the company you are applying to. Therefore, it is important to make your resume summary relevant to the company and role at hand. Ultimately, the goal is to catch the reader’s attention and encourage them to want to meet you in person.
Objective vs Summary
Whether you should write an objective or a summary is a common sentiment among people who are crafting project coordinator resumes. As previously mentioned, a resume summary combines your ambitions, qualifications, and past achievements into a 4-5 sentence paragraph to show the company how you could be beneficial.
Meanwhile, a resume objective tends to be a little different. Career objectives are best used for people who don’t yet have many qualifications and achievements in the field they are applying to. Therefore, an objective would be between 1-3 sentences highlighting your value. In what way can your current skills, experience, and education make a difference to the company? Additionally, how do you see this and the role fitting into your overall career plan?
Detailing Your Project Coordinator Job Descriptions
Next, is the work history section. While it is important to ONLY include relevant work history, the way you talk about your relevant work history is even more important. The job descriptions under each previously held position will be the proof you need to convince employers that you are the ideal candidate.
A vital component of any good project coordinator resume job description is identifying your accomplishments through metrics. These metrics reflect the success you’ve had at creating strategy improvements, managing large groups of people, raising funds, reducing overhead percentages, dollar amount, etc. As you display these metrics, be sure these are metrics that show how you’ll be successful in the role you are applying for.
The Education Section
Simply put, the resume education section is where you list all of your educational accomplishments- diplomas, degrees, certificates, etc. The highest level of education is always listed first, no matter where you are in your career. What you list next is dependent on your objective. If you are a recent graduate, then you will want to list all of your education from your highest degree to your Bachelor’s degree. If you have been working for a while, then you will list your highest level of education along with any completed certificates.
Key Project Coordinator Skills and Keywords
Because project coordinators can work in a wide range of industries, the position tends to draw from a wide range of skills. However, hiring managers may want a candidate with a specific skill set. So, they will mention the required skills in the job description and use an ATS to scan resumes to weed out candidates that aren’t ideal. Your job is to identify the skills and keywords that are important so that your resume gets the attention it deserves. On top of skills and keywords mentioned in the project coordinator job description, these are other skills and keywords that will help your resume make it past ATS.
- Vendor management
- Project management
- Report generation
- Budgeting
- Scheduling
- Interpersonal skills
- Oracle Primavera
- Meeting coordination
- Multitasking
- Sharepoint
- Administrative
- Negotiation
- Microsoft Office
- Logistics
- Data analysis
Additional sections
There are few project coordinator resumes that don’t include additional sections. The additional sections give hiring managers a peak into your personal life. By including relevant information in these sections, employers see what motivates you, what makes you successful, and what can make you an all-around great employee.
Additional sections:
- Memberships
- Publications
- Certifications
- Hobbies
- Awards & Acknowledgement
Project Coordinator Resume Example
Peter Parker Peter.Parker@gmail.com |(212) 096-7230 |LinkedIn.com/in/peter-parker A confident, resourceful and empathetic project coordinator with 5+ years of experience. Skilled in time management and exceptional at handling people - looking to employ time saving measures. At Stark Enterprise, healthcare equipment costs were reduced by 32% as a result of competitive pricing research and timely, accurate progress reporting. Earned 3 internal awards for these efforts.
PROFESSIONAL WORK HISTORY Project Coordinator Doctor Strange IT Corp. May 2016- Present
3 Additional Tips to Personalize Your Project Coordinator Resume
Once you’ve written your resume, there are still things you can do to make sure it stands out in a crowded candidate pool.
Research the Company’s Culture
Currently many companies are hiring for culture fit. They want employees that will fit in well with their current employees and company culture. While most of this evaluation takes place during the screening process, being able to inject the company’s culture in your resume is a huge benefit. Here are a few ways to do so:
- In your resume summary (or objective) – mention skills, qualifications, and goals that are aligned closely with the company’s vision.
- In your work experience job descriptions – reflect on projects you’ve led that are related to initiatives that align with company values or are related to current company projects.
- Use your additional sections – talk about your involvement or interest in initiatives, charities, or social causes that the company supports.
Address Employment Gaps
One thing you don’t want to hide are gaps in employment. Trying to hide these things will look really bad if (and when) the truth comes to light. Instead, be open and upfront about them in your resume.
With the state of the workforce right now, there are plenty of people with gaps in employment. Employment gaps are even being normalized by hiring managers. So the issue isn’t whether you have a gap, it is how you decide to explain it. According to Zety, you could even write about the gap in your resume – whatever you decide to do, just be honest and be prepared to address it.
Make sure your resume is scannable
Making sure your resume is scannable comes down to two important things. The first is the way your project coordinator resume template is formatted. The general rules of thumb are:
- One-two pages long
- Use professional fonts
- Large headers (14-16 pt font)
- Font size (12-14 font)
- Plenty of white space
- No spelling or grammar errors
The second way to make sure your resume is scannable is based on the way you save your resume document. While it is usually okay to save it as a Word Document, a PDF file tends to be more acceptable. There is also less room for error with a PDF file than with a Word Document.
Don’t Forget the Cover Letter
Resumes that are submitted without a cover letter are often rejected upfront. Don’t risk missing out on that perfect job because you neglected to submit a cover letter. Here are a few tips to craft a resume to go with your project coordinator resume.
- Use a cover letter template that matches your resume template
- Be original and authentic. Pay attention to the tone of your letter
- Don’t pack too much in one cover letter.
- Connect the experience in your resume to cover letter to convey your passion and why you’d be a good fit
- End with a call to action by inviting the reader to reach out to you with the next steps
In the end…
Crafting a resume isn’t easy, but it is all worth it when it comes to landing your dream job. Though it is your first impression, you don’t want it to be your only impression. So, remember to include all of the essential elements of a resume, show your value, and show how you fit into the company’s culture. Your chance at an interview is on the other side of your newly minted project coordinator resume. Good luck!
