Writing Summaries for Resumes

Video Transcript

"Hi my name is Pat Goodwin with patgoodwinassociates.com and today we are going to talk about how to write summaries for resumes. The summary is a direct reflection of what you have done in the work itself but also who you are as a person. I have said so many times that people want to know what you've done, when you've done it and where but when they meet you they want to know how you think and the summary is a perfect opportunity to demonstrate that. Of course there are some basic principles that you would do in following a resume with a summary. You would have your name at the top, centered, all caps in bold about ten or eleven point then you would have your contact information. Hopefully you would have an e-mail that is not a strange looking e-mail. It would be a professional looking e-mail. You would have your phone number with a message that is a professional message so when they call you they are going to get a professional message and how soon they can return the call or what additional number they may reach you at. Then you would have a line underneath that part and have the word summary which would be centered in bold. The summary can be compiled of maybe three sentences, four sentences. I would suggest that you start with some action verbs, results drive, highly motivated, efficient, highly skilled, chemical engineer, highly skilled, highly efficient, secondary teacher, highly effective or results drive, production supervisor offering a proven track record in the areas of. So in your chosen field of work you would choose three types of specific areas in your field of work. In the production supervisors what would they say. In the areas of and then you would select three of the most important things that would pertain to production supervisor. If it is another field be thinking about what those three particular areas would be. Key accomplishments include might be the start of the second sentence or key strengths include if you do key accomplishments you might say recognized for having safest production area, three quarters in a row, or you might be saving money or you might have a metric that you could use in the summary. If you choose not to use a metric or an amount of money then you would have key accomplishments or key strengths include. Think about what separates you from someone else in your line of work. So what are the key statements that you would say and then the third sentence could be well recognized for a strong ability to get along or work well with customers, co-workers and all levels of management. If that is not appropriate then you might want to list some of your certifications like six sigma or you could have scrum master. What is it that you want to say that would be right there in the summary that they could grab a hold of that would make them want to read more of your resume. So make sure it is spelled correctly, it is sharp, it is crisp and it demonstrates the value that separates you from someone else and those are some components in sentences that you might use in developing a summary statement."