You understand how to identify business needs and goals when it comes to project planning, but can you identify what the recruiter needs to see on your application?
If the answer is no, you’re in good hands. In the guide below, we’ll share our top tips for planning, writing and formatting your CV for the best results.
We’ll even share a project planner CV example to help you.
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Project Planner CV example
Use this CV example as a guide to formatting and structuring your Project Planner CV, so that busy recruiters can easily digest your information and determine your suitability for the role.
It also provides some insight into the key skills, experience and qualifications you need to highlight.
Project Planner CV format and structure
In today’s fast-paced job market, recruiters and employers are often short on time. If they can’t locate the information they’re searching for within a few seconds, it could result in them overlooking your application.
To avoid this happening, it’s critical to structure and format your CV in a way that allows them to quickly identify your key skills and offerings, even when they’re pressed for time.
Tips for formatting your Project Planner CV
- Length: Whether you’ve got one year or three decades of experience, your CV should never be more than two sides of A4. Recruiters are busy people who’re often juggling numerous roles and tasks, so they don’t have time to read lengthy applications. If you’re a recent graduate or don’t have much industry experience, one side of A4 is fine.
- Readability: Make sure your CV is easy to read and looks professional by applying some simple formatting tricks. Bullet points are great for making large paragraphs more digestible, while formatting your headings with bold or coloured text will help the reader to find the information they need, with speed.
- Design & format: While it’s okay to add your own spin to your CV, avoid overdoing the design. If you go for something elaborate, you might end up frustrating recruiters who, above anything, value simplicity and clarity.
- Photos: Recruiters can’t factor in appearance, gender or race into the recruitment process, so a profile photo is not usually needed. However, creative employers do like to see them, so you can choose to include one if you think it will add value to your CV .
Quick tip: Creating a professional CV style can be difficult and time-consuming when using Microsoft Word or Google Docs. To create a winning CV quickly, try our quick-and-easy CV Builder and use one of their eye-catching professional CV templates.
CV structure
When writing your CV, it’s important to structure the content into the following key sections to ensure easy digestion by busy recruiters and hiring managers:
- Contact details: List your contact details at the top of your CV to prevent them from being overlooked.
- Profile: Begin with an introductory paragraph that captures recruiters’ attention and summarises what you have to offer employers.
- Work experience/career history: List your relevant work experience in reverse chronological order, starting with your current position.
- Education: Provide a brief summary of your education and qualifications.
- Interests and hobbies: An optional section to showcase any hobbies that highlight transferable skills relevant to your target jobs.
Now you understand the basic layout of a CV, here’s what you should include in each section of yours.
Contact Details
Start off your CV with a basic list of your contact details.
Here’s what you should include:
- Mobile number
- Email address – It’s often helpful to make a new email address, specifically for your job applications.
- Location – Share your town or city; there’s no need for a full address.
- LinkedIn profile or portfolio URL – Make sure the information on them is coherent with your CV, and that they’re up-to-date
Quick tip: Delete excessive details, such as your date of birth or marital status. Recruiters don’t need to know this much about you, so it’s best to save the space for your other CV sections.
Project Planner CV Profile
Your CV profile is basically a short introductory paragraph, which summarises your key selling points and highlights why you’d make a good hire.
So, write a well-rounded summary of what you do, what your key skills are, and what relevant experience you have.
It needs to be short, snappy and punchy and, ultimately, entice the reader to read the rest of your CV.
How to write a good CV profile:
- Make it short and sharp: Recruiters have piles of CVs to read through and limited time to dedicate to each, so it pays to showcase your abilities in as few words as possible. 3-4 lines is ideal.
- Tailor it: No matter how much time you put into your CV profile, it won’t impress if it’s irrelevant to the role you’re applying for. Before you start writing, make a list of the skills, knowledge and experience your target employer is looking for. Then, make sure to mention them in your CV profile and throughout the rest of your application.
- Don’t add an objective: Avoid discussing your career goals in your CV profile – if you think they’re necessary, briefly mention them in your cover letter instead.
- Avoid generic phrases: Clichés like “blue-sky thinker with a go-getter attitude” might sound impressive to you, but they don’t actually tell the recruiter much about you. Concentrate on highlighting hard facts and skills, as recruiters are more likely to take these on board.
Example CV profile for Project Planner
What to include in your Project Planner CV profile?
- Experience overview: Start with a brief summary of your relevant experience so far. How many years experience do you have? What type of companies have you worked for? What industries/sectors have you worked in? What are your specialisms?
- Targeted skills: Ensure that your profile highlights your key skills that are most relevant to your Project Planner, and tailor them to match the specific job you are applying for. To do this, refer to the job description to closely align your skills with their requirements.
- Important qualifications: If you have any qualifications which are highly relevant to Project Planner jobs, then highlight them in your profile so that employers do not miss them.
Quick tip: If you are finding it difficult to write an attention-grabbing CV profile, choose from hundreds of pre-written profiles across all industries, and add one to your CV with one click in our quick-and-easy CV Builder. All profiles are written by recruitment experts and easily tailored to suit your unique skillset.
Core skills section
To ensure that your most relevant skills catch the eye of readers, create a core skills section below your profile.
This section should be presented in 2-3 columns of bullet points highlighting your applicable skills. Before crafting this section, carefully examine the job description and create a list of any required skills, specialisms, or knowledge.
Use this list to include the necessary information in your section and present yourself as the ideal match for the position.
Important skills for your Project Planner CV
Project Scheduling – Developing and managing project schedules, including task dependencies and critical path analysis.
Resource Allocation – Allocating and managing project resources, such as personnel, materials, and equipment.
Risk Analysis – Identifying and assessing project risks and developing mitigation strategies to ensure successful project delivery.
Budgeting and Cost Control – Creating and managing project budgets, tracking expenses, and controlling costs throughout the project lifecycle.
Project Management Software – Using project management software tools such as Microsoft Project or Primavera for scheduling and resource management.
Scope Management – Defining project scope, managing scope changes, and ensuring that project deliverables align with stakeholder expectations.
Stakeholder Communication – Effectively communicating project status, updates, and issues to stakeholders and team members.
Quality Assurance – Implementing quality control measures to ensure that project deliverables meet established quality standards.
Documentation and Reporting – Maintaining detailed project documentation and generating regular progress reports for project stakeholders.
Critical Thinking – Using critical thinking and problem-solving techniques to address project-related challenges and make informed decisions.
Quick tip: Our quick-and-easy CV Builder has thousands of in-demand skills for all industries and professions, that can be added to your CV in seconds – This will save you time and ensure you get noticed by recruiters.
Work experience
Now it’s time to get stuck into your work experience, which should make up the bulk of your CV.
Begin with your current (or most recent) job, and work your way backwards.
If you’ve got too much experience to fit onto two pages, prioritise space for your most recent and relevant roles.
Structuring each job
Lengthy, unbroken chunks of text is a recruiters worst nightmare, but your work experience section can easily end up looking like that if you are not careful.
To avoid this, use my tried-and-tested 3-step structure, as illustrated below:
Outline
Start with a 1-2 sentence summary of your role as a whole, detailing what the goal of your position was, who you reported to or managed, and the type of organisation you worked for.
Key responsibilities
Using easy-to-read bullet points, note down your day-to-day responsibilities in the role.
Make sure to showcase how you used your hard sector skills and knowledge.
Key achievements
Round up each role by listing 1-3 key achievements, accomplishments or results.
Wherever possible, quantify them using hard facts and figures, as this really helps to prove your value.
Sample job description for Project Planner CV
Outline
Oversee the end-to-end completion of commercial construction projects for an established construction company based in Sheffield, managing high-value contracts for private and state-funded projects.
Key Responsibilities
- Assist the Project Manager with administration documentation, permit tracking, scheduling of inspections, and contacting subcontractors
- Lead and facilitate regular project progress meetings, providing updates to senior management
- Monitor project costs and budgets, identifying areas for efficiency improvements
- Develop and maintain detailed project schedules and timelines using Primavera P6
Quick tip: Create impressive job descriptions easily in our quick-and-easy CV Builder by adding pre-written job phrases for every industry and career stage.
Education section
Although there should be mentions of your highest and most relevant qualifications earlier on in your CV, save your exhaustive list of qualifications for the bottom.
If you’re an experienced candidate, simply include the qualifications that are highly relevant to Project Planner roles.
However, less experienced candidates can provide a more thorough list of qualifications, including A-Levels and GCSEs.
You can also dedicate more space to your degree, discussing relevant exams, assignments and modules in more detail, if your target employers consider them to be important.
Hobbies and interests
The hobbies and interests CV section isn’t mandatory, so don’t worry if you’re out of room by this point.
However, if you have an interesting hobby, or an interest that could make you seem more suitable for the role, then certainly think about adding.
Be careful what you include though… Only consider hobbies that exhibit skills that are required for roles as a Project Planner, or transferable workplace skills.
There is never any need to tell employers that you like to watch TV and eat out.
Once you’ve written your Project Planner CV, you should proofread it several times to ensure that there are no typos or grammatical errors.
With a tailored punchy profile that showcases your relevant experience and skills, paired with well-structured role descriptions, you’ll be able to impress employers and land interviews.
Good luck with your next job application!