The high art of resume summaries

Sure, you can have a fantastic career history in your resume, which brings the house down but let me tell you a secret.

What recruiters read first is the Summary. If you’re at the top of you professional game, why not call it an Executive Summary. I do.

You might pay $300 to get your resume written or rewritten but the hard work, the stuff that a professional writer has to nut out is the summary. He or she has to incorporate all of your major skills and experience in to a couple of sentences, no more than 80 or 90 words long.

Think that’s easy? Have a crack at it yourself.

It’s not a conclusion. It’s a precis. A very different animal.

Because every person is different and every resume is different, summaries can’t be copied and pasted. They have to be original – which is beyond the capabilities of around 80 per cent of resume writers in Australia.

Here’s a good one:

“A future-focused senior manager with 20 years global experience in the utilities sector, including 13 years at SA Power Networks. Builds motivated teams and demonstrates world’s best practice in financial, project and risk management, while driving revenue growth. An organisational change leader who uses entrepreneurialism to problem-solve while ensuring win-win outcomes for clients.”

Here’s another:

“Major staff leadership, project and asset management wins in industrial, government and NGO sectors. Business strategist with excellent communication skills and problem solving capabilities. Recognised change driver revolutionising productivity through a dedicated focus on work planning and quality improvement.”

Sure, they have some things in common, apart from being rich in key words, but they arise naturally out of the resume. They are a product of demonstrated expertise.

That’s why I call writing resume summaries a ‘high art’.

Put your best foot forward

Malcolm builds expert resumes, cover letters and LinkedIn profiles, which unleash an unbeatable business case to promote you as a ‘must have’ asset to an employer.