How to Write a Profile Section in a Resume

Opening a resume with a profile section can be a powerful way to synthesize your accomplishments into a unified portrait of you as a worker and a human being. With the right words, a profile section can actively engage the reader. With the wrong ones, it can sound rote, uninspiring and unrepresentative of the value you could add to a company. Following a few simple tips can help turn a profile into the star feature of your resume.

Instructions

1. List your accomplishments, skills and character traits on scratch paper. The first step is to quantify what you have to offer. Although your already existing resume may partially accomplish this, the profile should be a more concrete summation of your work. Instead, think expansively, incorporating everything you feel about yourself and your skills, even if they are not featured prominently in your work history.

2. Filter your traits through your accomplishments. This is the synthesis that can make a profile section such a powerful addition to your resume. Although your work history may indicate that you worked at a company and accomplished certain tasks, a profile can be the place to imply more universal truths concerning yourself. Find a skill listed on your paper, then see how many accomplishments you can attach to that skill. Do you have excellent analytic skills? Your profile is the time to attach that to your work. If done right, the qualities outlined in your profile will provide the perspective lens through which the reader will interpret your work history.

3. Move marketable skills in to your profile. Too often specific skills are relegated to the tail-end of a resume. Perhaps you have a long list of skills that appear at your resume's bottom under a vague catch-all label. Well, the profile section is a perfect opportunity to float these traits to the top. List systems, languages, software experience and other one-word entries immediately under your profile. This will put your buzzword skills in the reader's mind as he moves on to education and work history, rather than seeming like an afterthought.

4. Use active verbs that highlight successes rather than standard achievements. A success is something that goes beyond job description. If the qualities in your profile sound like something that would be expected at any job, then you are highlighting the wrong traits. Although you may have to describe the job later in your resume, the profile is a place for your greatest successes in your field.

5. Tie your past accomplishments to future goals and motivations. End your profile on a sentence that expands your identity into the future. This is different from stating your future goals. It is instead an affirmation that the skills outlined in your profile will continue to be your guiding principles. "Focused on..." can narrow your ambitions to a sharp edge by insisting upon the continued relevance of your skill set.

6. Crunch your profile into a few powerhouse sentences. The point of a profile is to keep an employer reading your resume, not to impart everything. Keep your profile to five sentences or fewer, pared down to your brightest accomplishments and strongest skills.