An event planner resume is a brief document that outlines your professional career, and that should be written when applying for a job in this field. It should emphasize your skills and experience in making plans, organizing teams and vendors, managing budgets, and more.
In this article, we’ll teach you how to write an event planner resume that will grab the recruiter’s attention and land you a job interview. We’ll give you step-by-step instructions for writing each section of the resume and provide concrete examples to show you what they should look like in the end. Let’s get started!
Key Takeaways
The best format for most event planners is the chronological one.
Highlight your key strengths in the objective or summary to immediately grab the recruiter’s attention.
When listing your past jobs, focus on outstanding achievements and exceptional results over everyday assignments.
The skills you add to your resume should be relevant to the job, and you should validate them by connecting them with related accomplishments.
How to Format Event Planner Resume
The best way to format an event planner resume for most job seekers is by following the chronological resume format. This format offers a clean and orderly insight into your career’s progress by listing your past jobs in reverse chronological order.
Since it’s the most common resume format, recruiters are used to it and know how to quickly extract valuable details about your qualifications, even when only skimming through documents. Another benefit of the chronological format is that it’s compatible with ATS.
If you’re writing an event planner resume with no experience, you should consider the functional resume format. It puts your skills as the central section, shifting focus away from your lack of work history and helping you emphasize your key strengths. The downside is that the format isn’t always ATS-friendly.
There’s also the combination (hybrid) resume format, which blends the previous two. This format is great for professionals with employment gaps, as it lists skills first and then supports each of them with a list of relevant work-related accomplishments.
Resume templates
Resume templates that are designed to help you win a jobEvent Planner Resume Layout
A resume layout refers to the visual design of the document; a clean and professional one makes your resume pleasant to look at and easy to read.
Here are some tips to help you create a solid layout for your event planner resume:
Resume Layout Guidelines
Your resume should be one page long unless you have decades of experience or the job ad asks for more.
A professional font for your resume (e.g., Arial or Times New Roman) will enhance its legibility.
The optimal font size is 10–12 pt for regular text and 14–16 pt for section headings.
Set margins to be at least 1 inch and uniform on all sides.
Line spacing should be 1.0 or 1.15.
Event Planner Resume Sections
Every event planner resume should have these five sections:
Resume Mandatory Sections
Contact information
Resume objective/summary
Work experience
Education
Skills
Afterward, you can include as many optional sections as you want. However, they must provide information relevant to the role you’re applying for and shouldn’t extend the length of your resume beyond one page.
Some of the best ones to add to your event planner resume include:
Resume Optional Sections
Personal projects
Languages
Hobbies and interests
When creating your resume from scratch, you should add all the mandatory sections before including the optional ones, as long as there’s enough room. However, if you don’t want to keep track of what’s optional, what’s mandatory, and what format and layout to use, you can check out our resume builder.
We created specialized software that has numerous resume templates you can use. They are preformatted and come with expert-made designs you can adjust to your liking. When adding your information, you simply put it in predesignated spots, and you can have your resume finished in minutes!
Here’s an event planner resume template from our resume builder to give you an idea of what a finished document should look like:
Event Planner Resume Template
Name and Surname
Phone number: 000-000-0000 | Email: namesurname@gmail.com | Location: City, State
[Adjective] [your job title] with [years of experience, if applicable] in [your area of expertise, if applicable] looking for a [position] job at [company name]. Eager to apply [relevant skills] gained through [work/volunteer/other experience] to help [company name] [mention what you can do for the company].
Work Experience
Most Recent/Current Job Title Company City, State [Start date] — [End date]
For recent jobs, use 5-6 bullet points to list your top achievements and responsibilities
Use action verbs to make your responsibilities and achievements stand out
Add numbers to quantify your achievements
Previous Job Title Company City, State [Start date] — [End date]
For recent jobs, use 5-6 bullet points to list your top achievements and responsibilities
Use action verbs to make your responsibilities and achievements stand out
Add numbers to quantify your achievements
Oldest Job Title Company City, State [Start date] — [End date]
For older jobs, use 2-3 bullet points to list your top achievements and responsibilities
Use action verbs to make your responsibilities and achievements stand out
Add numbers to quantify your achievements
Education
[Degree] in [Major] [University/college name] [Start date] - [Graduation date]
Skills
Soft Skills
Skill #1
Skill #2
Skill #3
Skill #4
Skill #5
Hard Skills
Skill #1
Skill #2
Skill #3
Skill #4
Skill #5
Additional Sections
Add any relevant additional sections (languages, licenses, publications, hobbies, etc.)
Add Contact Details to Your Event Planner Resume
You should add contact details to the header of your resume. This is a straightforward section where you should accurately list:
Header Mandatory Details
Your name
Job title
Phone number
Email address
In addition to that, you can also include:
Header Optional Details
Mailing address
LinkedIn profile
Relevant social media
Personal website or portfolio
Here’s an example:
Header Example
Kelli Adrian Senior Event Planner + 209 200 6871 kelliadrian@example.com linkedin.com/in/kelli.adrian Stockton, CA
How to Write an Event Planner Resume Objective/Summary
You should write your resume objective or summary in a short and catchy way. Think of it as a concise description of your event planner resume that aims to grab the reader’s attention by showcasing your biggest strengths.
If you’re an entry-level professional with no experience, a resume objective will help you showcase your skills and career goals. On the other hand, seasoned experts should write a summary with one or two of their most notable accomplishments as a succinct synopsis of their resume.
Entry-Level Event Planner Resume Objective
Let’s start with a good example of an event planner resume objective that clearly shows the candidate’s abilities and ambitions:
Entry-Level Event Planner Resume Objective Example
“Motivated professional server with a year of experience assisting in event planning and a bachelor’s degree in communication looking for an entry-level position at The Creative Event. Adept at scheduling, budgeting, and communicating with vendors and service providers. Looking to contribute to your organization on the road to becoming an event director.”
For comparison, here’s a bad example that offers no concrete information about the candidate’s qualifications:
Bad Example
“Recent graduate looking for a junior role as an event planner. No real-world experience, but I learn quickly.”
Experienced Event Planner Resume Summary
Now, here’s a good example of a resume summary showcasing accomplishments bound to grab the recruiter’s attention:
Experienced Event Planner Resume Summary Example
“Senior event planner with more than 10 years of experience organizing a variety of events seeking a position at Elite Affairs. Developed an extensive network of 300+ vendors, allowing for specialized services and up to 20% discounts on continued contracts. Eager to bring these connections and expertise in large-scale event planning to your esteemed establishment.”
Compare that to a bad example that’s without achievements that could indicate the candidate’s level of experience:
Bad Example
“Event planner with years of professional experience looking for a senior role where I can use my skills.”
How to Add Professional Event Planner Experience to Your Resume
In most cases, professional experience will be the central part of your event planner resume. Let’s learn how to make this section stand out.
General Tips
One of the simplest and most effective ways of showcasing your work experience is by listing your past jobs in reverse chronological order. For each previous role, you should include:
Your job title
Company name
Employment dates
Results and achievements
It’s essential to ensure that all the jobs you include are relevant to the role you’re after. This is all the more critical when you have plenty of experience in the field. In such cases, you should prioritize quality over quantity and focus only on the finest moments that demonstrate your competence.
Here are some general tips on how to achieve that:
Use bullet points instead of blocks of text to talk about your accomplishments.
It’s often best to have between three and five bullet points per job.
Exhibit outstanding results over everyday assignments.
Use numbers to quantify your work and demonstrate your abilities concretely.
Implement action verbs and power words to make the whole section more prominent and memorable.
Event Planner With No Experience
If you’re making an event planner resume with no experience in the field, you can leverage other pursuits to craft a work history section. This includes past jobs that taught you skills applicable to event planning, internships, college projects, etc.
Here’s an example of a candidate using their job as a server to highlight experience relevant to event planning:
Event Planner With No Experience Example
Work Experience
Server Green Bar Rosenberg, TX
July 2021–August 2024
Assisted in coordinating 15+ corporate dinner events, hosting up to 250 attendees, and achieving a 97.5% positive feedback rate.
Collaborated with the front-of-house staff to suggest patrons wait at the bar until their tables were available, boosting drink sales by 39%.
Diligently tended to 13+ tables per hour, ensuring everyone’s needs were met while delivering friendly and attentive service.
Experienced Event Planner
As an experienced professional, you can choose from a number of accomplishments to highlight what makes you the best person for the specific role. Before writing your event planner resume, review the job description to determine whether recruiters look for someone who can operate teams, manage budgets, handle large-scale events, etc.
Here’s a good example:
Experienced Event Planner Example
Work Experience
Senior Event Planner The Prestige Stockton, CA
October 2018–Present
Planned and executed upward of 50 large-scale events per year, including conferences and seminars with up to 1,000 attendees.
Managed cross-functional teams of 25+ members to ensure timely and seamless event execution.
Collaborated with 13 different subcontractors, including linen companies and florists, to delegate tasks and expedite planning and organization processes.
Event Planner Resume Education Section
For most candidates, the education section should be short, showcasing your degree to validate your expertise. It’s typically sufficient only to list your highest degree and let your professional experience section do the heavy lifting.
Here’s what that looks like in an example:
Event Planner Resume Education Section Example
Education
Bachelor of Arts in Advertising Grace College, Stockton, CA 2014–2018
If you have a modest work history section, you can expand your education section to prove your competence. One way to achieve this is by adding a bullet list of notable academic accomplishments, such as awards, relevant coursework, abroad studies, high GPA, etc.
Also, if you’re applying for a job but haven’t graduated yet, you can add a degree you’re working toward by including an expected graduation year and marking it as such. Alternatively, you can simply put “current” instead of a graduation year.
Event Planner Portfolio: How to Add It to Your Resume
Adding an event planner portfolio to your resume is as easy as including a link to it in an appropriate place. Where you should add the link depends on how packed your document is and how much space you have left.
If you have sufficient room, you can add an entire section dedicated to your portfolio. Add a link at the top, and then briefly list some events or accomplishments to show recruiters what to expect when examining your portfolio.
Here’s an example:
Event Planner Portfolio Example
Portfolio
www.kelliadrianevents.com
Corporate conferences - Planned events with up to 1,000 attendees.
Charity events - Executed five charity events with a 23% increase in donor contributions.
If there’s no space for a dedicated portfolio section, you can add a link to the header next to your contact information.
Creating an event planning portfolio is paramount to getting ahead of the competition. It allows you to show concrete examples of your work to back up the information in your resume.
Event Planner Resume Skills
Your event planner resume skills section should be a straightforward list of your abilities. However, instead of merely listing every ability that you can think of, you want to include those event planning skills you know recruiters are looking for in candidates.
That’s why it’s vital to research the company and carefully examine the job ad. Find out what the requirements for the role are, and you’ll be able to craft a tailored list of skills that will best portray you as the right person for the job.
On top of that, you want to prove your competence by adding your skills next to relevant accomplishments. You can do that in the work experience and resume summary sections; mention a skill next to an impressive result, and you’ll provide solid evidence of your expertise.
Some of the most notable hard skills to consider adding to your event planner resume are:
Hard Skills Examples
Sales
Bizzabo
Hootsuite
Typeform
Jira
Attendify
Customer service
Soft skills to consider mentioning include:
Soft Skills Examples
Organization
Collaboration
Problem-solving
Time management
Creativity
Adaptability
What Other Sections to Add to Your Resume
Optional sections can help you gain an edge over the competition, so let’s examine some of the most commonly used ones.
Certifications
Event planning certifications showcase specialized knowledge in a particular area of work. For instance, the CMP certification makes you an expert in organizing meetings and conventions, while the PCMA certification demonstrates your prowess in producing digital events.
If you don’t have a relevant degree, certifications help you show that you have appropriate qualifications, especially if you’re an entry-level candidate. On the flip side, if you’re an experienced professional with a degree, adding certifications further strengthens your case and shows your dedication to the craft.
Languages
Proficiency in foreign languages is invaluable for professionals working in diverse environments and with global clientele. They enable communication, enhance understanding, and promote cultural sensitivity in professionals.
If you’re adding language skills to your event planner resume, you should pick an established framework for reference and arrange the languages based on your skill level, starting with the one you know best.
Hobbies & Interests
Mentioning your hobbies and interests infuses your event planner resume with personality, helping you stand out in the crowd. This section should be brief and only include something you’re truly passionate about.
Do I Need a Cover Letter as an Event Planner?
You need an event planner cover letter to show your drive and willingness to go the extra mile. Even when a cover letter isn’t required to apply for a job, going the length to write and submit it demonstrates your motivation and hardworking tendencies.
Another benefit is that you get a whole new document where you can talk about the skills and qualifications that make you suited for the role you’re applying for.
Cover letter templates
Create a cover letter by filling in a free template and sharing it for free.3 Must-Know Tips for Creating an Event Planner Resume
Now that you’ve learned everything you need to know about the sections of your resume, here are some expert tips that will help you polish it to perfection:
Omit personal pronouns in your resume objective or summary. Instead of focusing on your need to get a job, you should use this paragraph to demonstrate what you have to offer employers and what they’ll gain from hiring you.
Make all the links clickable. If you’ve added a link to your LinkedIn profile, relevant social media account, or portfolio, make it clickable in the soft copy of your resume so recruiters can effortlessly visit it. This increases the chances they’ll view them and be impressed with your work.
Create a cover letter that matches your resume. If you’re writing a cover letter, you shouldn’t just repeat the information already present in your resume. You want to provide additional details about your abilities, work-related achievements, and motivation to paint a more complete picture of who you are as a professional.
3 Outstanding Event Planner Resume Examples
Let’s put everything we’ve learned into practice by taking a look at three different examples of event planner resumes.
Let’s start with a complete example of an entry-level event planner resume:
Now, here’s what an event planner resume of a professional with plenty of experience should look like:
Finally, here’s an example of an event manager’s resume:
Closing Thoughts
The projected percent change in employment for event planners is 7% from 2023 to 2033. This amounts to around 16,500 new openings each year over the following decade. While this is a faster-than-average growth rate, the competition can be fierce, which is why you want a well-written event planner resume to stand out.
Don’t forget to write a catchy objective or summary, highlight your most notable accomplishments, and make your list of skills relevant to the role. That will get you on a fast track to a job interview in no time!
