Category Manager Resume Example & Writing Guide
Use this Category Manager resume example and guide to improve your career and write a powerful resume that will separate you from the competition.
Category managers oversee the product lines within their company. They’re responsible for developing strategies to grow revenue in their designated areas and for making sure that the products their teams create are relevant and competitive in the marketplace.
If you’re interested in pursuing a career in which you’ll be tasked with building and managing a portfolio of products, here are some tips and an example for writing a compelling category manager resume that hiring managers will love.
How to Write a Category Manager Resume
Here’s how to write a category manager resume of your own.
Write Compelling Bullet Points
Bullet points are the most important part of your resume because they’re the first thing recruiters and hiring managers will see. And they’re the best way to showcase your experience and qualifications.
So it’s important to use them to their full potential. And that means using them to describe your accomplishments and results. So rather than saying you “managed inventory,” you could say you “reduced inventory by 15% by negotiating better deals with suppliers and implementing new inventory management software.”
The second bullet point is much stronger because it provides specific details about what you did and the results of your work.
Identify and Include Relevant Keywords
When you submit your resume for a category manager role, it’s likely that it will be scanned by an applicant tracking system (ATS) for certain keywords. This software looks for specific terms associated with the job, like “purchase orders” or “merchandise” in order to determine whether your skills and experience are a match. If your resume doesn’t include enough of the right keywords, your application might not make it past the initial screening process.
To increase your chances of getting an interview, make sure to include relevant keywords throughout all sections of your resume. You can find a list of common category manager keywords below:
- Category Management
- Product Management
- Market Research
- Marketing Strategy
- Negotiation
- Sales Management
- Strategy
- Business Development
- Marketing
- Business Strategy
- Project Management
- Pricing Strategy
- Competitive Analysis
- Contract Negotiation
- Vendor Management
- Market Analysis
- Sales
- Account Management
- Leadership
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
- Merchandising
- Brand Management
- Forecasting
- Retail
- Integrated Marketing
- Digital Marketing
- Advertising
- Marketing Management
- Strategic Planning
- Microsoft Access
Showcase Your Technical Skills
There are a number of programs and systems that category managers use on a daily basis to manage their product lines. Being proficient in the use of these programs and systems is essential to the job. Some of the most commonly used programs are Microsoft Office Suite, SAP, and Oracle. Additionally, category managers need to be familiar with the product categories that they manage, and the types of products that fall within those categories.