How Do I Write a Summary for a Professional Resume

Introduction

Study showed that hiring managers only spend an average of 7.4 seconds looking over each resume they receive. Adding a summary statement to your resume can increase your chances of catching the reader's attention. It breaks down your resume into a few easy-to-consume sentences. Your summary in resume writing is where you can showcase your unique skill set, professional experience, and achievements. Since it's typically located at the top of your resume, a summary statement is an excellent opportunity to make a strong, lasting first impression. It functions like an elevator pitch - a quick and targeted way to show potential employers that you are the best candidate for the job. Resume summary statements are sometimes called by different names, such as personal or professional profiles, a summary of qualifications, a profile statement, a career profile, and so on. Regardless of terminology, the objective is to highlight your personal and professional strengths. In this blog, we will discuss how to write an excellent summary for a resume.

What is Resume Summary?

A summary section of your resume briefly outlines your career, key strengths, and notable achievements. It should provide a short selection of highlights from your career in a format accessible to employers. Your summary should include your current position, relevant accomplishments, and some of your skills.

Your resume summary should be customised to target the job you are applying for. Hiring managers are looking for candidates with the right skills and experience, so a good resume will highlight your most relevant qualifications. It should show how you are a good fit for the role and how you are a good fit for the company.

What to include in your resume summary

If you've decided that it makes sense to include a resume summary, here are some suggestions for what to include:

1. Relevant certifications, experience, or education history

Show employers that you would be an excellent fit for the job by listing your credentials, citing a relevant college degree, outlining your experience working in the industry, or sharing that you have certifications are necessary or helpful to the situation.

2. Your skills and abilities

In addition to your more concrete skills and abilities from the previous section, your summary is an excellent place to mention your soft skills or those that are more difficult to measure, define, or quantify. Your soft skills may include creativity, communication skills, flexibility, cultural awareness, etc.

3. Specific metrics

Impress potential employers by providing a quantitative description of your professional performance. Possible details include how much money you brought in for the company, the size of the budgets you handled, how many people you trained and/or managed, and how much work you completed within a given period. Yes, how often have you done different types of employment, etc.?

Tips for Writing Your Resume Summary

Here are some pointers for composing your summary now that you know what details to include in it:

1. Keep it short

Remember, you only have a few seconds to impress a potential employer. Keep your resume summary to at most five lines of text. A few impactful sentences will serve you better than one long paragraph. Technically it's not necessary to write in complete sentences - ie you could say, "I am a driven ecommerce specialist with 5 years of experience" rather than "I am a driven ecommerce specialist with 5 years of relevant experience."

2. Make it personal

While there are hundreds of examples of summary statements available on the Internet that you can refer to for inspiration, keep in mind that your resume summary should be very specific to you and your talents. This is your chance to show what you have achieved in the past!

3. Be professional

While you want your resume summary statement to stand out, it must be professional. Spell-check your statement, use a respectful tone, and don't choose crazy fonts or colours. However, you can undoubtedly use an interesting headline, bold or italicised text, and various colours that are still professional and easy to read, such as navy or forest green.

4. Write your summary at the end

If you need to learn how to start writing your summary, wait until you've finished the rest of your resume. That way, your achievements and skills will be fresh in your mind, making it even easier to summarise them. When you've already considered your past positions and accomplishments, choosing the best ones to display in the summary description will be easier.

Conclusion

In this blog, we have discussed writing tips for your resume summary. A summary section at the top of your resume is the best way to quickly outline your qualifications. Employers read a lot of applications, and you have to stand out if you want to get the job. The sooner you can sell your skills, the better. With a strong resume summary, the hiring manager reading your resume will understand in a few sentences: who you are, what your skills are, and some of your key accomplishments. By giving employers a brief summary of your skills and experience at the beginning of your resume, you can ensure that they have the information they are looking for. This should catch their attention and encourage them to keep reading if they have the correct abilities. Learning how to write a CV by following the above tips can factor into scoring your next interview.