How to Write a Power BI Resume

Bill Gates infamously coined the phrase, “Content is king,” in 1996, and while that may remain true, another royal has made its way to the forefront of the business landscape—data. Modern businesses across various sectors rely on data to make critical decisions. However, to optimize your use of that data, knowing what to do with it is essential. That’s where Microsoft Power BI shines. 

Microsoft Power BI is a popular business intelligence platform with software, applications, and other tools businesses can use to collect, analyze, present, and share data. It empowers professionals to gain a more thorough understanding of business processes, customers, competitors, and the market. It’s popular across various industries, including manufacturing, retail, and finance.

Applying for a job that requires Power BI skills and familiarity necessitates a resume that can help highlight your skill set. When writing a Power BI resume, highlight your Power BI certifications, experience using the platform, relevant skills, and how it relates to your abilities to do the job you’re applying for.

Discover how to present your Power BI resume effectively and customize it for each role you pursue.

Outlining your Power BI resume

Many professionals use Power BI, including developers, non-technical business owners, and managers. How you present your Power BI experience and skills should be tailored specifically to each position you apply for. If you are a Power BI developer, you will present your skills very differently to a business manager who uses business intelligence tools to grow and develop a company.

Before writing your resume, clearly describe what you’re trying to achieve. Consider the following:

• What you are applying for

• The skills you need

• How Power BI relates to the role

Once you have that picture in mind, consider the various sections and information to include in your Power BI resume.

Write a strong introduction.

Consider this section your opportunity to impress hiring managers and tell them exactly why you’re right for the job. Your summary section is where you outline your professional experience, essential skills, and achievements relating to the role you’re applying for. It’s this section in which you introduce your credentials in Power BI so it’s immediately apparent to the employer that you are a qualified candidate, and it’s worth reading on.

Your summary is ideally a few sentences detailing who you are, your relevant experience and credentials, and what you want to do. It’s an excellent opener to help you stand out and highlight your Power BI skills and other credentials.

Outline your relevant skills.

Including a skills section in your resume is another effective way to highlight what you bring to the job, including your Power BI experience and any related skills, such as data analysis, data visualization, and data reporting. It’s critical to highlight your skills throughout your resume, but having a dedicated skills section enhances your chances of advancing in the job search process because it makes your resume more scannable for busy recruiters and applicant tracking systems (ATS).

In this section, you can include both technical and workplace skills, as both are relevant to a role using Power BI. Make sure the skills you choose apply to the role, using the job description to determine the skills the recruiter is looking for.

Skills vary depending on the role you’re applying for, but examples may include:

Technical skills

• Creating and using dashboards

• Data preparation

• BI Stack

• Data modeling

• Programming languages

• Data analysis

• Business intelligence tools

• Front end development 

• Web applications

• Java

• Data visualization

Workplace skills

• Teamwork

• Critical thinking

• Communication

• Attention to detail

• Creativity

• Problem-solving

Connect your experience to the job you’re applying for.

Your experience needs its own section. A popular formatting that works well is starting with your recent job and working backward. Remember, this doesn't have to be paid experience. You can also include volunteering, internships, personal projects, and events you’ve attended.

Whatever you include in this section, ensure that it matters specifically for the position you’re applying for. How relevant experience seems is largely down to how you word it. Listing your experience isn’t enough. You need to tailor it to the role you’re applying for and include achievements that demonstrate you have what it takes to do the job. Using measurables and metrics helps provide solid evidence for your claims.

To ensure you cover everything the recruiter is looking for, use the job description and add anything you’ve done that relates directly to it, with measurable examples.

Have a certification section.

If you’re writing a Power BI resume and have experience using the platform, you may have credentials like a Power BI Professional Certificate or relevant certifications relating to data analytics or data visualization. If that’s the case, creating a certification section is essential. You may add it to your main education section or create a separate one. Some examples of certifications you may want to showcase include:

• Microsoft’s Certified Power BI Data Analyst Associate

• Associate Certified Analytics Professional

• AWS Certified Data Analytics - Specialty

ATS-proof your Power BI resume.

Recruiters use applicant tracking systems (ATS) to help sift applications. These systems rely on automated processes to select and dismiss resumes based on chosen keywords. If you want to get to the recruitment stage, where a human reads your resume, it’s imperative that you pass the ATS screening first.

To ATS proof your Power BI resume, factor in the following:

• Use keywords: Use the job description to select the keywords recruiters might use and add these to your resume by including them in your skills section. Also, use keyword-rich terminology as appropriate when describing your achievements and experience. Use full-length terms and acronyms, such as Power BI, BI tools, business intelligence tools, and any variations you find.

• Use clear fonts: Keep the fonts simple and straightforward to make it easy for ATS to read your document. The systems sometimes miss text written in lesser-used fonts with tails.

• Use a simple format: Formatting can also confuse ATS, including tables, text boxes, color, and diagrams, can be confusing for ATS systems. Stick with a clean, simple format, even if you think it isn’t as appealing as it could be.

Key takeaways for selling yourself as a Power BI expert

Power BI and all that comes with it can help you in a number of job roles. The key to optimizing its effectiveness is to include it on your resume in a way that shows your abilities, experience, and any related qualifications. Recap the following factors to put the finishing touches to your resume.

Show your technical abilities.

Business intelligence can be technical in nature. While you don’t need to be technical to use Power BI, many of its roles, such as Power BI developer, are technical. Therefore, it’s essential to highlight your technical abilities. Do this in the skills section and the examples you provide in your experience section. Remember to demonstrate your skills through the certifications, courses, and projects you include.

Tailor your resume to the role.

Today’s competitive job market requires that you customize your resume to each job you apply for to ensure you make it past the ATS and quickly show recruiters why they should consider you. You must highlight your skills, experience, and qualifications that matter for the precise job listing. An employer wants to see that you have the know-how to take what you’ve learned and use it to succeed in the position.

Use keywords.

Tailoring your Power BI resume and ensuring it is ATS-compliant requires using keywords. Look at the job description, company website, and essential criteria for the job and pull out keywords. Use these words in your resume to align with what the company wants in an employee and their terminology.

Resources for resume building

Take a look on Coursera for a range of resources to help build your Power BI resume:

• How to Make a Resume: 2024 Writing Guide

• 16 Resume Tips for Your 2024 Job Search

• 10 Ways to Improve Your Resume 

• How to Add Coursera Credentials to Your Resume

Earn a certificate for your Power BI resume with Coursera.

Learning and mastering Power BI can help you maximize your use of data, no matter what industry you work in. Applying for a job requiring Power BI skills necessitates a resume that shines.

Enhance your Power BI resume with online courses and programs that can help expand your skill set. For example, you might sharpen your analysis skills with the Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate or the State University of New York at Buffalo’s Data Analysis and Visualization course. You can also get more practical experience working with Power BI with options like the Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst Professional Certificate mentioned earlier or Getting Started with Power BI Desktop, a Guided Project available on Coursera.