How to Write a Powerful Professional Summary for Your Resume

Generalities rarely produce impactful results when writing your resume. Writing laser-focused statements that speak your personal brand and the value you create for the organization will generate much higher resume response rates. So in order to assist you in stepping away from the generalities and vague, “fluffy” statements that tend to find their way into so many resumes, here are some tips on how to write a powerful career summary for your resume.

Metric-Focused Summary

The best career summaries are just that—summaries. They condense years of experience into 3-5 meaningful and metric-loaded sentences that speak to your brand, experience, and value. Think about your most notable career achievements (big wins with numbers to substantiate them) and how they relate to the position you’re applying to—then write a statement that highlights includes them. Don't be afraid to use numbers in your career summary it draws in the reader's attention.

Be Focused

Powerful career summaries are targeted to the exact position. Include the job title to the position you’re applying for within the first sentence of your career summary. Additionally, follow that introductory sentence with 2-3 sentences that support how you create measurable value. Put some thought into what the company’s needs are for that specific position, and then include in your summary how you can meet them.

Keyword Optimize Your Summary

Use the most related keywords to show your principal areas of expertise and how well they match the requirements of the position. Create variety in your sentence structure; this will keep the reader’s attention so they'll continue reading the resume. Using keywords in your career summary will also help position you as a subject matter expert and substantiate how you would be an asset.

Creating a captivating professional summary is important to the overall success of your resume and its response rate. If you want the hiring manager to read the rest of the resume, you need to invest a significant amount of time and attention in this summary—especially since the hiring manager will spend only about 6-10 seconds with their initial resume scan. Typically, the professional summary receives the bulk of the initial scan—and can make or break the hiring manager’s decision to read the remainder of the resume.

Feeling a bit overwhelmed with the task of creating an interview-worthy resume? Connect with me on LinkedIn to find out how I can you increase your interview requests.