Team Lead Resume Example & Writing Guide

An effective team lead has the power to drive staff forward to reach and exceed their goals. If you have a natural flair for leadership, this career is calling your name. Before you can land the managerial position, you need to perfect your team lead resume. 

Inspiring a team of workers every day takes energy, passion, and dedication. If you’re bursting at the brim with all of the above, how can you get that across to employers? In an interview scenario, demonstrating your skills is easy. However, before you can get there, you first need to ‘wow’ them with a stellar resume that ticks all of the boxes. 

Resume guide for a team lead resume

Resume.io is an expert career resource with resume examples for 500+ professions combined with an easy-to-use resume builder. Showcasing your leadership skills and turning employers’ heads doesn’t have to be difficult. 

This resume guide and corresponding team lead resume example will cover the following:

• How to write a team lead resume
• Choosing the right resume format for a team lead
• How to add your contact information
• Using summaries
• Adding your team lead experience
• Listing education and relevant experience
• Picking the right resume design/layout
• What the team lead market looks like and what salary you can expect

How to write a team lead resume

Before you write your team lead resume, you must understand what to include. There’s a simple formula you can use if you want to turn heads. With that in mind, here are the key elements you will need to feature: 

• The resume header
• The resume summary (aka profile or personal statement)
• The employment history section
• The resume skills section
• The education section

Tailoring your resume to each employer is vital. The team lead role in a department store will look different from the same role at an accountancy firm. When you’re ready to apply for your next job, first  thoroughly investigate the company. What does the company do? What clients does it aim to serve? What are the business values? The more information you can gather, the better it will be for your resume. 

Take a closer look at the team lead job posting. Note any keywords or phrases. Using the same terminology will help you get past the ATS screening software. When scanning for specific keywords, the software filters resumes and ranks them. The ones that best match the job description land on the hiring manager’s desk. 

If you’re hoping to write a team lead that sparks an employer’s interest, here are some pointers to keep in mind: 

• Showcase your key talents. communication, leadership, and dispute management.
• Tailor your language to suit the employer. Don’t use a one-size-fits-all approach. Modify the style and tone to align with the company’s own.
• Keep it simple. Create a concise, organized resume free of errors that an employer can easily understand.
• Quantify your accomplishments. Data, or measured achievements, add extra weight to your application.

Choosing the right resume format for a team lead

As a rule, team lead resumes should be written in reverse chronological order. When writing your education section, start with your most recent experience at the top. Should you lack experience in the field, dedicate space to your skill set and any training.

Keep in mind that the resume format needs to be easy to digest. Recruiters spend just seven seconds looking at each resume that comes their way. Make their job straightforward by not overloading your resume. Prioritize the most valuable information. Take a moment to consider what they need to know. 

Should you lack experience or be changing careers, put more emphasis on your skills. In that case, a functional format may suit you better than the standard reverse chronological approach. Take a look at our resume templates that cover a selection of formats.

Include your contact information

Next up, you need to make sure that you place your contact information front and center. To do that, you need an easy-to-read header. 

Let’s take a look at what you should include here: 

• Full name & title. List your first name, last name, and the role title.
• Professional email address. You should also include a professional email address.
• Phone number. Add a number where you can be easily reached. Ensure that the answer phone message is suitable for work.
• Location. You don’t need to put your entire address. Just list your city and state. If you are willing to relocate, you can say so here, too.
• LinkedIn. Establish an active and up-to-date LinkedIn profile. You can then place a hyperlink to it on your resume.

Don’t include:

• Date of birth. Avoid age discrimination by completely omitting it.
• Personal details. You don’t need to include your marital status, social security number, passport number, etc.

Make use of a summary

The resume summary (also known as the profile or personal statement) is likely the first thing a recruiter will see. This blurb sits below the header of your team lead resume and gives the hiring manager the main points they need to know. 

The summary should take up between two and three sentences and include the main reasons you deserve the job. If you’re struggling with writer’s block, review our resume summary writing guide.

Resume real estate is valuable. That means that you don’t want to waste space or include information that won’t land you an interview. For example, if you already have a large education section that is dominating the page, you may want to opt for a shorter summary. Including a few well-structured sentences that sell your skill set is a savvy move. 

Flex your creative muscles. The resume summary is the most free-form aspect of your resume. Use action verbs, such as ‘directed,’ ‘spearheaded,’ and ‘exceled’ to pique the reader’s interest. 

Waiting for inspiration to strike? Check out our team leader summaries sample below:

Outline your team lead work experience: uniting and inspiring

Your most recent team lead experience should lead the way. As we have mentioned, you will be using the reverse chronological method for your employment history. Simply start with your current/most recent role at the top of the page and work your way backward. 

Don’t waste your words. Beneath each job title and the dates, briefly cover what the role entailed. You’re not writing your memoir. Lose the word ‘I’ and get straight into your duties. 

Wherever possible, quantify your experience using numbers or statistics. You can do  this by including results-based points. For instance, you may point out that you ‘increased sales by 30%’. 

Take a look at the team lead employment history resume sample below:

Include the relevant key skills that make you a great team lead

There’s an art to crafting your team lead resume. To land that all-important interview, show employers that you have the perfect mix of both hard and soft skills. You can pepper this part of your resume with the keywords you’ve noted from the job posting. 

When it comes to a team lead CV, the soft skills are just — if not more — important than the hard skills. It’s your job to inspire and engage your team. For that reason, you should portray charisma and charm. However, you will also need to be well-schooled in managerial processes, risk management, and measuring performance metrics. 

Here’s what the skills box looks like in our team lead resume template. 

Look to the job description as a guide for what key skills to include.

Detail your education & relevant team lead certifications

Writing the education section is relatively straightforward. You should again use the reverse chronological order here. 

Let’s take a look at some of the things that you can include: 

• Degrees. Much of the time, team lead applicants will have a bachelor’s degree in business or a similar field to place in the resume education section.
• High school diploma. You may just list your high school diploma or equivalent GED information.
• Additional certification. This shows employers that you have invested in your career. If you’ve taken an online course in leadership, now is the time to shout about it.
• Vocational training. You can list any on-the-job training, certificates, or awards below your main education. You may want to use a bullet-point format.

Keep in mind that if your skills outweigh your education, you can adapt your resume accordingly. In that case, you can use a functional resume approach instead. 

Pick the right resume layout and design for a team lead resume

Looks aren’t everything, but they may matter more than you think. When you’re creating a team lead resume, you want to make the right impression with your layout and design. 

Hiring managers have limited time, so they favor attractive and uncomplicated resumes. Opt for a reader-friendly approach including white space to break up the various sections. 

While you may be tempted to go for an uber colorful and jazzy look, it’s unlikely to do you any favors. Gimmicks won’t win you interviews. It’s far more important that hiring managers can easily glean the information they need. Also, keep the font simple.

That means keeping things simple, to-the-point, and neat. Select a visually attractive yet minimalist design. Choose from one of our many pre-formatted resume templates.

Team lead text-only resume example

Team lead job market and outlook

The team lead job market is growing rapidly. Reports suggest that this professional will increase by 8% between 2018 and 2028. During this decade, that equates to around 2900 new jobs. If you are ready to take your team lead career to the next level, now is the ideal time.

What type of salary you can expect as a team lead

According to Glassdoor, the average salary for a team lead is between $21,000 and $35,000 per year. Of course, how much you make will depend on your experience level and sector.

Key takeaways for building a team lead resume

Team lead professionals need a balance of soft skills and hard skills combined with the unique ability to motivate their staff. You should aim to tailor your team lead resume to the company. It’s worth taking the time to research before applying. Aside from experience, your resume gives you the opportunity to showcase any additional leadership training.

Check out our adaptable team lead resume sample for more ideas on creating a great layout and design. You can also use our online resume builder to perfect your application.