13 General Manager Resume Examples for 2025

Creating a resume for a general manager role can be challenging. You'll need to show leadership, strategic thinking, and operations management. This guide provides proven resume examples and useful advice. You'll learn how to highlight skills, experience, and achievements to stand out in the competitive job market.

  Compiled and approved by Jason Lewis
  Last updated on See history of changes

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At a Glance

Here's what we see in the best resumes for general managers:

  • Show Impact With Numbers: Use metrics to show impact. Examples: increased revenue by 20%, reduced costs by 15%, improved team efficiency by 30%, boosted customer satisfaction by 25%.

  • Include Relevant Skills: Include skills you have and are mentioned on the job description. Popular skills are budgeting, project management, data analysis, strategic planning, operations management. Choose only the ones you have.

  • Highlight Specific Industries: Mention industries you have worked in to show your versatility, such as retail, finance, or technology. This shows you have experience in different settings.

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Education section placement

As a hiring manager, you must place the education section rightly on a general manager's resume. If the person has rich work experience, this section should follow the professional experience details. This shows that the person can manage and lead well from day one.

For someone fresh from school with a recent MBA or management-related degree, their education should take precedence. It can demonstrate their potential to become a strong leader, even if not yet proven in the work environment. Briefly list the degrees with emphasis on management or business studies, as these are valuable for a general managing role.

Highlight strategic thinking

Highlight your strategic thinking skills by showing specific examples of how you've improved processes or solved problems.

Include any experience with business development. This shows you can contribute to the company's growth.

Ideal length for a resume

When applying for general management positions, your resume should be concise and impactful. You should aim to showcase your relevant experience on one page. This length is usually enough for those with less than 10 years of position-related experience. By focusing on what matters most, such as leadership roles and key achievements, you provide a clear picture of your capabilities.

For those with a robust background or senior-level experience, extending to two pages is acceptable. This allows you to detail significant leadership projects and management responsibilities. Ensure every point made is specific to general management, like overseeing operations or implementing strategic plans. Remember, even with a longer document, keep the most important and recent experiences on the first page. Make a strong impression with clear, easy-to-read text. Avoid small fonts and margins to maintain readability.

Show leadership skills

As a general manager, showing leadership skills is important. Include examples of how you've led teams to reach goals.

Show your ability to manage resources and budgets effectively. These are key responsibilities for breaking into management positions.

Beat the resume screeners

When you apply for a job as a general manager, your resume might first be read by a computer program called an Applicant Tracking System (ATS). To make sure it sees your skills, follow these steps.

First, use standard job titles. If you have been a 'team leader', it might be better to say 'manager' because the ATS looks for common keywords. Second, match your skills and experiences with the job ad. If the ad asks for 'budget management', and you have done this, make sure to include it in your resume.

  • Use clear job titles like 'manager' or 'team supervisor'.
  • Include keywords from the job ad, such as 'operations oversight' or 'staff training'.

Tailor your resume to the job

To stand out as a general manager candidate, you need to show you can handle responsibility and lead teams. A well-tailored resume explains how your experience lines up with the job you want. Aim for examples that show you're good at solving problems, thinking critically and leading people.

  • Include specifics about the size of teams you’ve managed and your impact on staff development, such as Job satisfaction increased by 25% under my leadership.
  • Highlight financial management experience with examples like Oversaw budget of $2 million, cutting costs by 15%.
  • For career changers, link past management experiences to a general manager’s roles, e.g., Coordinated cross-department projects improving operational efficiency by 20%.

Show your wins, not just duties

When updating your resume as a general manager, it's crucial to highlight your achievements rather than listing your job duties. By showing how you have made a positive impact, you help employers see your real value. Remember, they want to understand not just what you did, but the difference you made.

Instead of saying, 'Responsible for team management and scheduling,' you could write, 'Improved team productivity by 20% through strategic management and effective scheduling.' This shows you not only managed a team but that you did it well, leading to measurable results.

Another example: Rather than 'Handled customer service operations,' you might say, 'Enhanced customer satisfaction rates by 15% by streamlining service operations.' This illustrates you didn't just do your job; you excelled at it and had a clear, positive outcome.

Choose impactful verbs

When you're updating your resume as a general manager, the verbs you choose can show your leadership and ability to drive results. Use words that make it clear you didn't just do a job, you excelled at it. Your resume is a reflection of your professional journey, so you want each verb to make a strong impression.

Here's a list of action verbs that can help you stand out. These words are picked to show leadership, initiative, and business acumen, which are critical for someone responsible for guiding a company or a team effectively.

  • To demonstrate leadership and strategic planning, use orchestrated, overhauled, steered, devised, pioneered.
  • For showcasing operational improvements, consider streamlined, enhanced, optimized, expanded, revitalized.
  • If you're emphasizing team development and management, include verbs like mentored, coached, unified, recruited, empowered.
  • To highlight financial achievements, use maximized, budgeted, negotiated, increased, yielded.
  • For demonstrating problem-solving skills, verbs such as resolved, restructured, addressed, remedied, ameliorated are effective.

Want inspiration for other action verbs you can use? Check out synonyms to commonly used action verbs like Spearhead, Cultivate, Grow, Acted as, Seeking.

Highlighting leadership growth

When you apply for a general manager role, showing evidence of leadership and career growth is key. This tells employers you have a track record of taking on more responsibility and succeeding in higher roles. Think about the times you led a team or a project, or when you were given more duties.

Here are ways to show this:

  • Include job titles and the dates you held them to show your career path. For example, 'Assistant Manager (2015-2017) to Manager (2017-2019) to Senior Manager (2019-Present)'. This shows clear progress.
  • List achievements that show leadership skills. For example, 'Led a team of 10 in achieving a 20% increase in sales over two years' or 'Implemented a new training program that improved team performance'.

Even if you're not sure if something counts as leadership, if you guided others or helped make decisions, include it. For instance:

  • Mention if you trained new employees or led staff meetings.
  • Describe a time you managed a project from start to finish, including the outcomes.

Key skills for effective management

As a general manager, it's important to show you have the right skills for the job. Think about the specific role you're applying for and choose skills that match. Here are some you might include:

  • Project management
  • Financial analysis
  • Operations management
  • Strategic planning
  • Supply chain coordination
  • Performance tracking
  • Inventory management
  • Data analysis
  • Regulatory compliance
  • Customer relationship management (CRM)

You don't need to list every skill. Pick the ones that you are good at and that fit the job you want. Most resumes have a skills section where you can show these off. This helps you get past the Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) many companies use.

Remember to give examples of how you've used these skills in your past jobs. For a general manager, being able to use financial software or show experience with market analysis can set you apart. Always think about what the employer needs and how your skills match that.

Display impact with numbers

As a general manager, showing your impact with numbers can make your resume stand out. Numbers help to quickly give a clear picture of your achievements.

Think through your past roles. Did you boost sales? Maybe you increased the annual revenue. Use numbers to show this. For example:

  • Increased annual revenue by 25%
  • Grew customer base by 150 new clients in one year

Cost management is also key. You might have reduced expenses. Consider statements like:

  • Decreased operational costs by 15% through strategic vendor negotiations
  • Reduced employee turnover by 30% with a new training program

Use numbers to show how you made operations more efficient. Maybe you cut down the time to complete a task or improved the team's performance. Examples could be:

  • Streamlined inventory management, reducing stock discrepancies by 90%
  • Enhanced team productivity by 40%, leading to a 20% increase in customer satisfaction

These numbers speak to your ability to lead effectively and deliver results. They give a clear, easy-to-understand picture of your success as a manager.

Tailor for company size

When you show your skills as a general manager, think about the size of the company you want to work for. Smaller businesses and startups like Airbnb or WeWork value hands-on experience and being able to do many tasks. Show you can wear different hats and lead a small team to success. Use phrases like 'versatile leadership' and 'cross-functional expertise.'

For larger companies such as Marriott or Hilton, they look for people who can manage complex operations and have a history of improving big teams. Here, use phrases like 'strategic planning' and 'operational scalability.' Make sure to highlight your experience in leading large-scale projects and your ability to work with a wide range of departments.

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