A modern hiring manager receives several hundred or even thousands of resumes monthly from potential employees applying for one position. Human resources and the amount of work do not allow for thoughtful reading of each resume, so it often takes an average of 6 seconds to review it. Only a compeling resume summary can quickly attract the hiring manager’s attention, so he did not just discard it in a pile of the same type and did not start considering the next candidate.
If you want to be sure that the recruiter is interested in you from the first lines, you must create a truly effective resume summary that presents you at your best as a true professional. If everything is written as it should be, the summary for a resume will be the best demonstration of your career path and acquired qualifications. It will show that you are the best candidate for a particular position in just 5 seconds and will encourage the recruiter to go further into the reading.
If you’re wondering how to properly write a resume summary so that it shows you at your best, you should check out our article. In this material, we will consider the step-by-step instructions for writing, give ready-made resume summary examples, based on which you can create your own, and give many other useful tips.
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Professional summary – a brief (often no more than 3-5 sentences) description of the most important professional qualities of the job seeker. It is an abbreviated retelling of your larger resume, showing work experience, relevant skills, and personal qualities. A good resume summary from the first lines demonstrates the applicant’s strengths and makes the project manager interested in the candidate.
In practice, a summary for a resume is an answer to the question, “How would you describe your level of professionalism and career path in just a few sentences as concisely and to the point as possible?” Here’s a real-life example: You have been a registered nurse for the past 10 years and have quite a long track record. A summary statement of your knowledge and skills will allow you to put yourself in the best light if you want to change jobs and wow a potential employer with professionalism by clearly showing your qualifications and experience.
A resume objective is to declare your career achievements, as well as to tell about the key skills and abilities you managed to acquire. You can include only one item or both simultaneously in a resume summary statement. The choice depends on the position you are applying for, the company to employ, the field, your level of professionalism, and other things. A resume summary statement is most appropriate if the applicant has relevant experience and in-depth knowledge in a certain professional field, which he wants to put first, highlighting them in front of the manager’s eyes from the very first lines. At the same time, high school or college graduates may find it more difficult to write something like this, which requires highlighting work experience and various skills.
For example, if a recent high school graduate wants to apply to a nursing program, the best way to write the following resume objective: A motivated nursing student wants hands-on experience working with patients. Able to handle stressful situations and easily find the language with many people; in particular, knows how to communicate with children and the elderly.
If the nurse has quite a lot of practical experience in the medical field, then resume summary examples may look as follows:
Responsive and attentive registered nurse with 5 years of experience in effectively diagnosing patients’ illnesses and following treatment protocols. Has a high level of compassion for patients, particularly bedridden patients who need 24/7 assistance. Also has the ability to clearly and understandably communicate complex medical concepts regarding health and radiation to patients and their families.
As you can see from the above, the resume objective can tell exactly what the job seeker wants to achieve, or it can tell about their real accomplishments. At the same time, the most valuable skills are described in both resume summary examples.
A professional summary is often written when the job seeker already has some professional experience in the chosen area of work. If it is not, then resume objective is the best option to get hiring managers interested in the candidate for the position. Writing a resume summary has several positive qualities:
Own resume summary is one of the most effective ways to show yourself as a seasoned professional or a driven person who moves toward the task at hand, even if you need more experience. It would help if you did not ignore writing a resume summary because, most often, this small paragraph catches a potential employer’s attention and encourages him to invite the applicant for a further interview.
Suppose you’re wondering how to write a summary for a resume. In that case, you must read the step-by-step guide compiled by professional hiring managers who face ineffective key job skills submissions from hundreds or thousands of job seekers daily. A crookedly written resume summary statement certainly won’t demonstrate you as a suitable candidate for the position. Therefore, take the time to read the detailed instructions on how exactly an effective and professional resume summary should be written that can immediately attract attention.
To create a professional summary, the first thing to do is to spend your time thinking about what extensive knowledge, relevant experience, and accomplishments you have. How exactly does your track record match your job title and direct job duties? When compiling a summary for a resume, you should follow the steps listed below:
A summary example might be this: “Creative graphic designer with over 10 years of experience and has worked with well-known companies and brands such as Nike, Williams Sonoma, and many others. Excellent understanding of creating effective content using Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and other specialized Adobe Suite programs to create a quality project.”
The summary example provided describes the applicant as a “creative person,” then leads smoothly to his experience and what technical skills he possesses. And all this fits literally in 2 lines.
A good resume summary can immediately make quite a strong first impression on a potential employer, describing the main professional achievements, relevant skills, and work experience. It is the only way to intrigue the hiring manager. You may be an excellent candidate for a position with years of professional experience. Still, the recruiter will never know if you don’t know exactly how to put your accomplishments into a few lines of print.
Once you’ve considered what your resume summary should include, it’s time to choose the right format. In this situation, to make your resume summary as visible as possible, you should follow the following requirements regarding the format and visual features of the document:
You can format and structure the document yourself. But there is also a much simpler way – you can use a ready-made resume summary example as a sample or templates that can be found online.
A resume summary should be adapted to the position. Your application will arouse the hiring manager’s interest if everything is done correctly. Job titles and a full list of requirements specified in the vacancy can help in this situation. Most employers often specify exactly what kind of candidate they need.
In addition, by adapting the resume summary to the job description, it is possible to bypass the company’s software to track candidates and filter applications from potential employees. In this situation, the software often screens applicants who must include specific communication skills and other keywords in the job opening. This nuance should certainly be considered when writing a resume summary.
To write a professional resume summary that perfectly demonstrates your level of qualification, you must clearly describe your experience. Years of professional experience are often listed immediately in the first appendix after describing yourself. Resume summary examples in this situation are as follows: “Dedicated tutor with more than 10 years of experience…”, “Effective sales manager with 7 years of experience…” and similar.
Relevant keywords that tailor a resume summary to a particular job allow you to pass the screening software. Using these words and professional terms allows you to show yourself as a great professional.
While writing a persuasive resume summary, you must start with a sentence that best describes you and your job abilities, using strong words that describe direct action. You need to start sentences with strong verbs to make past experiences more vivid and engaging. Resume summary examples in this situation might look like this: “I hold regular work meetings to make sure sales quotas are met, also brainstorming sessions between employees to develop strategies to improve productivity,” “I participate in a meeting once a month to maximize the effectiveness of the project development team.”
To make it easier for you to understand exactly what an effective resume summary should look like, it’s best to look at what other professionals are writing. We have collected the best professional summary examples from professionals in different fields of employment. You can use our examples as inspiration or a template for your professional summary.
Highly productive and outgoing Sales Executive with over 5 years of experience in increasing customer flow and sales growth by creating a positive, friendly shopping environment. Works effectively with subordinates by instilling working marketing strategies through comprehensive education programs and a system of rewards for hard work. Focuses on increasing areas of responsibility at the district level through the expertise of regional committees to achieve the assigned task.
Attentive technical writer with 10 years of experience. Specializing in competently creating, illustrating, and adapting documentation in the most understandable language for the end user. Experience creating content for team/project or product client needs.
Results-oriented software engineer involved in the development and implementation of relational database systems. Over 10 years of uninterrupted experience creating modern, efficient engineering projects with extensive virtual commerce functionality. Proficient in front-end and back-end development, specialized in agile processes, development of e-commerce sites that integrate various popular payment methods: Paypal and many others.
After reading the best resume summary examples, it also doesn’t hurt to learn more theories about how to write a resume summary competently, according to employers’ current rules and requirements. When writing a resume summary, you can include only your experience and skills or the goal of your career path (the second option is relevant for graduates). Both ways are relevant to demonstrate your strengths as a potential employee.
The main objective of your resume summary is to describe your specific career goals and existing professional skills. You should follow the guidelines described above while writing it:
When you write a full-fledged resume summary, the summary should be written at the end. That is a summary where you summarize the most important facts on a page.
Professional achievements are the most important thing a hiring manager pays attention to. Therefore, the resume summary should certainly include the following:
It would help if you did not go into a complete chronology of exactly how much time you spent in a particular position. All this can be read later by a potential employer if your resume summary will make a positive first impression.
Remember that you need more space in your resume summary to list your major professional accomplishments to date. It’s worth ensuring you describe these advantages of yourself as a professional as effectively as possible. What is the best way to proceed in this situation? Specify specific numbers. If your achievements are presented in a measurable format, it will arouse more confidence in the potential employer and a better chance that they will impress him.
It is worth rejecting the same old, outdated phrases and focusing on strong words and verbs of action to make your resume summary as bright, interesting, and recognizable as possible. A hiring manager must handle several hundred (and, in some situations, thousands) different resumes daily. It’s only natural that he won’t be impressed if you point out in your resume summary the same words and accomplishments as the dozens of other job seekers before you that he’s reviewed today.
“Responsible,” “Attentive,” “Led,” “Teamwork” … there should have been a yawn somewhere around here by now.
Strong words and action verbs make your professional accomplishments and acquired skills more vivid and interesting. In addition, thinking about this nuance is able to impress the recruiter because this way, he will understand that you have put a lot of effort into demonstrating yourself from a positive side and even involved a creative approach.
Remember one important rule When writing a resume summary: if less is better. A professional and effective resume summary should be a manageable length. Only 3-5 sentences are enough in this situation, while some can fit only 2. This small size does not mean you have nothing to write about. In this situation, it values the information – all clear and to the point, specific facts and figures. In addition, in this situation should write in the first person, but in no case use the text pronouns: “I,” “She,” “He,” and “They.” These words do not carry any meaning while taking up additional space in the text.
It is also necessary to remain nice in the document. Take your time spilling out in dithyrambs to yourself. Keep a polite and professional tone when describing your level of expertise.
Effective resume summaries should have not just a clear style but also, in this situation, very important literacy writing. It is worth checking your document for grammatical errors in the final stage. It is best to reread the resume summary several times – immediately after writing it, an hour later, after a few hours, or just before sending it. In addition, you can let a colleague, a relative, or a friend read the document so they can read and evaluate it.
Also, as described above, you can print the written document to make sure it is formatted and structured correctly in paper format. Moreover, on paper, you can see things that previously seemed invisible in the electronic version of the document.
