A resume summary or career summary is a self introduction with a few sentences at the top of your resume (after your resume headline) that highlights your qualifications for a job. Or you can say, key points of your qualifications or a resume profile, which gives the hiring manager a synopsis of your professional career, at a glance.
Why do we need a resume summary?
There are plenty of reasons why you need to add a summary at the top of your resume. One of the reasons is that it highlights the key points of your resume. When hiring managers are going through a pile of resumes, they often get bored with the same repetitive formats. By introducing yourself in a couple of sentences that concisely describes why you are qualified, you are raising the chances of your resume being noticed.
Resume summary vs resume objective
A resume objective is a statement that you use to introduce yourself regarding your needs and goals without mentioning the names of the companies. It is preferable for candidates with less or no work experience. Resume objective statements give a glance to the employer about your expectations from the job role and how they see their career graph. With time resume objectives became obsolete because it hardly offers any help in the hiring process.
While a career summary or resume summary is helpful more towards the employers’ needs. It basically highlights the accomplishments and skills required for the job role. Plus quantifying metrics adds hard proof for the work done in the previous roles. Below is an example of a well-constructed summary:
“Experienced SEO specialist with over 8 years of service in digital marketing. Worked on increasing organic traffic by an average of 36% over the past 2 years”.
Do you see how powerful that sounds? In the career summary mentioned above, the hiring manager will get a better understanding of the job seeker abilities to perform the tasks.
How to write an effective resume summary to catch recruiters' eyes?
Consider your resume summary as your marketing pitch. In about one to four sentences, highlight your most relevant strengths, skillset, and core competencies and pitch it to the hiring manager.
In particular, show your worth and how you would add value to the company. Have you generated revenue for a company in the past? Did you remodel an administrative process? Include skills and experiences that will impress the employer, using specific percentages, numbers, or money amounts to quantify your achievements.
Also, be sure to tailor your resume summary to the specific job role.
In a resume summary statement, you should avoid skills that are too common (for example, avoid mentioning Microsoft Office), or the cliche words (such as "multitasker" or “team player”). Look for some action words to make your resume sound profound.
Also read: How to write an exciting resume for creative professionals?
The summary statement should not be more than two to four lines and should be about your professional background specifically. Skip any outstanding circumstances that might be not suitable for a person to know through a resume (employment gaps, career shift, personal experiences, etc.). A cover letter is an important expanded version for a resume that will allow your personality to shine through.
To recap, don’t forget to add the following information to the CV.
- Hard skills and soft skills for the job role
- Relevant experience from the past with key functions
- Notable accomplishments that you would like to show in the next role as well
Resume summary with no experience
But what to write if you have no experience? Don’t worry you can still write a good summary for a resume with no prior work experience. Follow the below sentence structure to create one:
Start off with a descriptive adjective and your position in life (student or jobseeker, anything is mentionable), your percentage or CGPA, and any relevant experience from school or college days.
Then add your top relevant skills, and how you generated those skills while working on a project or internship (like on a term project, or receiving an academic award)
One can also mention additional skills, achievements, or experiences outside the classroom that can help in the job role you are applying for.
Resume assessment
After completing the summary on top, frame your entire resume according to the job description. And you are good to go for the submission of your resume. But before hitting the job market, get a resume assessment from an experienced professional in your industry. Upload your resume with InspiredResume.com and receive a detailed analysis of your document in a personalized mail for free.
