Your resume summary (also known as a resume profile) should concisely summarize your previous work experience and level of education, and explain why you'd be a perfect fit for the job. Many recruiters won't even read the rest of your resume if the summary isn't interesting enough or doesn't include specific keywords from the job requirements. So, make no mistake: just because the summary is short, it doesn't mean you can wing it. Follow this guide to make sure you make the most of it!
Why Should You Write a Resume Summary?
A resume summary (or resume profile) is intended to highlight the most important (and most relevant) pieces of information about your previous work experience. In just a few lines, a resume summary gives you the chance to highlight your most relevant skills, qualifications, achievements, and career goals before anyone dives into the details of your work history. This short section can make the difference between your application being skimmed over or standing out, as it immediately shows why you're a strong match for the role. Thus, a well crafted resume summary increases your chances of being invited to a job interview.
In Which Industries and Positions Is It Common?
Resume summaries are particularly common in competitive fields where recruiters receive a high volume of applications such as marketing, finance, IT, and healthcare. They are also widely used for senior positions, leadership roles, or jobs that require a clear set of specialized skills. At the same time, even in customer-facing industries like hospitality or retail, a short and well-crafted summary can quickly demonstrate personality, professionalism, and suitability for the role.
What to Put in a Professional Summary for a Resume?
A resume summary highlights your most relevant skills, experience, and achievements. It's usually 3–5 sentences and reads like a short description of your professional self, like this:
"Accomplished copywriter with over 10 years of experience producing and editing content for newspapers and magazines, including the New York Times. Extensive background in thorough journalistic research, leading to scoops such as the John Doe scandal."
As you can see, you can include many things in your resume summary, such as mentioning companies you have worked for as well as your most significant professional accomplishments. If you have concrete numbers to support the positive impact you made at your previous place of work, all the better:
"IT specialist with extensive experience managing IT departments. As an AI expert, my efforts to automate customer service at The Company Co. have resulted in a 70 % decrease in customer service response times and a 43 % increase in customer satisfaction."
Before you start thinking of ways to best describe your professional self, take a couple of minutes to look at your resume from a recruiter’s perspective. As a recruiter, you probably have a few key pieces of information you're looking for. For example, you might be trying to hire a sales representative for a customer-facing position, so you're looking for someone with social skills; someone who can empathize with people and figure out what they want and how to sell it to them. In that case, neither of these example summaries really fits the bill, do they?
Create Unique Summaries for Each Job Application
That's why you should always create a unique summary tailored to each job you're applying for, instead of coming up with a description of yourself and copying and pasting it into all of your job applications.
Take a close look at the job listing and identify key phrases that the job description repeatedly emphasizes or focuses on. These phrases give you a good idea of what a recruiter is looking for in your summary. You can also draw on your general knowledge of what the job entails. For example, an "Online Community Manager" will likely need social skills, be able to articulate themselves in writing, and make even-handed judgments (such as when to ban community members for infringing the community rules). Here's how the IT specialist from the previous example might choose to summarize their job experience when applying for a particular job:
"IT specialist with extensive experience leading IT teams, including reducing internal friction and making difficult human resources decisions when necessary."
Your resume summary should also be tailored to the type of company you're applying to. If you're applying for a job at a multi-national finance institution, you'll be expected to present yourself as a consummate professional, so your recruiter will expect you to choose your words wisely. However, if you're applying for a job with a local building company, as a bartender in a local bar, or any of the many small and medium-sized companies where the boss knows every employee by name, you might score more points with a less formal personal summary, like this:
"With 8 years of bartending experience at the Neon Moon Club and Morty's Saloon in Boston, MA, I've encountered every type of patron, and I've always made sure they all leave in high spirits."
Make sure, though, that your prospective employer actually appreciates a tongue-in-cheek resume summary like this. No employer likes to hire an employee who comes off as unprofessional, after all. Please visit the company’s website to see how they present themselves. Job fairs are also excellent ways of gauging where an employer draws the line between a friendly attitude and unprofessionalism. If you're looking for a job at a local bar, restaurant, or other customer-facing establishment, consider visiting the place and speaking with the employees to get a sense of the atmosphere.
Keep It Short and Succinct
Your resume summary statement / resume profile is intended to provide a concise overview of what you bring to the table and why you'd be a perfect fit for the job. Keep it concise and avoid dragging it on for too long. Focus on two or three key points you want to make about yourself and aim to keep the summary between two and three sentences, similar to an "elevator pitch". After you've written your summary, look at it with a critical eye: What's valuable information, and what could you easily cut?
Stay Truthful and Check for Errors
Naturally, avoid including information in your resume profile that the rest of your resume doesn't support, such as mentioning former employers that aren't listed in your work history section. Also, be sure to check your summary for typos and grammatical errors.
Use Confident Language
Always remember: In a resume, you don't "might", "could", or "would like to". You do! Nowhere is this more important than in your resume summary, as recruiters like to see you confidently present yourself, your abilities and previous achievements. This is crucial.
Have a Friend or Family Member Check Your Resume Profile
As with every part of your job application portfolio, it's an excellent idea to get an outside perspective on how you present yourself. Ask friends and family to review your summary with a critical eye. Does it grab their attention? Does it fit the job description? Or does it feel a bit generic? These are all questions for which an outside perspective can be invaluable in answering.
What Do I Put in My Resume Summary If I Don’t Have Any (Relevant) Work Experience?
If you're looking for your first real job post-graduation or if you're changing careers from a completely different field, you have to write a resume with no relevant work experience. In this situation, you need a resume objective, not a summary. You can find out how to write one in our resume objective guide.
Your Personal Summary for Your Resume
Your summary is a brief overview of your professional self, designed to demonstrate to the recruiter that you are a perfect fit for the job. Take your time crafting the perfect opening statement for your resume. You can catch the attention of your recruiter in just a few sentences and increase your chances of standing out among the many applications they review. So, be sure to craft a resume summary that's concise, clear, and to the point to ensure you succeed!