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What is a Summary in a Resume?
A resume summary, also known as a professional summary or a summary statement, is located at the top of your resume. It is a brief description of your experiences, qualities, and skills. A resume summary helps the recruiter identify whether you are the right candidate or not, therefore, a summary should showcase your strongest assets.
Resume Summary vs Resume Objectives
While searching to create a perfect resume summary, you will most likely also encounter Resume Objectives. Even though they sound similar, both of these are different things.
A Resume Summary as said earlier is a preview of who you really are. It is a statement that makes the recruiter believe that you are the right candidate for the job, and they are encouraged to know more about you. Furthermore, a summary is used when you already have some sort of work experience or job experience that could increase your chances of being selected.
However, a Resume Objective is used when you have limited work experience. It is a brief statement that highlights your career goals and tells the recruiter what you want to achieve in the industry and what skills you need to build while working in the industry. You can imagine the importance of a summary in a CV by the fact that lots of CV writing services in Dubai & UAE basically hire speciated writers to write professional summaries only.
In simpler terms, an objective statement showcases what you want to achieve, while a summary statement emphasizes your current accomplishments.
Looking to turn heads with your resume? Discover the secrets to crafting an attention-grabbing professional summary that leaves hiring managers eager for more. #ResumeTips #CareerGrowthClick To TweetWhen to Use a Summary in Resume?
Including a summary is completely dependent on you, whether you need to include it or not, because there is no hard and fast rule to it. However, experts suggest that you should include a summary when you have professional experience in the desired field. Some benefits to include a summary in your resume are as follows:
Get Noticed Faster
Whenever recruiters are going through a resume, the first thing they notice about the candidate is whether he is a right fit or not. To make this decision, the recruiter scans the summary part of the candidate. If the candidate has included their best and strong skills with the relevant experience, then there is a high chance that the recruiter is going to select that candidate for the interview.
Gives you a Chance to Highlight your Skills and Experiences Earlier
A professional summary mainly consists of 4 to 5 lines, the more lines you add, the more boring and complex it becomes to read it. The summary section is basically a nutshell version of your entire resume, you need to add all the best things from your resume into the summary section.
A pro tip is that before creating a summary, try to look for skills and qualities the recruiter has mentioned in the job description, and once you’ve identified the keywords, then you could incorporate those keywords into your summary, and through that, the recruiter will become more inclined towards your resume because they will find the exact skills they are looking for.
Crafting a Professional Summary
A summary is the most crucial part of the resume, and while creating a summary you need to identify what you must show the recruiter. In order to become the ideal candidate, you need to highlight your best skills and relevant work experience, and once you are done with that, you can easily create a summary. Moreover, a resume summary can’t be too long, or else the relevance and the attractiveness of the summary will be lost, so try to keep it brief. Here are a few tips that will help you craft a professional resume summary within no time.
Highlight the Most Important Experiences & Skills
Narrow down your top selling points in a few lines. This could include your best experiences, soft skills, technical skills, certifications, achievements, awards, or anything else that is unique and could be beneficial for you for landing your dream job.
It is also highly advisable that you back up important experiences and skills with numbers or figures. When you back up your information with numbers, it looks more credible and authentic. The information you could back up with numbers could include years of experience, the number of people managed, the number of customers acquired or served, the size of the
Review Job Descriptions
Whenever you are applying for a position, always go through the job description first. You can find several cues or keywords in the job description that you could incorporate into your resume, which will eventually increase your chances of getting noticed by the recruiter.
As 99% of Fortune 500 companies use the ATS (Applicant Tracking System) software to scan the resumes of the candidates and this helps the recruiter narrow down the list of candidates to the ones that are highly qualified and relevant for the job. To pass the ATS software, you should include the keywords in your resume that were mentioned in the job description. This way you will have the chance to stand out from the crowd.
Be Specific
No one likes to read a long story in a summary, recruiters don’t have that much time to read each word you have written in your resume. They scan the entire document looking for keywords they are interested in. Therefore, be specific about your top achievements and contributions, so that the summary is interesting to read.
Write to a Third Person
Your resume will be read by the recruiter who is a third person, so you need to write the summary in a way that it addresses the third person. You need to highlight how your contribution to their organization could be beneficial to them, and you could back up your stance by referring to your previous accomplishments and expertise.
The Takeaway
To craft a standout professional summary, you could use the following formula that is taken from the book Jobs That Matter: Find a Stable, Fulfilling Career in Public Service by Heather Krasna, a career
[Adjective] [noun] with [number] years of experience in [special skill], a proven ability to [relevant, measurable skills], and a strong background in [relevant contexts in which you have worked] seeks a position as [relevant objective].
This book helps you pinpoint the right public service career for your interests and talents, and then helps you land it with key research, networking, resume, cover letter, and interviewing techniques.
