How to Start Your Resume with a Professional Summary

The top third of your resume is the most valuable real estate on the document. Recruiters and hiring managers tend to spend most of their time here; it’s critical to use this space wisely.

Knowing that, I beg of you, please, never start your resume like this:

Objective: To find a position where I can build on my current skills, expand my industry knowledge, and grow my career within the company.

This sentence contains nothing—I repeat, nothing—of value to your potential employer. Your reader gains no information about who you are, where you’ve come from, or what you can do for them as a valuable employee.

Objective statements are out, and professional summaries are in!

Instead, start your modern resume with a professional summary that explains how your previous work experience has prepared you for success in your target role. An impactful professional summary is a short paragraph with only 4–6 lines and is not the place to list past job duties or achievements; the focus should be on big-picture, relevant skills, qualifications, and traits.

Here are some tips to developing an effective professional summary for your resume:

• Be descriptive. Use colourful language, but don’t go overboard. Make sure every statement is interesting, accurate, and appropriate while watching out for repetitive words.

• Order sentences according to relevance. Start with the most relevant and interesting information to draw your reader into the rest of your document.

• Create context for the rest of the information on your resume. Broadly describe your qualifications and past successes without getting into specific job duties or responsibilities.

• Be concise. Don’t give everything away in the opening paragraph. The purpose of the professional summary is to get your reader to keep reading. Focus on the big picture description so that they have to look further for more specific details.

• Use implied first person. Resumes have unique grammar “rules.” Imagine each sentence starting with “I am a…” or “I possess…” but remove the personal pronouns.

Expert tip: follow your professional summary up with a section covering core competencies or areas of expertise. You will have given your potential employer the bulk of the information they need to know within the top third of your page.

Click here to contact me and find out how I can make the most of the top third of your resume with a powerful professional summary.