How to Write a Professional Summary for Your Resume

Stand out from the crowd with an excellent Professional Summary section in your resume.

When applying for a job, you have to separate yourself from the hordes of other job-seekers. A prime place to do this on your resume is the Professional Summary section. This section is your chance to sell a potential employer on your strengths and history by grabbing their attention with your personality. Most employers will just scan over a bulleted list of job titles and descriptions -- they've seen them all a hundred times before. Stand out from the crowd by nailing your professional summary to land an interview.

Things You'll Need

• pen
• paper

Instructions

1. Put the summary toward the top of your resume, underneath your "Objective" statement. Use "Professional Summary" for the header.

2. Highlight the high points of your career thus far, expounding on the qualities and skills you feel you've obtained in your career. While the Objective statement is short, the Professional Summary should be a few sentences.

3. Sell yourself to a potential employer. Rather than saying, "I'm a skilled organizer," provide details. For example, if you have an accounting background, you can say, "I organized my company's portfolios in the new content management system they installed, allowing workers to easily search for information using name, account number or transaction."

4. Weave a narrative about your career trajectory, making note of how quickly you climbed the corporate ladder or how you were given more duties in a short period of time.

5. Play up your personal strengths. If you consider yourself a problem-solver, share an anecdote about you used this skill to solve a problem at your previous company.

Tips & Warnings

• Proofread your summary, and the rest of your resume, before submitting it.

• Write in your own voice, avoiding generalized statements.

• Employers need to hear you unique voice. Don't use generalized statements like " I am a good organizer." This conveys a poor communicator to the employer.

References

• Pongo Resume: Resume Tips: Professional Summary