9 Functioned Well Resume Summary Examples to Land a Job
To impress recruiters and land an interview, job seekers have to collect all their key skills, experiences, and accomplishments and organize them in a resume that turns heads. A professional resume communicates your biggest strengths and proves why you are a perfect employee. But, what is even more important - it should drive the recruiter’s attention and engage from the first lines.
So, the big question is - how to craft a winning resume that will attract the attention of hiring managers and potential employers? Resume writing isn’t easy. Though there are plenty of strategies and tricks that can help you create a resume that lands jobs, there are also many pitfalls. Our professional resume writers online have done a detailed research and now are ready to have it out.
The main issue is that it only takes about 7 seconds for the recruiter to scan your resume. If you fail to grab his attention in such a short time, your resume will likely get lost among other applications. But, if you start it with a killer resume summary, you will definitely get noticed!
If you want to land a job with ease, we are here to lend a helping hand! From this post, you’ll learn what a resume summary is, where to put it on a resume, and the most effective tips on how to create your own summary examples for resume that work.
Besides, in this article, you’ll also find lots of great summary for resume examples, written by experts with years of experience in the resume writing business, that can make great templates for creating your own summary.
What Is a Resume Summary Section?
In this article, we’ve prepared for you a comprehensive step-by-step guide to creating a perfect summary. But, first, let’s define what it is.
In a nutshell, a resume career summary is a short statement, typically 3-5 sentences long, that summarizes your career and exposes your most impressive skills, experiences, and accomplishments. You can think of it as a concise statement on why a particular company should employ you.
The core purpose of a summary is to highlight your level of qualification and make the recruiter want to read the rest of your resume.
As a rule, a summary is located somewhere at the beginning of a resume and consists of several elements. Further in this guide, we will tell you what to include in your statement.
One more thing you need to know about putting a summary on a resume is that it can be used to your benefit if you’ve got plenty of work experience. If there is not much you can boast of in terms of professional experience, a resume summary will not make any impression on the hiring manager. Moreover, it can even play against you.
Components of a Resume Summary
A strong summary can really help to make your job application stand out. But, to get the best results, you need to know not only how to put a summary on resume but also what to include in it.
As we said earlier, a summary usually consists of 3-5 sentences. A good resume summary should fit the six main components into these sentences:
- Strongest character trait(s)/adjectives (e.g self-motivated, experienced, etc.)
- Your current job title
- Relevant experience
- Name of the company you are interested in
- A statement of how you want to help the employer
- Your key accomplishments
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When do you need to include a resume summary?
As you already know from the definition, a summary is a succinct overview of your career path. Respectively, to get the most benefits of it, you need to have tons of experience relevant to the specific job you want to apply for.
The best summary for a resume examples stresses the most relevant skills, achievements, and experiences an applicant has, therefore showing recruiting firms and employers that he or she is a potentially good candidate for the job. Thus, if you are an experienced specialist whose skills and abilities match the job requirements, you should start your resume with a summary. It will be your best bet.
But, what if you don’t have that much experience? For entry-level specialists, recent grads, as well as those who are changing a career, it is much better to opt for a resume objective rather than try to create a solid summary on resume examples.
Related: CV vs. Resume: What is the difference?
How to Write a Resume Summary?
We’ve already told you about the definition of a resume summary, explained what main components it should include, and specified when it’s best to use this type of introduction on a resume. Now, it’s time to answer the main question and tell you how to write a resume summary step by step.
Here are the main practical steps and tips for creating a resume professional summary:
- Read the job offer attentively. First of all, you should figure out what a particular employer is looking for. Use the job offer as a cheat sheet for writing a resume. After reading it, you will have a clear idea of what to emphasize in your summary and what keywords to include.
- Check out several resume summary examples. It is always a good idea to have a solid sample in front of your eyes.
- Start by describing your strongest traits in a few words. Pick one or a few adjectives that best describe your strengths. For example, you can use such words as “dedicated,” “experienced,” “certified,” “detail-oriented,” “customer-centered,” etc.
- After your traits specify the job title and summarize your experience. For example, “Detail-oriented customer support service manager with 5+ years of experience.”
- Tell how you can help the company attain its goals if they hire you.
- List your biggest professional accomplishments that prove your abilities. And don’t forget to add numbers where possible.
- Limit the entire summary to 3-5 sentences.
Advantages of a Resume Summary Statement
So, you already know that if you have tons of experience to boast of, a summary is a sure way to engage recruiters and make them want to recruit you.
But, why is it so effective?
Using summary statements resume has many perks. Here are some of the biggest advantages:
Get noticed sooner
The main purpose of a resume summary is to put your resume right in front of the hiring managers' eyes. Resumes with strong summaries have higher chances of being noticed. A well-organized summary statement resume section catches the recruiters’ attention as it makes your job application look different. And, if the contents of your summary keep them interested, you will most likely land an interview.
Underline your key skills and experience earlier
Not every recruiter will read your resume till the end. They will quickly review it to decide if you are worth their attention or not. So, if you want to get a competitive advantage and eventually get employed, you should highlight your strongest points right away. A resume skills summary is an easy but effective way to express yourself and prove that you are a perfect match for the job.
Collect keywords
The last advantage may not sound very obvious to many job seekers, but it is still there. As you may know, a good resume should contain relevant keywords and a resume summary is a perfect place to concentrate your keywords.
Why do you need keywords in your summary for resume? According to stats, over 98% of large companies use an ATS system to scan applications. If you didn’t know this yet, an Applicant Tracking System or just ATS is used to detect job-related keywords in resumes and, thus, weed out candidates who don’t match the requirements stated in the job offer.
Respectively, if your resume doesn’t include keywords, it may remain unnoticed, so your chances of landing a job may drop. That’s why every resume should have keywords and this is one more benefit of a professional summary for resume as it provides you with additional space to include them.
What Is the Difference Between Summary and Objective in a Resume?
Generally, there are two ways to start a resume. In some cases, it is a good idea to start with a resume summary, whereas sometimes it makes more sense to write a resume objective instead.
Resume summary vs objective - What is the difference?
Here are the main distinctive features:
- A summary covers an applicant’s professional experience and accomplishments related to the job he or she applies for.
- An objective, on the contrary, focuses on your skills (often transferable).
- A summary often calls out metrics to quantify accomplishments and make a better impression on recruiters.
- An objective doesn’t require adding numbers.
- Objectives state job seekers’ goals, whereas summaries tend to focus on the needs and goals of an employer.
Let’s take a look at a specific example. Let’s say you are writing a customer service resume. Should you choose a customer service resume objective or summary? Based on the differences we’ve discussed, it becomes clear that if you have years of experience in customer service and can showcase some actual skills and achievements, then a summary is a great option. However, if due to any reason you don’t have much experience, then a resume objective should make a better effect (this also applies to career change and applying for entry-level positions).
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Resume objective example
A good objective should show that you possess valuable soft skills, state your goals (for example, to land a specific job, gain more experience, make a career change, etc.), and explain what you are hoping to do for a company if they hire you.
Here is a sample resume objective summary:
Recent college graduate with a BS in Sales. Possess excellent written and verbal communication, analytical, time management, and planning skills. Looking to land a job as a Sales Assistant at [Company Name] to leverage proven communication and skills to enhance the quality of customer service and drive more sales.
Resume summary example
A resume summary, on the contrary, should keep the focus on your professionalism and vast experience.
Later, we will share more examples of summary on resume with you but let’s look at one example here to help you grasp the difference:
Result-oriented and customer-centered Sales Manager with 6+ years of experience delivering excellent customer service, helping clients make more informed decisions, and driving sales. Seeking to leverage proven skills and experience at [Company Name] to help boost the company’s revenue. Received 99% positive feedback from customers and contributed to a 20% increase in sales at [your past place of work].
Resume Summary Statement Examples
Now that you know what a summary is and how to write one, you are probably interested to see some actual examples of resume summary. If yes, we’ve got you covered!
Below you will find many professional summary examples for resume divided into categories by industries and job types:
General Work for Industry Resume Summary
Data Analyst resume summary
Here’s one of the best resume summary samples for business analyst:
Insightful business analyst with 5+ years of experience analyzing and interpreting big data for driving more informed business solutions. Possess outstanding skills in business analytics, statistics, visualizing, and mathematics. Looking to leverage proven expertise at [company name] to reduce operating costs and drive growth.
Human Resources resume summary
Here’s a sample human resources summary for a resume:
Result-oriented HR with 8+ years of experience. At the previous workplace, reduced recruitment time by 25%, increased employee retention by 30%, and increased the overall employee effectiveness by 15%. Eager to leverage strong skills and vast experience at [company name].
Examples of Marketing Resume Summary
Copywriter resume summary
Here is a well-written sample copywriter summary resume:
Creative and quality-driven copywriter with 7+ years of experience delivering plagiarism-free, SEO-optimized copy. Boosted landing page conversion rate by 30% in 10 months. Seeking to leverage gained skills at [company name] to generate more traffic and boost the effectiveness of content marketing.
Social Media Manager resume summary
Check out a resume summary example for a social media manager:
Creative SMM manager with 4+ years of experience. Managed all social media accounts of a large company and increased customer engagement by 50%. Looking to land a position of SMM manager at [company name] to help drive sales and enhance brand awareness.
Marketing Analyst resume summary
Here’s one of the resume summary statements for a marketing analyst:
Marketing analyst with over 9 years of experience and strong analytical, SMM, and marketing skills. At the previous workplace, analyzed the existing marketing strategy, identified trends, and suggested solutions that increased web traffic by 34%. Eager to join [company name] to help enhance marketing strategies.
Examples of IT Jobs Resume Summary
Research Scientist resume summary
Here’s one of our research scientist summary resume examples:
Resourceful and attentive to detail research scientist with 4+ years of experience. Participated in a $1 million research project that was awarded $2 million for the second phase project. Looking to leverage proven experience at [company name] to help with the company’s projects.
Systems Manager resume summary
Here’s one of the best resume summary statement examples for a systems manager job:
Systems manager with an eye for details and 6+ years of experience in delivering solutions that ensure cost efficiency and drive business. Looking to occupy a systems manager position at [company name] to provide high-level systems support.
Systems Analyst resume summary
Here is one of our good resume summary examples for systems analysts:
Skilled systems analyst with 5+ years of experience. Proficient in cost analysis and high-level technical solutions. Possess an excellent understanding of project lifecycle. Saved $2 million in IT costs at the last workplace. Eager to leverage knowledge and skills at [company name] to implement effective cost-saving measures.
How Long Should the Description of a Professional Resume Summary Be?
So, we’ve told you how to write a professional summary for resume and shared lots of great examples. Now, let’s once more recap the most important point - the length.
A professional resume summary has to offer a brief overview of the applicant’s experience. It has to be concise, clear, and straight to the point. Thus, the ideal length is between three to five sentences.
This length should be enough to let you include all the basic elements such as your job title and key traits, relevant experience, key achievements backed up with some numbers, etc. But, at the same time, sticking to this length will help ensure that you don’t go over the limits and don’t get recruiters bored.
Where to put a professional summary in resume? For the best effect, it should be situated at the top of a resume. Typically, it’ll follow the resume header with contact info.
Do you have questions about professional resume summary examples? Did we miss any tips?
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