Principal Resume Example

After reading the article, you'll feel confident creating a principal resume that provides a comprehensive account of your career achievements, experience and expertise. The guide will show real examples of how to highlight the skills and achievements decision makers are looking for, such as leadership for success, long-term vision, and strategic mindset. Continue reading to discover the tips Jobseeker's career experts recommend for an effective principal resume.

Key sections for a principal resume

Most resumes contain similar key sections, with a principal resume being no different.

How you choose to present your resume is up to you. There are plenty of options for a professional resume layout and format, but every application should include the following:

Resume Header

The resume header is the place to add your name and contact details, along with your LinkedIn URL if you have a profile, so employers can find more information about your career journey and skills. You don't typically need to add a photo, or any other personal information to this section. Be aware of the amount of space your resume header takes up. You don't want your contact details to take space away from the main content of your resume, so keep this section as brief as possible.

Use an email address that's professional and appropriate for professional communication. Typically this would be an email address based on your first and last name, or your initials. If necessary, you could include your profession or another unique identifier. Avoid using old email addresses that could be considered unprofessional or inappropriate. Additionally, always check your contact details before sending your resume to ensure they're up-to-date.

Resume Objective

Following your resume header, write a resume summary to introduce yourself and showcase some of your key skills and achievements. Alternative names for this section are 'resume objective' and 'personal profile'. While a resume summary focuses on your career experience, a resume objective covers your ambitions and career plans. Always make sure your summary reflects the job description and highlights some of the key skills required for principal roles.

Alternatively, you could use this section to reference your objectives and ambitions, and how this role would fit into your career journey.

A great resume summary should highlight why you're an ideal candidate for principal roles by showing key skills and qualities that reflect the job description and provide evidence to support them. It should also introduce your personality and unique qualities to the reader, to help them start to form an opinion about you as a candidate. See below for some great examples of how to approach your principal resume.

On the other hand, an unsuccessful resume summary is one that mentions irrelevant skills, qualities and achievements and fails to differentiate you from other candidates. The visual above includes some examples of what not to do with your principal resume summary

Work Experience

Under your work experience section, add any jobs you've had in the past that are relevant to the position of a principal. Mention only the most appropriate and relevant jobs you've had in reverse-chronological order, starting with your most recent and working backwards. Add your job title, the name of the employer, the location of the role and your dates of employment.

For each job listed in this section, add some bullet points so the employer can understand the skills you developed, and your achievements. Focus on showcasing the impact you made on the organization, and show evidence of how you made a difference.

For senior positions such as principal, your work experience section may be longer than a standard resume. By the time you're applying for a senior role, you'll have built up plenty of work experience, and you may wish to showcase principal skills and achievements from various previous roles. While experts often state that 10 to 15 years is the furthest back you'll want your resume work experience section to go, if you're applying for a senior position, you might wish to go back further. This should enable you to show that you have the required expertise and standing in your industry to qualify for a senior leadership role.

The best resume work experience sections focus only on the most relevant previous jobs, and link each bullet point back to a skill or experience listed in the job description. It's also critical to provide evidence that shows the value you added to each role in a quantifiable way, such as project outcomes, key performance indicators or feedback from customers, colleagues or managers. See below for some good examples of what to include in your resume work experience section.

See above for some of the pitfalls to avoid with your resume work experience section. Ineffective work experience sections tend to focus too much on everyday responsibilities over skills and achievements. If you use vague descriptions of activities and fail to back up your achievements with evidence, you're likely to fail to make an impact on the reader.

Education

Your resume's education section provides space for you to list your highest and most relevant qualifications for principal roles.

Typically, working as a principal requires a university or college degree, which you'll need to list on your resume. If you're working in this sector, it's usually a good idea to highlight your Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) degree or other relevant qualifications. Focus on qualifications that showcase your project management or data analysis.

Enter the name and level of the qualification, the institution you studied at, its location and your dates of study or graduation. You could also add one or two bullet points to draw attention to your grades if they were particularly good, as well as any specialist subjects you studied. This will help the hiring manager understand your knowledge and special skills better.

Additionally, mentioning any leadership roles or any societies and clubs you participated in while studying shows proactivity and initiative.

Skills

In your skills section, list any skills you've acquired or developed that are relevant to principal positions. Consider adding budget oversight, leadership and management or any other necessary skills for the job. Again, refer to the job description and make sure you include skills that the employer has listed as essential or desirable for employment as a principal.

How to include hard skills on your principal resume

Under hard skills, add any specialist skills you possess that are specifically required for principal jobs. These tend to be technical skills and industry knowledge essential to the position. Furthermore, an extensive list of hard skills helps to make a compelling case for your principal job applications, as they show employers your understanding of the principal role. Add up to five key hard skills that show you're an ideal candidate for the role. It can also be beneficial to add context to each skill, showing how you've used it to positive effect in your career to date.

Your resume hard skills list should reflect your unique and specific industry expertise and experience, while also fulfilling the requirements listed in the job description. See the examples below for an idea of what an effective principal resume hard skills list looks like.

Listing soft skills on your principal resume

Your soft skills are the core qualities and personal characteristics that make you a good employee. They tend to apply to multiple professions and jobs, though the soft skills you'll require may change as you move from junior to senior positions. Indeed, transferable skills are growing in importance in the modern world of work, so make sure you include several of these in your resume.

It's best to aim for four or five soft skills that match the job description and reflect your strongest personal qualities. Your principal job application should focus on soft and transferable skills that showcase your credentials as a leader.

A strong soft skills section should play to your strengths, listing skills that reflect your personal qualities while also reflecting the skills listed in the job description. For some examples of good soft skills for a principal resume, see below.

Relevant Certifications and Licenses

In this section, include any principal certifications, training or licenses you hold that are relevant to the job. You could list accreditations for certain professional roles or licenses for certain activities that help to make you a strong candidate. Therefore, add any professional licenses or certifications, along with valid dates that show they're still valid.

Review the list below for some suitable certifications for a principal resume:

Optional Information

As well as the main sections of a principal resume, optional sections can help you prove your credentials to employers. Take a look at the sections below and add any that help you show how and why you're right for the job.

Hobbies

Add any hobbies and interests that reinforce your credentials for the position. Consider listing hobbies and interests to help your resume stand out, or to provide the employer with some insight into your personality and wider interests. They're perfect for candidates who might lack genuine work experience as a principal. Don't include hobbies and interests in your resume unless they showcase a specific interest or aspect of your personality. You'll want them to add something to your application that you can't add elsewhere.

Volunteer Work

Listing volunteer work is another useful way to prove your relevant experience for principal roles. List your volunteer job title, the organization you volunteered for, its location and the dates of your involvement, alongside a brief explanation of your responsibilities in the role.

References

Standard principal resumes don't tend to include references, but you might find them requested occasionally. Check the job advert to see if you'll need to add references to your resume. Be sure to prepare your referees in advance, so they've agreed to provide a reference and are ready to be contacted.

Best words to use in a principal resume

Add strong verbs to your work experience section to show the hiring manager the impact you made in your previous roles. Choose from the list of words below to increase the impact of your work experience section.

As an experienced principal, you'll want your resume to do justice to your experience and standing in your industry. As such, it's acceptable to submit a longer than average resume of two pages or more. Jobseeker's clean, attractive resume formats can help your applications make a strong impression on employers. Check them out for help designing a winning resume, and see our cover letter templates to help win over recruiters and hiring managers.

Sample resume for principal positions

The principal resume example below incorporates all the information from above into a full-designed resume template, so you can see how a final resume will look:

Guide to making your resume ATS-friendly

Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) are one of the key ways recruiters and employers manage the hiring process. The systems can screen candidates by scanning and ranking resumes based on each candidate's likely suitability for the vacancy. When drafting your principal resume, there are a few guidelines to follow to give you the best chance of passing the ATS screening stage and progressing with your application.

Here are a few quick tips for creating an ATS-friendly resume:

• Adopt a traditional structure for your resume, such as a reverse-chronological format or a functional format. These are likely to be the easiest layouts for ATS software to scan.
• Add keywords that match the job description throughout your resume, as ATS applications scan for these and well-placed, considered use can help your resume rank more highly.
• Include clear headings in each section that match the traditional resume structure and format. This will make it easier for the ATS software to scan your resume.
• Utilize a clean, clear resume design that helps make your content more readable. Use simple fonts and subtle color accents and design elements that don't detract from the written content.
• Adopt simple, professional language to keep your resume as concise as possible. This tends to make your document more readable, and easier for ATS software to scan.

Takeaways for your principal resume

An effective resume is a concise, professional summary of your relevant skills and career achievements, showcased through a chronology of your career history. Choose the most suitable resume format for your experience levels, and focus on tailoring your resume based on the requirements listed in the job description.

Jobseeker has a wealth of resume tools, including resume templates and examples, to help you create a winning job application. Sign up today to get started. Jobseeker's expert-designed cover letter generator can help your applications make a strong first impression on hiring managers. Find detailed cover letter examples to complement your resume and get your application noticed.

Sources:

(1) Overcoming the Most Common Challenges in the Executive Job Search, MIT Career Development Office: https://cdo.mit.edu/blog/2024/10/15/overcoming-the-most-common-challenges-in-the-executive-job-search/

(2) How to Impress an Executive Recruiter and Break Into the C-Suite, Harvard Division of Continuing Education: https://professional.dce.harvard.edu/blog/how-to-impress-an-executive-recruiter-and-break-into-the-c-suite/