As an operations manager, you’re the hero of organizational efficiency and the maestro of logistics. You’re there to fine-tune chaos into order and make everything run like a well-oiled machine. Yet, when it comes to putting all those skills on paper and crafting an operations manager resume worthy of your abilities, you feel perplexed.
In the world of operations managers, filled with spreadsheets and deadlines, you can easily get lost in all the jargon and technicalities. But instead of subjecting you to a complex guide filled with buzzwords and acronyms, we created a simple, professional, and easy-to-follow guide for you.
What you’ll find here are step-by-step instructions on how to create a brief, concise, and information-packed resume that paints a complete picture of your skills and experience. Let’s get started!
Key Takeaways
For optimal chances of success, your operations manager resume should be one page long, and you should write it using the chronological format.
Your resume objective or summary acts as a hook for recruiters, while your work experience section has the goal of convincing them to call you for an interview.
Read the job ad to find out which skills your potential employers are looking for before adding them to your resume.
Make an effort to submit a position-specific cover letter not only to show more of your skills and experience but also to demonstrate that you go above and beyond.
The Best Format for an Operations Manager Resume
If you’re an operations manager, you know that good organization is vital to success. The same principle applies in resume-building, where you want a strong resume format to arrange your details and present them in the best way possible.
Three formats have been proven over time to yield the best results with recruiters and resume-parsing tools. These formats are:
Common Resume Formats
Chronological resume format, which is by far the most popular one. Its intuitive organization of your past experiences in reverse-chronological order makes this format preferred by recruiters. Also, most ATS tools are set up with this format in mind.
Functional resume format, which is designed with entry-level candidates in mind. This format makes your skills the main section, making it a great pick for those who lack professional experience.
Combination (hybrid) resume format, which is good for candidates with gaps in employment or those who changed professions and want to showcase their transferable skills. This format also makes your skills the main section, but it strengthens each skill with relevant achievements.
Operations Manager Resume Layout
Another important facet of your operations manager resume is its layout. A visually engaging document usually wins out over messy and unprofessional ones. Fortunately, you don’t need an arts degree to craft a catchy resume. These tips will help with that:
Operations Manager Resume Layout Tips
Since most recruiters spend as little as 6–7 seconds skimming through resumes until one grabs their attention, you should keep yours one page long.
By using bulleted lists whenever possible, you’ll save space while presenting valuable details in a neat and legible manner.
Most of your resume is in written text, which is why you want to choose an adequate font that’s easy to read and looks professional. You can look into sans-serif options like Roboto or Ubuntu as sleek and modern options.
Your font size should be between 10 and 12 pts, with section headings being 2 to 4 pts larger.
Set your margins on all sides to at least 1 inch with line spacing of 1.0 or 1.15.
What Sections Should an Operations Manager Resume Contain?
Your operations manager resume comprises two types of sections.
Operations Manager Resume Mandatory Sections
Mandatory sections represent the core of the document, and they are:
Contact information
Resume objective or summary
Work experience
Education
Skills
Optional sections provide additional value and are great at helping you stand out from the competition. Some optional sections that you can add to your resume are:
Operations Manager Resume Optional Sections
Awards and certifications
Personal projects
Languages
Hobbies and interests
Now that you have basic information about the content of your resume, you can start working on its outline. At this point, many candidates grab a random operations manager resume in Word format to help them speed things up and lower the risk of making a mistake. Can we suggest you use a professional, custom-made resume builder instead?
We made a comprehensive all-in-one solution for all you job seekers out there. It comes with ready-made templates and customization options that will allow you to create the perfect resume in minutes. Then, you simply download the finished product to print it or send it as a soft copy.
Operations Manager Resume Contact Information
Every resume should begin with the candidate’s contact information. It’s a purely functional part of the document that gives recruiters a means of getting in touch with you. Here are the details to include:
Mandatory Contact Information
Your name
Job title
Email address
Phone number
Optionally, you can include:
Optional Contact Information
Your location (if you’re applying for a job abroad)
Relevant social media profiles (e.g., your LinkedIn profile).
Let’s see all that in an example:
Contact Information Section Example
Carl Lewis
Operations Manager
+ 302 360 0723
carl.lewis@example.com
Newark, DE
carlportfolio.com
linkedin.com/in/carllewis
Operations Manager Resume Objective or Summary
Your operations manager resume objective or summary, is all about first impressions, making it one of the most important parts of the document. This section is often the first thing recruiters and potential employers see, which is why you want to make it as powerful as possible. To achieve that, you should emphasize your key strengths, hooking the reader to keep reading.
A summary for your operations manager resume aims to put your most prominent achievements front and center. It’s a good choice for experienced candidates who have concrete results to show.
The purpose of an objective is to highlight your skills and motivation, showing that you’re a promising candidate. It’s the best option for candidates with little to no work history.
Operations Manager Resume Objective
As an entry-level candidate, the purpose of your operations manager resume objective is to show that you have potential. That’s why you want to include everything from your most notable skills and academic achievements to any potential experience obtained through internships, projects, or volunteering.
Let’s check out a good example:
Resume Objective Example
“Driven operations manager with a BA in Business Administration looking for an entry-level position at [the name of the company]. Proficient in Salesforce, Tableau, and MS Office Suite. Seeking to leverage the data analysis and reporting experience obtained working as an operations analyst.”
And here’s a bland resume objective that highlights no advantages:
Bad Example
“Recent graduate with a Business Administration degree looking to join your company and learn on the job.”
Operations Manager Resume Summary
You can look at your resume summary as a synopsis of the entire document. That’s why you want to mention how much experience you have and include a couple of your most impressive achievements in this section.
Let's check out some operations manager resume summary examples, starting with a good one:
Resume Summary Example
“Results-oriented marketing operations manager with more than 13 years of experience. Seeking to leverage CRM management and project management skills to help [the company’s name] improve KPIs. Notable achievements include consistently surpassing yearly sales targets by up to 27%. Led a team of 19 to produce an ROI of 11% above the company’s average.”
Notice how this example is concise but packed with valuable, quantifiable information. Compare it to the following vague, poorly-written resume summary:
Bad Example
“Adept operations manager seeking to leverage my extensive skill set and years of experience to help your company achieve its goals.”
Operations Manager Resume Work Experience
If your resume objective or summary represents an elevator pitch for your resume, the work experience section is its main selling point. Recruiters and potential employers will generally spend most of their time examining this part of your resume, which is why you want to make it perfect. Let’s see how to achieve that.
General Tips
The best way to emphasize your work experience is to use a proven format. That’s why you should include the following details for each previous job that you had:
Your role
The company and its location
Dates of employment (preferably in an MM/YYYY format)
Bullet list of results and achievements
If you have multiple previous roles that you want to include, you should do so in reverse-chronological order. That way, you’re accentuating your most recent (and often most important) employment while giving recruiters a neat view of your career’s development.
Now, since your goal is to stand out among the competition, you want to make your work experience section remarkable. One of the best ways to achieve that is to refrain from including everyday tasks and responsibilities.
Instead, you should focus on the exceptional results and accomplishments by including 3–5 bullet points presenting your best achievements in each previous position. You can further make these bullet points more prominent by including:
Numbers, statistics, and percentages, which help quantify results and make them concrete
Power words and action verbs, which can make this whole section notable and memorable.
Here are some power word examples that you can include in your operations manager resume:
Conceptualized
Formulated
Spearheaded
Originated
Launched
Operations Manager With No Experience
If you don’t have enough professional experience to put in this section, you can always lean on substitute activities. These activities can be anything from volunteer work and internships to school or personal projects.
Here’s an example where a candidate leveraged their internship to craft a compelling work experience section for their entry-level operations manager resume:
Work Experience Section Example (No Experience)
Work Experience
Operations Manager Intern
Dan’s Store Mansfield, LA
August 2022–January 2023
Assisted in the implementation of a new inventory management system, which resulted in a 27% reduction in stock-outs.
Collaborated with the operations team to streamline the order fulfillment process and reduce processing times by up to 27%, improving on-time delivery rates by 12%.
Conducted market research to identify potential suppliers, improving the company’s negotiation leverage by increasing vendor options by 17%.
Experienced Operations Manager
As a seasoned operations manager, you can use your work experience section to show your proficiency in every aspect of your job. With just a few carefully crafted bullet points, you can highlight your ability to lead, manage, oversee, solve complex problems, and drive organizational success.
Here’s a good example:
Work Experience Section Example (w/ Experience)
Work Experience
Operations Manager
Solid Foundation Retail
Oakland, CA
June 2019–Current
Implemented inventory optimization strategies to reduce carrying costs by 13% while maintaining an average stock-out rate below 1.5%.
Conducted comprehensive operations analysis to design and implement a cost-saving program, resulting in an 11% reduction in operational expenses within the first year.
Utilized effective performance management to lead a cross-functional team of 25 employees, achieving a 31% increase in productivity.
Operations Manager Resume Education Section
The main purpose of the education section of your resume is to add credibility to your skills and present you as a diligent, accomplished individual. It’s a mandatory part that’s all the more important for entry-level candidates. Here are the details to include:
Mandatory Education Information
Your degree
The institution issuing it
Years of attendance
(Optional) Notable achievements
Let’s see that in an example:
Education Sectiion Example
Education
Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration
Towson University, Towson, MD
2018–2022
GPA: 3.75
Relevant coursework: Project Management, Supply Chain Management, Data Analysis, Business Intelligence
If you’re a seasoned professional, you should keep this section brief and only include your latest degree. However, if you want to put more emphasis on your education, you can add several degrees in reverse-chronological order, giving recruiters an overview of your academic career.
Furthermore, you can include a bulleted list of notable achievements, which can contain anything from a high GPA and relevant courses to extracurricular activities, abroad studies, and more.
Operations Manager Resume Skills
Adding skills to your resume is all about being relevant and factual. What that means is that you need to show recruiters the operations manager resume skills that they want to see, and then you want to prove that you have those skills.
That’s why you should always research the company that you’re applying to and carefully read their job ad. Not every operations manager position will require the same skills. By making an effort to look into the specifics, you’ll be able to create a tailored list of skills to add to the dedicated section of your resume.
However, that’s only half the work. The next step involves demonstrating your abilities by linking them with relevant achievements and results obtained. The best places for it are your resume summary and your work experience section. Mention some of your key skills in these parts of your operations manager resume, and you’ll make them solid in the eyes of recruiters.
Operations Manager Hard Skills Examples
Here are some hard skills that you can add to your operations manager resume:
Budgeting
Reporting
Auditing
Performance tracking
Financial management
Customer relationship management
Supply chain management
Proficiency in legal and regulatory documents
Operations Manager Soft Skills Examples
Highly sought-after soft skills for your operations manager resume include:
Communication
Active listening
Problem-solving
Delegation
Leadership
Decision-making
Critical thinking
Operations Manager Resume Optional Sections
If you want to beat the competition truly, show that you go above and beyond the bare minimum by sprucing up your operations manager resume with optional sections.
Awards & Certifications
Mentioning relevant awards and certifications can enhance your operations manager resume in many ways, including:
Awards & Certifications Section Benefits
Demonstrating expertise by showing specialized knowledge in specific areas and showing that you’re capable of delivering exceptional results.
Adding credibility by demonstrating your efforts to go through training and meet specific criteria set by industry experts.
Showing commitment to continuous professional growth.
Personal Projects
Highlighting personal projects on your operations manager resume is a great way to show initiative, leadership prowess, and problem-solving skills. Personal projects also indicate that you’re a person of drive and passion. They can be particularly useful to entry-level candidates who don’t have work experience but want to show how they applied their skills.
Languages
Proficiency in foreign languages is crucial in today’s globalized business landscape. Knowing a different language allows you to communicate effectively and collaborate with people from different cultures. That can open doors to new markets, help you manage suppliers and vendors from different regions, and more.
Hobbies & Interests
A section on hobbies and interests can give recruiters valuable insight into your character and personality. This section is a hidden gem in the world of resume building that many candidates overlook.
By briefly mentioning a few things you’re truly passionate about, you can portray yourself as a well-rounded individual with lots of transferable skills and traits. Additionally, your hobbies and interests can be good icebreakers during interviews and help you fit in with the team better.
Should You Attach a Cover Letter With Your Operations Manager Resume?
Remember how optional sections help you convey more information to recruiters and stand out among the competition? An operations manager cover letter is an entirely new document with the same purpose. Since it takes effort to write a tailored, resume-matching cover letter, many candidates skip this part. That gives those who submit this document a strong head start.
You should keep your cover letter concise. In 250–400 words, elaborate further on what made you apply to their company in the first place and mention a few more achievements that didn’t fit your operations manager resume.
To make your cover letter as impactful as it can be, you should address the recruiter by their name and include a call to action toward the end.
Expert Tips for Creating an Operations Manager Resume
We’re all but finished with this comprehensive guide. Here are a few final tips to help with the details:
Operations Manager Resume Tips
Carefully proofread your entire resume—especially your contact information section. You can also give a PDF sample of your operations manager resume to a friend to help you spot any potential mistakes.
Keep in mind that your job title acts as an operations manager resume keyword, so make sure it matches the requirements in the job ad.
Soft skills can help you stand out among the candidates with similar hard skills. However, they shouldn’t take the spotlight away from your role-specific skills. That’s why you should only include a select few and separate them from your hard skills.
Set up and optimize your LinkedIn profile properly before including it in your resume.
Closing Thoughts
Crafting a strong operations manager resume that optimally showcases your abilities can be a challenging endeavor. However, with carefully selected words and thoughtfully crafted bullet points, you can create a whole story for recruiters to uncover.
You can think of your resume as a snapshot of the highlights of your professional career. Use this document to demonstrate excellence and draw attention to all the incredible feats you’ve accomplished, the challenges you've conquered, and the many months you’ve spent honing your skills.
On a final note, while it’s important to be precise and professional, it’s also helpful to let a bit of personality through. That way, you’ll stand out from the crowd and make a lasting good impression during interviews. Best of luck, and may all your operations run smoothly!
