Every well-structured resume usually contains the following components: summary, work experience, education, and accomplishments. Obviously, there may be more but these are basic things people are to have in their resume. At Prime-Resume we decided to provide some helpful tips on how job seekers can organize each section of a resume that it would reflect your professional skills in a manner that would be attractive for employers. About five years ago most people would start their resume from the objective statement where they would say what kind of job they want. But today people tend to have a summary rather than objective at the beginning of a resume or CV. Today we would like to start our series by providing recommendations on how to write this section.
Resume Summary
The nature of summary is different from an objective as it is meant to convey a different kind of information to employers. If objectives are mostly used for explaining the candidate's career aspirations, summaries are to provide an overview of your past experiences that can help employers understand why you are a good fit. So the point of this section in a way is to offer a value proposition to the employer. This section should be customized to the company you are applying to so you may want to focus on what your employer actually needs (what kind of skills, qualifications, experience the company is looking for to fill in the opening?). This part is also an introductory section so that is where hiring managers should get to know who you are also. When you are writing a summary section you need to be able to catch the attention of hiring authorities. You can achieve that by ensuring that the content of this part of your resume clearly communicates your selling points even if one quickly scans through this section.
This easy-to-scan format is important because HRs don't spend much time on reviewing resumes which means that your resume has a few seconds to impress a reader. Before writing your summary you have to identify your key selling points (they may be different for different jobs you apply). Emphasize your career highlights so that it two words one cay say what is your career is all about. The best way to organize this section is to list your highlights in the form of bullet statements. We recommend not listing more than 4-6 statements. It is important that your summary would contain the number of years of experience in the industry. You should also mention one or two relevant accomplishments to help the employer see that you are capable of achieving results. Also, you can include relevant skills and expertise you possess in order to make this section a good overview of things you can do. Such an approach will ensure that the beginning of your resume will likely to generate interest among employers. And that is exactly what you want this section to do.
