Account Manager Resume | The Only Writing Guide You’ll Need

And that’s where we come in. At Resume-Example, we know exactly what hiring managers look for when skimming through a resume.

Your account manager resume needs to highlight your experience in the industry, as well as the results that you have accomplished through your hard work. And all of that with numbers.

In this guide, we’ll take you through all the aspects of a job-winning account manager resume in painstaking detail, with plenty of examples and tips to boot.

Let’s get started.

To start on the right foot, and show you what a meticulously crafted resume looks like, check out this example modeled after our Resume Templates:

You can also review some of our other resume examples to have a wider frame of reference.

How to Make an Account Manager Resume from Zero

Account managers work handling a lot of different disciplines, from sales to customer management, to different departments, and as such, they need resumes that focus on their experience, technical skills, and interpersonal skills.

You want to demonstrate that you have the capacity and experience to build deep relationships with both current and new clients, as well as get the most value out of the company’s product.

If you are not a great writer, you can always follow the tips and examples we’ll lay out for you here. Let’s start by overviewing the general structure of a good account manager resume.

You’ll need the following sections:

• The header
• A resume summary (or if you have limited experience, a resume objective)
• Work experience section
• Education section
• Skills section
• Additional sections based on need (certifications, languages, references, awards, etc.)

There are ways in which you can customize your resume to get the most out of it. For example:

What to Put on a Resume for an Account Manager?

You want your resume to be easy to read and understand. It also shouldn’t be longer than one page and with a font size between 10 and 12pt. You want to use a font like Calibri, Cambria, Arial, or Times New Roman.

As for the overall format, your options are:

Reverse Chronological

This format focuses on your work experience, starting from your most recent job and working your way back. For an account manager resume, and in most cases, this is the best option.

Functional

If you don’t have a lot of experience in the field, be it because you are new or changing careers, you can choose this format instead. It focuses on highlighting your transferable skills instead of your work experience.

Hybrid

Finally, the hybrid or combination format takes after both formats to provide a good blend of experience and skills.

Dos and Don’ts for the Header and Contact Section

The header and contact section is a relatively simple segment of your resume, yet still crucial. Since it has your contact information, it can’t have any errors or mistakes. You also don’t want to include too much, just the essentials. That is your full name, job title, phone number, email, city and state where you are located, and LinkedIn profile, or your personal blog/website.

Here is a good example of a header:

Good Example 👍

Jonathan Johnson

Account Manager

402-456-6290

New York, NY

Linkedin.com/in/jonathanjohnson

Bad Example

Jonathan James Johnson

Account Manager

402-456-6290

theluckyone@gmail.com

28S Bond Street

Mount Vernon, New York

DoB 22/03/90

Linkedin.com/in/jonathanjohnson

As for photos, you are usually better off without one. For one, hiring managers don’t actually like receiving resumes with pictures. What’s more, there’s always a chance of unconscious bias or discrimination based on the picture.

If you are asked to include one, make sure it’s professional. Passport-style 2x2 with a blank background should do fine.

How to Demonstrate Your Experience as an Account Manager

Your work experience is extremely important to your resume. Imagine you were looking at a loan officer’s resume, you would want what they’ve done before and how they’ve impacted their job.

Well, in the same manner as an account manager the company will want to know how your work with clients has brought results, and in what way.

You’ll want to start with your present company and work your way down in a reverse-chronological format. Use bullet points to list 3 to 5 of your job responsibilities and accomplishments.

If you have no or limited direct experience, focus on the skills that you have that could be transferred.

CORRECT 👍

Sanderson

Account Manager

July 2015 – Present, New York NY

• Responsible for onboarding over 50+ new clients
• Led teams of 15 people over multiple departments
• Exceeded annual revenue targets by 20%
• Overhauled the client onboarding process, which increased customer satisfaction by 30%

INCORRECT

Sanderson

Account Manager

July 2015 – Present, New York NY

• Responsible for client relationships and onboarding
• Led teams of multiple people
• Exceeded annual revenue targets

Education Section 101

Your educational background will be an important aspect of your resume. Much like the resume for bankers, you’ll see that a job in account management will need at least a bachelor’s degree, preferably in business or marketing. If you have a master’s degree, it will go a long way toward improving your chances.

However, it’s not enough to just list your educational background randomly or include every single aspect of it. You want to follow a specific structure, starting with the name of the degree, the name of the school, and the year you finished the program. You can include some details such as your GPA or the classes you excelled at. If you have a master’s degree, you can skip the high school diploma.

Here's a good example of how you should format your educational background:

CORRECT 👍

Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration

New York University, 2011-2015

• Excelled in accounting classwork
• 3.4GPA

INCORRECT

BS in Business

New York, 2010

Skills for An Account Manager to Highlight on the Resume

Your resume is much more than just your presentation card: It’s a summary of your professional life. Throughout that life, you undoubtedly have amassed a wealth of different skills. You might be tempted to include all of them but hold your horses. To get the job, you’ll need to highlight exclusively the skills that can have a direct and positive impact in this potential position.

As an account manager, you’ll be required to work with people, think on your feet, and manage different tools to facilitate the relationships between the clients and your company. You need to show that you can handle all that and more.

This means that a good mix of hard and soft skills will be critical. Hard skills are more technical knowledge, these are the different software and tools used in the industry that require training or education. Soft skills, on the other hand, are more about your personality and ability to interact with other people.

If you want to land a job, it’s a good idea to have a balance between them, as both are important.

Here’s a breakdown of hard and soft skills that would look great on an account manager’s resume:

Hard skills

Every job needs a tool, and these are the tools that an account manager can highlight:

• Microsoft Office
• HubSpot
• Oracle E-Business Suite
• PersistIQ
• Zoho Office Suite
• Canva
• SharePoint

Soft skills

Personal, organizational, and interpersonal skills an account manager needs to show include:

• Negotiation
• Charisma
• Active listening
• Empathy
• Reliability
• Adaptability
• Critical thinking
• Communication
• Calmness
• Confidence

How to Write a Winning Professional Summary

It is said that recruiting managers can skim through a resume in about 6 to 8 seconds, so in the battle for a good impression literally every second counts. That’s where a good resume summary comes in.

A resume summary is like a sales pitch, is your one shot to catch their attention. You want your summary to be specific, concise, and objective.

If you get them here, they’ll stick around for the main course. But if done wrong, you’ll lose them before you even had a chance.

That’s why I’ll show you what a good resume summary looks like, both for the experienced and the inexperienced, and what you should avoid when writing your summary.

CORRECT 👍

Account manager with 9+ years of experience. Skilled in accounting, budget preparation, and client-agency relationship building. Led teams of 5-10 people across multiple disciplinary departments. Spearheaded a client acquisition campaign that brought 5 clients to the firm in a month.

CORRECT 👍

Junior account manager with 1 year of experience. Analyzed market trends to create marketing strategies that led to a 10% increase in monthly sales. Collaborated with retailers to improve product display location and customer services.

INCORRECT

Experienced account manager interested in a new position. I have worked with sales and customer relationships for years. I think this experience would make me a good fit for your company.

Alternatively, a professional objective might work best if you don’t have experience.

Extra Sections to Add More Weight to Your Resume

When it comes to landing that job you want, you really can’t afford to pull any punches. The job market is brutal, and competition is both fierce and plentiful. But I’m not trying to discourage you, what I want is for you to use every gun in your arsenal.

And when talking about your resume, that translates to adding additional sections to help you stand out, by further highlighting your qualifications, skills, and more.

Here are some examples of the kind of extra sections you can include:

Certifications

One of the best additional sections you can add is a certification segment, as they can show additional verifiably knowledge and skills. Some examples of common Account Manager certifications include:

• Certified Sales Professional (CSP)
• Certified Management Accountant (CMA)
• Certified Manager Certification (CM)

Languages

Did you know that only about 20% of Americans speak more than just English? As an account manager, you’ll potentially be working with clients from all over the world. That’s why knowing other languages can help you stand out from other applicants, so be sure to include that. You should structure it in the following way:

• Make a header for each language.
• Specify the official certification level and the score you attained.

Here are some examples of what that looks like:

Key Takeaways: Write an Outstanding Account Manager Resume

Now that we’ve covered all of the main points in detail, let’s bring them all together for a final overview:

• Ensure that your header has the correct contact information and is free of errors
• Use the reverse chronological format to highlight your experience.
• Write a resume summary that catches the attention of the recruiter.
• Use numbers to quantify and highlight your accomplishments.
• Your resume should start with the header, then resume summary, work experience, education, skills, and additional sections as necessary.
• Keep the length to one page.

Complement Your Resume with a Cover Letter

Unless specifically stated otherwise by the recruiting manager, a cover letter is an absolute must for your resume. In a resume, you don’t have a lot of breathing room to paint the whole picture of who you are and what you can do for the company. Cover letters give you that space to hammer down on what makes you the perfect choice for the position. With just a few minutes and one of our cover letter templates, you can craft a masterpiece that would make any recruiting manager jump at the opportunity to hire you.

Frequently Asked Questions

To wrap it up, here are some commonly asked questions about the account manager role:

What experience do you need to be an account manager?

Normally an account manager will have at least a bachelor’s degree in business administration, sales, or a related field. A master’s degree in marketing or business can be a great plus, and it can even work as a substitute for practical experience in some cases.

Furthermore, companies will prefer people that have previous skills in sales or marketing roles, or those that involve direct customer interaction.

What is the difference between an account manager and a key account manager?

A key account manager is the one that handles the largest customers that a company has, while the regular account manager works with the rest. In other words, key account managers handle the big fish of the company.