In the olden days, job seekers would put an objective at the top of their resumes. Now, just about everyone knows those statements are obsolete. They primarily described what the applicant wanted and sounded self-serving, which could turn off an employer.
But, when you’re writing your resume, you need to start it somehow. To cultivate a better connection with the reader, you’ll want to begin with a section summarizing exactly what you do and why it will benefit the company to hire you. Introducing yourself before rushing into your professional experience will hook the hiring manager into reading more.
A professional summary statement conveys what you bring to the table. It condenses your career experience, highlights your desirable qualities, and showcases your top accomplishments, creating sentences that align with the employer’s needs and brand.
Six seconds. That is how long hiring managers take to decide whether to continue reading a resume. The summary statement has to compel them to keep going. It’s critical that the summary statement be focused, well-written, and powerful. The importance of this seems obvious, but I see people who have skipped the summary statement. And that might be why they haven’t gotten hired yet!
In this series, I’ll show you how to write a solid summary statement that will make the best first impression on an employer.
Note: This post is the first in my “How To Write a Solid Summary Statement” series, written to help you compose a well-branded resume summary. I’ll share three steps for writing one and the five parts to include. Following these tips will inspire the hiring manager to keep reading your document and improve your chances of getting an interview.
If you’d like to have all the information in one place, purchase my e-book “How To Write a Solid Summary Statement for Your Resume.” (Coming soon.)
Where do you start?
Writers often say that it’s harder to write a few meaningful words rather than many. That’s true for summary statements because they are usually only three to six lines. (Although sometimes they can be longer summary sections comprising a large chunk of the first page of a resume. I’ll give an example of that later.)
It can be hard to know what to emphasize in such a small space, especially if you’ve had many impressive achievements or years in the workplace. On the flip side, it can be challenging to think of what to say if you’re a young person without much work experience. Either way, the professional summary can be intimidating.
Three steps to writing a professional summary will help! In this e-book, I’ll go through each step in detail. I’ll explain the first step, why you want to find a job description before writing the summary. Then, I’ll outline the second step, how to explore your career successes. In the third step, I’ll teach you about the five parts of the summary section and how to write each one.
Step 1: Find a job description.
The first step isn’t even about writing. It’s finding a job description to focus your resume on. You need to know your audience, because the summary statement isn’t just about you, like the old objective statements were. Writing your summary with a job opening in mind makes your statement more targeted.
LinkedIn, Indeed, and Google are all good sources for finding job listings. Other job search favorites are Glassdoor, ZipRecruiter, and USAJobs (for federal employment in the United States). Your local job center’s website can also be a good resource.
If you can’t find a current job opening in your area, you can use a job that’s open in a city similar to yours. Then, your resume will be mostly ready when a position is posted near you. When you do see one to apply for, you’ll just need to tailor your statement to the new opening.
Another job search resource is the website Onet Online. There, you’ll be able to search for your job title and find a list of responsibilities and attributes needed for that work. Although not as specific as a job description, the site should give you enough information to write your summary statement.
Once you have a job description, you’ll want to analyze it for:
Keywords: Note the keywords an employer uses to describe the job and the skills needed. If the job title is Sales Associate, you’ll want to use that term on your resume instead of or in addition to Sales Representative. The description should include a list of responsibilities. Make sure each of those terms is in your resume, and the most important ones should be in your summary.
Corporate culture: Employers often include statements describing their company’s work environment. For example, they might say it’s a fast-paced yet fun environment. Use that language in your summary to show you’ll be a good fit. If the description includes information about the company’s mission or values, such as diversity, mention your experience supporting that mindset.
By putting parts of the job description into a word cloud website, such as wordclouds.com, you can get a visual to help you assess the skills and attributes needed for the job. See this example I created for a customer service position:
The biggest words in the word cloud, such as customer, service, sales, and people, were mentioned most often in the job description and are likely important to the employer. These may be what we call keywords.
Keywords or phrases are used in the job description to define the skills, characteristics, or values needed for the job. Prioritize some of these terms or concepts in alignment with them in your summary statement to show that you are a good fit for the company and that your expertise matches the requirements for the position.
Medium-sized words such as fun, fast, and enthusiastic are significant terms to pay attention to for your summary. Smaller words may hold less weight but still be important, such as rapport, accuracy, and communication. Some words may have been important in writing the job description but are probably not helpful information for your resume. Take one, can, and sound, for example.
Use your best judgment in assessing what words or ideas are impactful enough to write into your resume. Your summary has limited space. Slate others for use elsewhere in your resume.
Another way to analyze a job description is to use an artificial intelligence large language model, like Chat GPT. Input the job description with a prompt such as, “You are a job seeker. Assess this job description for writing your resume. Prioritize a list of the most important characteristics needed for the job. List the top five job duties or responsibilities.” Play around with the prompts you use to get helpful information back from the software.
Once you understand the most significant keywords and concepts from the job description, you’ll better understand what to write about in your summary. The statement is brief, and you won’t be able to write about everything from the job description. But keep a list of keywords and essential concepts handy for the professional experience section.
Using words that the employer lists in the job description may help you score higher in the applicant tracking system, or ATS, screening. However, this topic is debated.
Although some recruiters advise that incorporating an employer’s language shows you understand what is needed for the job, others state that matching words is overrated and that the ATS is merely a way to store resumes.
When a human finally does read your resume, the important thing is that it contains substantial achievements directly relating to their stated needs. Don’t obsess over the keywords so much that you forget to provide proof of your accomplishments.
Now that you fully understand what the employer is looking for, it’s time to analyze how your experience measures up.
Step 2: Explore your career successes.
Before writing in your resume document, take the time to assess your accomplishments thoroughly. The STAR technique is a simple yet powerful formula for devising the best content for your resume.
Briefly, using this method will give you statements that describe the challenge you faced, the action you took to resolve it — with specific metrics — and the result you got. A summary statement written with achievements brainstormed this way can pack powerful information into a small space.
The STAR acronym stands for:
Situation: Set the stage by describing the context of the challenge or opportunity. What was the scenario, and why was it significant? Give details and numbers to illustrate your example.
Task: Outline your role and responsibilities in this situation. What tasks were assigned to you? What challenges or goals were you expected to address? Again, list the metrics involved in the task at hand.
Action: Describe the steps you took to tackle the situation. What specific actions did you take? What was your approach to the problem? What numbers were involved?
Result: Share the outcomes of your actions. What were the quantifiable results? How did your efforts contribute to the successful resolution of the situation?
For this exercise, start by brainstorming your top 10 successes in the workplace in a new document. Once you have those instances outlined, fill in the details of the challenges you faced, the actions you took, the metrics involved (estimate if you can’t remember), and the outcome.
Then, see which STAR narratives rise to the top and emphasize them in your summary. The rest of the achievements, skills, and attributes you write about can be used for the bullet points in the body of your resume.
See my post “Create an All-STAR Resume in 2024” for more detailed instructions on writing bullet points using this method.
Now that you know why it’s essential to find a job description before writing the summary (Step #1) and how to explore your career successes (Step #2), you’re ready to get writing. In Step #3: Write the sections of your resume summary, you’ll learn about the five components of a resume summary and how to write each one.
By the end of the e-book, you’ll be able to create a solid summary statement, make the best first impression on an employer, and win the interview.
Want to have all six posts on this topic in one convenient e-book? Download “How To Write a Solid Summary Statement for Your Resume.” (Coming soon.)
Need personal assistance with your resume or job search? Book a complimentary consultation today and grow your career with Kristin.
Kristin S. Johnson, CJSS, CCMC, COPNS, CG3C, CBBSC
Job Search Coach and Resume Writer
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