It's no secret: being in charge is difficult. Being a supervisor isn't easy, whether it's grappling over a difficult decision, providing constructive criticism to an employee, or taking the heat when things go wrong. You know that being a great supervisor is more than just meeting objectives; it's means being a compassionate, engaged leader.
When your work revolves around helping other people, it's difficult to take the time for yourself to write a resume. That's where we come in!
We've reviewed hundreds of resumes and researched many supervisor roles to learn how to build a winning resume. Our five supervisor resume samples (and helpful guide) are guaranteed to improve your resume and help you land interviews (and a job!) in 2023.
Why this resume works
Why this resume works
Why this resume works
Why this resume works
Why this resume works
Supervisors are responsible for overseeing a group of other employees, as well as monitoring the work they do so everything runs smoothly. A lot rests on your shoulders if you're a team supervisor, from keeping employee morale high, to meeting department objectives, and helping to onboard and train new employees.
If you’re going to apply for a supervisor position, you’ll need to know how to write a great resume. After all, it takes an excellent resume to ensure you stand out from the crowd and get invited for an interview!
Not feeling too confident about the state of your supervisor resume? BeamJobs is here to help! Keep reading to find out the top four ways to perfect your supervisor resume, like how to:
An important part of crafting the perfect supervisor resume involves focusing on your skills as a supervisor while also making sure it’s easy to read!
That’s because most companies today use applicant tracking systems (ATS) to scan through applications. With many job openings receiving hundreds of applications, it’s time-consuming for hiring managers to read each application individually. That’s where the ATS comes in.
Basically, the ATS scans resumes for certain prerequisites, like keywords on certain skills. Then, the resumes that include those keywords are passed on for human inspection.
That’s why it’s important to include the most relevant supervisor skills with easy-to-read formatting, like bullet points. If you don’t have them, or it’s not easy for the ATS to scan, you’ll be out of the game before even starting!
So how do you beat the ATS? As a rule of thumb, start by looking at several job descriptions for supervisors in your field. They’ll probably include terminology or phrasing that’s aligned with the hard and soft skills employers want to see. Once you have a list with the most-mentioned skills, make sure to include those in your resume. Here’s a fictional excerpt of a supervisor vacancy you might use when choosing what supervisor skills to list:
The warehouse operations supervisor oversees all daily operations and maintenance of locations within the entertainment venue. They will be responsible for employee productivity and performance, customer service, and company policy adherence from a safety perspective. Must also provide final sign-off for administrative and documentation requests (invoicing, purchases, deliveries, etc.)
With a description like this, some of the skills you could list might be:
It’s important to customize your supervisor resume skills section to each job you’re applying for, but there are some skills that you’ll tend to see in most vacancies, whether you’re working in a hotel or warehouse. That means it’s probably good to include at least a few of these in-demand skills on your supervisor resume, as well.
More than just putting skills in your skills section, you should include them in your work experience, too. Take a look at this resume example showcasing some skills in a work experience entry, like social media, employee training, mentoring, and inventory management.
Before you put your pen to paper, it’s critical to ensure you choose the right resume format. The wrong format makes your resume look disorganized, causing readers to skip over key details (or worse, not read it at all).
The most popular resume format in 2023 is the reverse-chronological format, which is generally the quickest and easiest for ATS to parse. This standard resume format is what most hiring teams are used to seeing, and it gives them a high-level overview of your most recent experience.
A good resume is more than just using the right format, though; there are some other handy resume tips you should keep in mind so that your supervisor resume is easy on the eyes, such as:
About the last point we mentioned, you might be asking, “What’s the difference between a resume objective or summary?” Good question!
An objective focuses on your relevant qualifications and expresses your interest in the supervisor role. Meanwhile, a resume summary summarizes (get it?) your unique set of skills and experience, making it useful if you have many years of experience, especially in more niche fields.
Before you add either to your resume, stop and ask yourself: “Does it add value to my resume?” If it’s generic or uninspired, it may do more harm than good. Remember, recruiters skim most resumes to see if it’s a great fit, and if you don’t have a customized resume objective or summary, you could end up being rejected.
For example, here’s a generic summary:
Hardworking operations supervisor with several years of experience in hospitality and retail. Excellent in customer service interaction, safety training, and keeping team morale high.
While these skills are great, this summary adds nothing that a recruiter wouldn’t be able to get from skimming the rest of your resume.
A better option would be:
Experienced operations supervisor with 12+ years experience. I’ve utilized data analysis to increase customer satisfaction by an average of 54%, simultaneously reducing overall budgetary costs by an average of 21%. Proven track record of consistently increasing overall efficiency by up to 19% within eCommerce industry.
This summary offers a quick glance at some of your best achievements by using quantifiable metrics to pack a bigger punch.
Let’s look at some examples of objectives. A poor objective could look like:
Searching for a new warehouse supervisor role for more experience in inventory management. Skilled in accounting and team management.
This objective adds nothing that the recruiter wouldn’t be able to get from reading the rest of your resume, so it would be best to leave out entirely.
You could make it stronger with something like:
Dedicated warehouse manager with 2 years of financially savvy accounting experience using tools like Quickbooks, plus outstanding team management skills. Looking for a role at Garden Entertainments to sharpen my expertise in inventory management to streamline the company’s warehouse operations.
With an objective like this, a recruiter can quickly see why your interests and skills fit the role, as well as what you’d like to get out of the position. Major score!
The most surefire method to stand out amidst a sea of text is leveraging metrics that quantify your impact. Not sure what kind of quantitative data or stats to include? We've got you covered!
So how could you translate all that information into job description bullet points? Here are some examples:
There’s no such thing as a “one-size-fits-all” approach with resumes. Sure, you’d be able to send out 50 applications in no time, but this is a quality game, not a quantity game.
Recruiters will be able to tell when a supervisor's resume isn’t tailored to them, and a generic application puts you at the very bottom of the pile!
When customizing your resume for a supervisor job, you don’t need to write a new resume each time. Just adjust some details to better reflect the supervisor position you’re applying for. Here are a some of the sections you can customize:
Let’s make this advice more practical and look at some real-world examples of how you might want to tailor your supervisor resume based on the kind of job you’re applying for.
Here's a short snippet from our warehouse supervisor resume showcasing hard and soft skills (plus some good metrics and technical abilities)!
What a ride! If you stuck around till the end of this guide, good on you! Sure, it can feel overwhelming to create a resume, but with the tips we provided in this article, you can easily stand out from the crowd with a resume that ‘wows.’
But there’s more! Have you finished writing your resume, but not sure if it’s there yet? Polish it up using our resume checker, which offers AI-powered tips to make your resume shine. Or maybe you’re still staring at a blank screen; our resume builder will help you bring your resume to life. To start, just pick a resume template, click, and get to editing!
No matter where you are on your journey to landing your next supervisor job, we’re rooting for you and are here to help. You’ve got this!
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