Replace Your Resume Objective with the Career Summary

The Summary, found at the beginning of your résumé is designed to give a brief professional overview of who you are and what you do. Most Objectives sound very similar and just bore the reader to sleep. A sample objective might go like this: Seeking a challenging, interesting position in X where I can use my skills of X, Y, and Z to contribute to a profitable bottom line.

Hiring managers are busy people. They read through hundreds of job applications every day. You only have a few seconds to get their attention and you can do that with a good professional summary.

A professional summary provides the most important information to a hiring manager right at the top of the page.

You want your professional summary to contain all the most exciting parts of your résumé.

The goal of a summary statement is to demonstrate the job seeker’s unique value through their skills and accomplishments.

Think of your professional summary as a teaser for the rest of your résumé.

The summary statement typically sits right below the job seeker’s contact information and right above the body of the résumé.

When writing a summary statement, think about your “elevator pitch.” For example, if you stepped into an elevator and saw the hiring manager who holds the keys to your dream job, how would you sell yourself during that 30-second elevator ride?

Consider the strengths, experiences, and accomplishments that are unique to you and write each of them down as you brainstorm. Using the job posting, determine what value can you bring to the company.

After compiling information from the job posting and your résumé, you can begin putting together your résumé summary statement. Remember to use active voice and utilize relevant keywords.

When you’re finished, read through your summary statement from the perspective of a tough hiring manager, asking, “why should we hire you?”