Writing A Purchasing Executive Resume In 7 Helpful Steps

Updated 31 July 2023

A purchasing executive is an individual who buys goods or other materials on a company's behalf while coordinating communications and contracts with vendors. When applying for roles, businesses require a resume to understand your credentials and determine if you are the right fit. Learning to create a concise and powerful document with relevant skills and experiences may help you showcase yourself as a well-established person in your industry. In this article, we discuss how to write a purchasing executive resume in seven steps, including sharing a template and an example you can use as a guide.

Please note that none of the companies, institutions or organisations mentioned in this article are associated with Indeed.

How To Write A Purchasing Executive Resume?

Here are a few steps on how to write a purchasing executive resume:

1. Introduce yourself in the header

The first step in creating your resume is to introduce yourself in the header. At the top of the page, include your first and last name along with a relevant degree or certification you have earned. Below your title, list your contact information, such as your mobile phone number and email address. You can also include your city and state or union territory.

It is essential to have both contact methods on your resume because it helps the hiring managers have multiple ways to contact you. This makes it easier for them to ask you questions about your document or to follow up and schedule an interview.

2. Craft a professional summary

After introducing yourself, you can craft a professional summary. Typically, a professional summary is two to three sentences long and provides more information about your career experience. In those few sentences, you can list your most relevant work experience, essential skills and significant achievements. As you are writing this section, you may find it helpful to look at the job description. Using the keywords the company listed for its ideal team member in your summary may encourage the hiring managers to look at your resume further.

The summary's goal is to share who you are while persuading the reader to continue reading the rest of your document and consider you for the position. So, for a purchasing executive role, you may mention your strengths in managing budgets, implementing strategies and estimating costs. You can also describe yourself as flexible and adaptable and can manipulate data in spreadsheets.

3. List your work experience as a purchasing executive

Below the professional summary, you can list your work experience as a purchasing executive or related roles. A common practice for indexing your work history is using reverse chronological order, which means starting with your most recent or current position and working backwards. As you are describing a current role, list at least five of your primary responsibilities and use present tense verbs to describe each one. Then, when listing positions you held in the past, you can include three key tasks and use past tense verbs when talking about them.

For this role, as an example, you may talk about how you balanced budgets, negotiated contracts with supply vendors and prepared monthly presentation reports to share with fellow team members, customers or stakeholders. Do not forget to include your job title, the company's name and employment dates.

4. Share your skills for the role

After you have shared your work history, share your skills to prove your competencies. You may find it helpful to include a variety of your abilities, including your soft and hard skills. Soft skills are abilities you have developed that can be helpful in any industry and transfer, such as communication or decision-making. Your hard skills are the capabilities you learnt through formal education and apply to the particular field you are interested in, like data analysis. Here are a few skills you may use for this position:

Data analysis
Strategic planning
Decision making
Communication and relationship building
Bid coordination

5. Describe your education

The education section of your resume shows employers you have the required credentials for the role. When listing your degrees, you can use reverse chronological order, like in the work experience section, if you have multiple degrees. For each entry, include the degree's title, the university's name and the state or union territory where you attended university. Here are a few degrees you may earn for this position:

Bachelor's degree in business
Bachelor's degree in engineering
Bachelor's degree in economics
Master's degree in materials
Master's degree in supply chain management

6. Include any relevant certifications

A certification section is optional for resumes but you may find it beneficial to include it if you have relevant ones. Listing certifications can help differentiate yourself from other individuals who share a similar background with you but have not pursued additional education in certifications. This extra effort of expanding your industry knowledge and strengthening your skill set may show hiring managers your dedication to your career path. Additionally, it may indicate you are a self-starter because you pursued these courses on personal time.

Some certifications for a purchasing executive can include:

Certified Procurement Professional
Certified Research Analyst
Certified Supply Chain Specialist
Certified Research Professional

7. Proofread your resume

Once you have included all your relevant information about your experience and credentials for being a purchasing executive, proofread your document. Often, your resume is a hiring manager's first impression of who you are and how the company can benefit from hiring you. This makes it vital to give those individuals an error-free document. There are a few ways you can look over your resume before submitting it.

The first way you can proofread your resume is by reading it aloud. This can help you find logical or grammatical errors in your sentences. Next, you can review the document from the bottom up, which may help you adjust sentence structures and identify spelling errors. Another way is asking a family member or friend to look at it. Having another pair of eyes on your work may help you approach the task from a new perspective. An outside source, like a friend, can recommend ways to improve your work before submitting it with your application.

Template Resume For A Purchasing Executive

Here is a template resume for this role to use as you format your document:

[First name] [Last name], [Degree or certification, if applicable]
[Phone number] | [Email address] | [City], [State or Union territory]

Professional Summary
[Two to three sentences that highlight your years of experience, relevant skills, education or certifications and achievements as a purchasing executive.]

Experience

[Job Title] | [Employment dates]
[Company Name] | [City], [State or Union territory]

(Strong verb) + what you did (more detail) + reason, outcome or quantified results
[Job duty]
[Job duty]
[Job duty]
[Job duty]

[Job Title] | [Employment dates]
[Company Name] | [City], [State or Union territory]

(Strong verb) + what you did (more detail) + reason, outcome or quantified results
[Job duty]
[Job duty]

Education

[Degree], [Name of School or University]

[City], [State or Union territory]

Certifications
[Certification Name], [Host Organisation] - [Year completed or expiration date]

Example Resume For A Purchasing Executive

Here is an example resume for a purchasing executive that you can use as a reference as you are writing your own:

Meera Kumar, Bachelor's degree in business | 22 3456 4542 | MeeraKumar@email.com | Bandra East, Mumbai

Professional Summary
Persistent and adaptable individual with eight years of experience in the industry seeking the role of Purchasing Executive at Rabbit Industries. Coming with a bachelor's degree in business and certification as a procurement expert. Looking to help improve sales by 15% in the first year and establish new business relationships while maintaining existing ones.