Professional Summaries Archives - Palladian Career Resources

The Importance of an Attention-Grabbing Resume Introduction and Professional Summary

You have seconds to grab the attention of the hiring manager with your resume. That’s why the introduction, also called your professional summary, is so critical. Ask any hiring manager: if your first few lines aren’t relevant and impressive, your resume will end up in the discard pile.

The area at the top is the most valuable real estate on your resume. Treat it with respect. That’s where the recruiter or manager looks first and you need to grab their attention.

Too often job hunters come up with a quick write-up they figure is good enough as an introduction and professional summary, something that just gets tacked on to the resume. What a waste! This section is actually the make-or-break lead-in that decides if you even get noticed. You might be competing against dozens or even hundreds of applicants. “Good enough” doesn’t cut it. You need to be at the top of the candidate pool to move on in the process.

What Is a Resume Introduction and Professional Summary?

Not sure what a professional summary is? It’s much like an elevator speech, that short sales pitch you give when you’re networking. The difference is that your introduction and summary are in written form.

The “elevator speech” got its name because it lasts just a minute or two – the time to ride a few floors in an office building. The idea is that you can network anywhere, even in an elevator. If you meet a hiring manager going from the office to the lobby, you should be prepared in that short time to tell him what makes you stand out professionally. You want to convey enough to get him interested.

Just like your elevator speech, your summary gets you noticed. That’s why it is so critical to spend ample time on it. Though short, it isn’t simple to create. It takes writing and rewriting to condense your introduction. It must be short enough for the hiring manager to quickly scan it, but long enough to showcase what makes you the ideal candidate.

Customize Your Introduction

Do it once and use it everywhere? Absolutely not! It would be nice, but the fact is that each summary should be tailored for the specific job and company where you are applying. This isn’t one-size-fits-all.

You need to customize it to the needs of the job description and present yourself as the type of candidate the company likes to hire. It needs to highlight your skills, and at the same time address the job requirements that the employer wants to meet. All of this must be done succinctly and in an interesting fashion.

What the Introduction Needs to Do

When you go for an interview, often the first question from the hiring manager is “Tell me a little about yourself.” This is your chance to make a good impression and make him want to know more about you.

That’s what your introduction and professional summary do. It grabs the attention of the employer quickly. If done right, it can lead to a real interview.

A well-written summary accomplishes five things:

Gets you noticed right away
Focuses on highlights in your career, your strengths, and your experience
Has an easy format to scan. The person reading your resume probably has a stack of them in front of him. Make it easy for him to see your selling points at a glance.
Gives the manager a quick but effective list of why the company should hire you. Indicates the position you want or career path you are on.

The Parts of an Effective Introduction

Place your summary and introduction below your contact information, right at the top of your resume. The most effective ones contain a descriptive title and several lines of copy about your skills and goals.

Attention spans are short, especially when the manager has 50 resumes to go through. Make it as easy as possible for her to take in the important information about your skills. That means keep it short and easy to scan.

Descriptive title.

What is your work identity? That’s what makes up the title. You don’t need to use your job title. In fact, the job you want may be a more effective short headline. It immediately conveys that you match the job they are trying to fill.

Are you applying for a social media job? Social Media Assistant II just doesn’t cut it. Instead, try Social Media Research Expert and Branding Strategist.

Are you a web developer looking for a more challenging position? Try Website Concept and Conversion Expert.

The idea isn’t to inflate your skills, but it is to show them off. Just like a headline draws you into the story, your title engages the interest of the hiring manager enough to get him to read further.

Text.

The two things to remember for the text are: (1) keep it short and (2) format it for easy reading. The key elements are your experience,

The key elements you need to communicate are your experience, strengths, and accomplishments.

Figure on just three or four lines of content for your summary. You might be wondering how you can possibly convey your skills in such a short amount of text. It takes writing and rewriting, but short is the only way to go.

If it is longer, you are shooting yourself in the foot. The reader will only read a few lines and then move on to another section of your resume (most likely to the work experience section). You have a very short opportunity to get across the message you want.

Always write with the hiring manager in mind. Hiring Managers have so many resumes to go through, they will love the fact that your introduction is short and to the point. According to studies done by employment experts, most managers take seconds to make a decision, whether to read further and take the next step in the hiring process or to reject the candidate.

Make it simple for the manager’s eye to catch your top selling points. Readers automatically skip big blocks of copy. Break it up with space and by using bullet points, if appropriate. These make it easy to scan the essential strengths you want to convey and to present your career goal.

How to Write Your Introduction and Summary

Take time to think about the most important strengths you want the hiring manager to know about you. What are three or four strengths that make you stand out in your career? How do your accomplishments highlight these strengths? What are specific types of experience you have in these areas?

Here are three examples of strengths include:

Web design and development abilities that convert visitors to buyers
Strong customer service skills that solve problems and keep customers happy
Competence in managing large projects that brings projects in time and on budget

Then look at what you have particularly enjoyed in your prior jobs. Emphasize skills in those areas. It makes no sense to focus on expertise with tasks you don’t like doing.

Finally, take a good look at the requirements listed for the job. Then match your strengths with these requirements. What are specific types of job experience you have that give you credibility and make you a good match? This quickly shows the manager how you would fit into the company and help them reach their goals.

It All Starts with an Effective Introduction

If your introduction doesn’t grab the attention of the hiring manager, your resume will get deleted. Use this small but critical space wisely by customizing it to the needs of each job. Keep it short and easy to scan.

Nothing else is as critical as your introduction and summary. Invest the time to make it interesting, succinct and effective.

Now, check out: How to Fix Your Resume Objective: 13 Easy Steps

How to Fix Your Resume Objective: 13 Easy Steps

We’re going to fix your resume objective.

The first line of your resume is critical. If you don’t make a good first impression, you won’t get a second chance.

When a hiring manager reads your resume for the first time, often they will be will be screening a lot of resumes. Your resume will be just one more that needs to be read.

Hiring managers spend very little time on each resume. Many only get a fifteen to thirty second look. This means the first line of your resume is critical. It needs to sell your potential.

We’re going to walk through some easy steps to fix your resume intro. First we need an example to illustrate each step. We’ll use an example that is typical.

Objective: Seeking a challenging position with a highly successful company offering exceptional career growth opportunities where I can utilize my skills and abilities.

Your objective is probably better than this one. This objective doesn’t say anything other than the applicant wants a job. Objectives like this are fairly common, and it will provide a good starting point.

In just a few minutes, you can transform your resume into a much more effective sales pitch.

We don’t like to think of our resume as a sales pitch, but it is. It’s tough to consider how to sell yourself, but if you want to land more interviews and job offers, you need to sell. So, let’s get down to business and create a resume introduction that will work for you!

1. Specify the Position You Want

Your objective needs to be specific. Don’t tell a hiring manager you want a job. Tell them what job you want. Our original objective is really terrible, and one of the biggest reasons is that it doesn’t have a true objective.

We can easily fix this. For this article, we’re going to use a Senior Accountant role in a publicly traded company as the goal of this job seeker.

Our new objective is:

Objective: Seeking a challenging position as a Senior Accountant with a highly successful company offering exceptional career growth opportunities where I can utilize my skills and abilities.

2. Customize Your Resume Intro

When you apply for a job, your resume is a sales pitch designed to persuade the hiring manager to interview you (and ultimately hire you). You need to customize your resume to the job to maximize the effectiveness of your sales pitch.

If you were talking with an architect about building your dream home, a nice 5 br home with skylights, a three car garage and a pool. Then, he shows you his design. It’s the same design he’s shown every prospect – a cookie cutter 3 br home that doesn’t have any of the feature you want, and looks nothing like your dream home. What would you think?

Well, the hiring manager looking for a software developer who is an expert with Ruby on Rails isn’t going to be interested if you don’t demonstrate significant development experience with Ruby on Rails. A generic, one-size-fits-all resume isn’t going to be very effective.

Read the job description very closely. Research the company. Network with people who can tell you what the hiring manager wants in a candidate. The more you can learn about the needs of the hiring manager, the better. You may not be able to find someone who knows the hiring manager, but you need to learn as much as you. After you do this, you will know what to highlight in your resume’s intro section.

We’ve done our research, and the key skills for this example are corporate accounting experience, financial reporting, financial analysis, and experience with mergers and acquisitions.

3. Add Critical Skills

Your Resume intro section should have several skills listed. Typically, three to five featured skills is a good number. You may list some associated secondary skills, but the primary lists of skills should be short. You want to focus on what the hiring manager wants.

Our new objective now looks like this:

Objective: Seeking a challenging position as a Senior Accountant with a highly successful company offering exceptional career growth opportunities where I can utilize my financial analysis, corporate accounting, financial reporting and M&A experience.

4. Add a statement of skill level

When you add skills, it is helpful to show your skill level. There are different ways to do this. You can list a qualifier, such as expert, experienced, proficient or familiar to the skill. You can also add years of experience working with the skill. Better than these qualifiers is to provide an accomplishment demonstrating successful use of the skill, but we’ll get to adding accomplishments in a minute. For now, let’s just add some qualifiers.

New Objective Statement:

Objective: Seeking a challenging position as a Senior Accountant with a highly successful company offering exceptional career growth opportunities. Highly experienced with financial analysis and corporate accounting. Responsible for assisting in the preparation and filing of 10K’s and 10Q’s for the last four years, including M&A activity during three of those years.

5. What’s In It For Them (WIIFT)

Your objective isn’t about what you want. It’s about selling your potential value to an employer. Get rid of everything that relates to something you want.

In our example, a lot of it is focused on what the applicant wants. These elements are in bold:

Objective: Seeking a challenging position as a Senior Accountant with a highly successful company offering exceptional career growth opportunities. Highly experienced with financial analysis and corporate accounting. Responsible for assisting in the preparation and filing of 10K’s and 10Q’s for the last four years, including M&A activity during three of those years.

Let’s just get rid of those. They do nothing to help sell your value.

New Objective:

Objective: Senior Accountant highly experienced with financial analysis and corporate accounting. Responsible for assisting in the preparation and filing of 10K’s and 10Q’s for the last four years, including M&A activity during three of those years.

6. Get rid of the word “Objective”

Our intro section is looking less and less like an objective, and more like a professional summary / career summary. It’s time to lose the “Objective.”

I’m going to call our example intro a Professional Summary going forward, since it isn’t an objective any more.

New Professional Summary:

Senior Accountant highly experienced with financial analysis and corporate accounting. Responsible for assisting in the preparation and filing of 10K’s and 10Q’s for the last four years, including M&A activity during three of those years.

7. Add some branding

Our new intro section is still fairly pathetic. It is a weak statement of skills. The improvement over the original is easy to see, but we still have a long way to go. We need something to create a brand. We’re trying to get this candidate hired, so we need to create a brand that is attractive to a hiring manager.

A good way to start to create a brand is to add a title to the section. We just dropped “Objective.” We can add a generic title like “Professional Summary” or “Career Summary.” These would be ok.

Professional Summary

Senior Accountant highly experienced with financial analysis and corporate accounting. Responsible for assisting in the preparation and filing of 10K’s and 10Q’s for the last four years, including M&A activity during three of those years.

The branding we added is purely an image of professionalism. The intro looks better with a title and calling it a professional summary sounds good. Although beneficial, this probably the weakest improvement we could make to the branding and still call it an improvement.

Instead of a generic title, let’s add something conveys a brand directly related to the role. We could highlight a job title or key skill. For example, we could title this Senior Accountant, Financial Analyst, M&A Accountant, or Financial Reporting Analyst.

The choice of titles should be focused on the brand that you want to convey. It is important that the brand is backed up by your experience. Don’t put M&A Accountant if you have never worked on a merger or acquisition. All it will do is make the hiring manager think you were trying to mislead them. Integrity is really important and you don’t want to do anything that would comprise the hiring manager’s image of your honesty.

For this example, we’ll go with Senior Accountant. This is a very common job title and would be well understood throughout the accounting field. Since we are highlighting Senior Accounting as a title for the resume, it is too repetitive to put keep at the start of the first line. We could put something else there like Financial Analyst, but for now, we’ll just drop Senior Accountant after in the first line.

New Professional Summary:

Senior Accountant

Highly experienced with financial analysis and corporate accounting. Responsible for assisting in the preparation and filing of 10K’s and 10Q’s for the last four years, including M&A activity during three of those years.

Note: It may be tempting to take the title of the job posting and use that as your branding title. That can work if the job title is generic, but will not work if the job title is highly unusual and uses company jargon. For example, if you are from the automotive industry and are applying for an accounting position in an HVAC manufacture. The job title could be something like “Chiller division revenue recognition accountant III.” Trying to brand yourself with this won’t work. It would be clear that your copied this from the job posting. Use a more general title. You might tailor it to Revenue Recognition Accountant, but a more general Accountant or Senior Accountant is probably better.

8. Add more impactful language

Phrases like “responsible for” are weak. We can make this stronger by using action verbs where ever possible. In general, avoid using “responsible for” anywhere in your resume. You will need to use this some places, but minimize those.

Being responsible for something doesn’t say anything. The Captain of the Titanic was responsible for commanding the ship, but that didn’t turn out so well. You want to demonstrate success and accomplishment, and all “responsible for” tells a hiring manager is what you were supposed to do – not what you actually did.

New Professional Summary:

Senior Accountant

Highly experienced financial analyst and corporate accountant with a track record of accomplishment. Prepared sections of 10K’s and 10Q’s for the last four years, including significant contributions to M&A reporting during three of those years.

9. Add Accomplishments

Now, it’s time to show your value. Stating that you are good at something is ok, but if you want to make a strong impact, you need to show your accomplishments. Below are a few examples of accomplishments that we could add for our hypothetical candidate.

Developed macros to automate routine financial analysis tasks, allowing a reduction in the month end close cycle by one day.

Performed a detailed financial review of key expense accounts in a recently acquired company, identifying cost savings opportunities that saved $350,000 in the first full year.

Managed the month end close process in the Controller’s absence.

These highlight specific accomplishments that will hopefully relate to the job the candidate is applying for. If they don’t apply, then we should find something else. Remember, every step in this process, we are trying to sell the candidate’s potential value.

New Professional Summary:

Senior Accountant

Highly experienced financial analyst and corporate accountant with a track record of accomplishment. Prepared sections of 10K’s and 10Q’s for the last four years, including significant contributions to M&A reporting during three of those years. Developed macros to automate routine financial analysis tasks, allowing a reduction in the month end close cycle by one day. Performed a detailed financial review of key expense accounts in a recently acquired company, identifying cost savings opportunities that saved $350,000 in the first full year. Managed the month end close process in the Controller’s absence.

10. Break up paragraphs and bullet accomplishments

The content of our intro is getting better, but the format is really bad. People hate reading big paragraphs. If they see a large block of text, they are likely to read the first line and skip to the next section. If the hiring manager did that with our intro, the accomplishments would be skipped.

There is no point to adding something if it isn’t going to be read.

How can we get the hiring manager to read the accomplishments? Separate them from the skills summary, and bullet them. They will stand out and get attention. People are typically drawn to bulleted lists. We assume that’s where the important stuff it. You can use that by putting the important stuff in a bulleted list and the less important stuff in a paragraph.

New Professional Summary:

Senior Accountant

Highly experienced financial analyst and corporate accountant with a track record of accomplishment. Prepared sections of 10K’s and 10Q’s for the last four years, including significant contributions to M&A reporting during three of those years.

Developed macros to automate routine financial analysis tasks, allowing a reduction in the month end close cycle by one day.
Performed a detailed financial review of key expense accounts in a recently acquired company, identifying cost savings opportunities that saved $350,000 in the first full year.
Managed the month end close process in the Controller’s absence.

11. Add titles to the accomplishments

Accomplishments are the sizzle on a resume. Education, experience, skills, certifications, and just about everything else provides your qualifications. There are a lot of qualified candidates. To stand out, you need so show what value you delivered in the past.

Bulleting the accomplishments is a good start, but we can do more. Adding a title to each accomplishment bullet will help draw attention to them and highlight the significance of the bullet.

The title should be a short phrase, and it should highlight the value the accomplishment provided.

For our three accomplishments, we could use titles like:

Reduced Closing Cycle, Cut Month End Close, or Automated Processes

Saved $350,000, Reduced Expenses, Identified Cost Savings

Leadership, Managed Closing

The goal of these titles is to get the hiring manager to read the accomplishment and to demonstrate your value. Tailor the titles to the job description.

New Professional Summary:

Senior Accountant

Highly experienced financial analyst and corporate accountant with a track record of accomplishment. Prepared sections of 10K’s and 10Q’s for the last four years, including significant contributions to M&A reporting during three of those years.

Reduced Closing Cycle: Developed macros to automate routine financial analysis tasks, allowing a reduction in the month end close cycle by one day.
Saved $350,000: Performed a detailed financial review of key expense accounts in a recently acquired company, identifying cost savings opportunities that saved $350,000 in the first full year.
Leadership: Managed the month end close process in the Controller’s absence.

12. Add Skills

At the beginning, we talked about highlighting a few key skills. It is important to highlight skills that are relevant to the job and to focus on a limited number. If you try to highlight too many skills, it will dilute the impact.

Now that we have established a few key skills, and demonstrated them with accomplishments, we can add some supporting skills. These should complement the primary skills and show added depth of expertise. The supporting skills will also include technical skills.

Don’t add a ton of skills here. Some resumes will list 50 or 60 or more skills. A hiring manager doesn’t want to read every skill you have. Many more basic skills will be implied by higher level more sophisticated skills.

You also do not want to list skills unrelated to the job.

New Professional Summary:

Senior Accountant

Highly experienced financial analyst and corporate accountant with a track record of accomplishment. Prepared sections of 10K’s and 10Q’s for the last four years, including significant contributions to M&A reporting during three of those years.

Reduced Closing Cycle: Developed macros to automate routine financial analysis tasks, allowing a reduction in the month end close cycle by one day.

Saved $350,000: Performed detailed financial review of key expense accounts in a recently acquired company, identifying cost savings opportunities that saved $350,000 in the first full year.

Leadership: Managed the month end close process in the Controller’s absence.

Skills: SAP, Crystal Reports, Excel, Financial Reporting, SOX Compliance, Budgeting and Forecasting, Business Analytics, M&A Accounting, Due Diligence

13. Get a second opinion

Once your career summary is finished, ask a few people to review it. You want to make sure it is clear, concise and conveys the value you offer.

There are two different types of reviewers you should consider. First, ask someone that knows your career. You want them to tell you how you can better convey your value. In our example, the accountant listed due diligence as a skill, but didn’t provide any detail. The friend might suggest highlighting a major due diligence project as an accomplishment.

Your goal with this first reviewer is to make sure you aren’t selling yourself short. Many job seekers have a tendency to minimize the impression they make. Don’t do this. A hiring manager will never assume you are better than what you tell them. If you don’t make the best case, you will lose out.

The second reviewer you should consider is a hiring manager that may not know you. You want to find out the overall impression they get when looking at your resume. The better the person knows you, the more difficult it will be for them to look at your resume objectively and honestly. Consider hiring a professional to do a resume review. You will get good feedback.

Recap

Ok, let’s look at the before and after… this is the resume objective statement that we stared with:

Objective: Seeking a challenging position with a highly successful company offering exceptional career growth opportunities where I can utilize my skills and abilities.

And this is the resume career summary that we ended up with:

Senior Accountant

Highly experienced financial analyst and corporate accountant with a track record of accomplishment. Prepared sections of 10K’s and 10Q’s for the last four years, including significant contributions to M&A reporting during three of those years.

Reduced Closing Cycle: Developed macros to automate routine financial analysis tasks, allowing a reduction in the month end close cycle by one day.

Saved $350,000: Performed a detailed financial review of key expense accounts in a recently acquired company, identifying cost savings opportunities that saved $350,000 in the first full year.

Leadership: Managed the month end close process in the Controller’s absence.

Skills: SAP, Crystal Reports, Excel, Financial Reporting, SOX Compliance, Budgeting and Forecasting, Business Analytics, M&A Accounting, Due Diligence

This difference is tremendous. Our original Objective Statement was focused on what the applicant wanted. It did nothing that would ever impress a hiring manager. The new Career Summary is impressive and demonstrates clear value.

Do you want to learn more about Objective Statements and Professional Summaries?
Get my book!

Book: Resume Objective Statements and Professional Summaries

Resume Objective Statements and Professional Summaries will show you how to start your resume with an introduction to grab a hiring manager’s attention. Your resume will become a powerful and impressive sales tool for your job search. Unlike other books on resumes that provide a chapter or two on objective statements and professional summaries, this book attacks the topic. Numerous examples are provided, analyzed and improved. Each step is explained in detail. You will learn how to create a powerful, impressive and effective introduction that will make an impact and get results.

To have a chance of landing an interview, you must first grab a hiring manager’s attention. Your resume is a sales document. It needs to sell your potential from the instant a hiring manager starts reading. To do this, you need a strong, impressive and effective introduction. This introduction will create excitement in hiring managers and motivate them to want to learn more. In other words, you need an introduction that will lead to interviews.

Most job seekers understand how important the start of their resume is, but this is also the part of their resume that they struggle with the most. The result is typically a weak, uninspiring start that is completely ineffective.

This book offers the solution. It is entirely focused on Objective Statements and Professional Summaries, the two most common styles of introductions. Other resume writing books provide a little advice on a wide range of resume writing topics. They try to answer every question a job seeker might have, but provide limited depth on each topic. You need to become an expert at creating a powerful and effective introduction. You need this book, and you need the winning introduction you will learn to write.

Get the book today:

Kindle and Print Editions Now Available

Why Your Resume Should Have a Summary Section

The resume I read today illustrated how important a summary section is. The resume was from a sales professional with around five years of experience. The resume started with candidate’s work experience. Although work experience is extremely important, you are limited in your presentation if you lead off with a work experience section.

A great way to start a resume is with a summary section. This section provides the primary sales pitch to get a hiring manager excited and interested in your resume. Without a summary section, it’s difficult to grab attention fast and keep it.

The problem with starting a resume with your work experience results from the order of the information. You need to put your experience in reverse chronological order. This puts the most recent position at the top.

If your most impressive experience is listed under your most recent job, you’re in good shape. Often, your best selling points will be scattered throughout your career and your resume. This is where a summary section helps. You can gather the most important elements and list them separately at the top of your resume.

To illustrate this, look at the top of the resume I received:

<Employer Name>, Account Manager Sept. ’08 to Present

Manage the relationships with key prospects throughout my region, to ensure that is best placed to win major contracts and associated services

Coordinate internal resources to respond to RFPs and secure business from both new and existing customers

Establish and strengthen customer relationships through developing an intimate knowledge of individual accounts and key stakeholders

The candidate has been in this job for less than a year and lists a few responsibilities, but no accomplishments. In sales, especially a field with large proposals that can take upwards of a year to win, it is difficult to show significant accomplishments in the first few months. This leads to an unfavorable impression of the candidate at the very beginning. He is a sales professional who has not had any success – not the kind of sales pitch that is going to get a person hired.

The core problem is how a hiring manager reads a resume. Hiring managers scan resumes very quickly, focusing on the top of the resume. They also will not assume a candidate is any better than what is presented, and will not assume a candidate has been more successful than the resume presents.

In the case of the resume excerpt above, a typical reaction will be to assume the candidate has been completely unsuccessful. Otherwise, the candidate would have listed something about his success. This leads to an impression in the first 15 seconds that the candidate is an unsuccessful sales professional. The resume will probably be rejected at this point.

The truth is the candidate does have some impressive accomplishments. Unfortunately, he is unlikely to get the opportunity to tell a hiring manager about them because his resume will be rejected at the start of the process.

The solution is easy. Write a short summary section highlighting the key accomplishments and skills of the candidate. This will get a hiring manager excited and motivated them to give a call.

Improving a Resume Summary Section

The resume I read this morning started with an executive summary providing an overview of the job seeker. The summary focused on generalizations while the resume contained a number of specific accomplishments and experiences. The result was a summary that did little to help the overall impression.

Below are the first few lines of the executive summary:

Veteran Military Officer with extensive aerospace industry experience. Dynamic Industry Leader. Technically astute. Customer focused. Results oriented. Employs decisive, analytical approach to problem solving.

This summary lists some great attributes, but the buzzwords are so overused they make no impression. Everyone says the same thing. A much better approach is to provide a few attributes and back them up with specific accomplishments.

This individual managed a number of multi-million dollar projects producing significant enhancements to the military capability of various aircraft weapons systems and cost reductions to the military. These accomplishments are buried within the text of the resume. A hiring manager scanning the resume quickly is likely to read only a small portion of the text and may miss some or all of the accomplishments. For this reason, the accomplishments making the best impression should be listed at the top of the resume.

I would rewrite the summary section in this form:

Veteran Military Officer with extensive aerospace industry experience.

Technically astute – <insert the description of a successful technically challenging project>

Customer focused – <insert the description of a project requiring a high level of customer service>

Results oriented – <insert a successful project with significant cost savings>

Employs decisive, analytical approach to problem solving – <insert a project requiring complex problem solving skills>

The job seeker has examples in his resume for each of these bullets. All he needs to do is copy and paste them at the top. This will make a much stronger impression and ensure a hiring manager will see his strongest accomplishments first.

What Does Your Resume Say in the First 10 Seconds?

Your resume’s first impression – the first ten seconds it is read – is critical to your job search. No other point in a job search will have a greater impact in such a short time.

The first ten seconds are critical because the first impression will drive the assessment of your resume. Before the hiring manager begins to assess your potential, he needs to choose the assessment criteria. This requires categorizing the resume very quickly. The hiring manager will identify the job type, experience level and professionalism of the candidate and decide where in the company the candidate might fit. The goal at this stage is to categorize the candidate.

To make this determination, the hiring manager will only read a small portion of the resume – the first line or two of the resume, the most recent job title and the first thing listed in the education section. The hiring manager will also look at the overall presentation.

This first assessment allows the hiring manager to decide how to assess the job seeker. Like all first impressions, you can overcome a bad start, but it’s tough.

The best first impression will present a professional image for the job you are seeking. You want the hiring manager to immediately develop a basic understanding of who you are. A lot of resumes create an impression that doesn’t match the candidate’s. Some job seekers prioritize the wrong information on their resume leading to an impression that the job seeker is more or less qualified than they really are. This is especially problematic if your career has followed a non-standard path.

One of the most significant elements of your resume is the job title of your most recent job. If this title is not representative of your background and potential, you risk making the wrong first impression. To remedy this, you need to include information at the top of your resume to make the right impression. Often a one or two sentence summary can make a huge difference.

There are two main problems with creating the wrong first impression. First, you could be rejected before the hiring manager understands who you really are. Many resumes get rejected in the first 15 to 30 seconds. You need to make the right impression immediately. Second, making the wrong first impression will make it more difficult for the hiring manager to assess your true potential. Every second the hiring manager spends trying to figure out where you fit is time they are not spending looking at your potential. The faster the hiring manager can decide how to assess your background the better your chances.

It is extremely difficult to assess the first impression of your resume by yourself. You can’t make a first impression with yourself. To assess the impression you are making, show your resume to someone that hasn’t seen it before. Ask them for their first impression.

You can also review the information the hiring manager will look at first. If gave someone only the first two lines of your resume, your most recent job title and the first line of your education section, what impression would they get? Is this the impression you want to give?

Your Resume’s Executive Summary

I’m a big fan of starting a resume with a summary statement. A summary statement gives a job seeker the opportunity to create a very strong positive impression in just a few lines. The summary statement is also the grabber that motivates the hiring manager to read your resume closely, rather than just skim it fast. Developing a good impression and grabbing the reader can make a huge difference in the overall effectiveness of the resume.

Today, I read an article on resume writing that offered some great advice but differed on the importance of a summary statement. The article gave three reasons to avoid an objective or summary statement:

You don’t want one
You don’t need one
You don’t have room for one

All three of these statements sound good. Unfortunately, they are misleading.

You don’t want one: If you don’t want to include a summary, you don’t have to have one. This goes for anything on your resume. The problem with this is that a good summary statement will make your resume more effective. Deciding you don’t want one is tantamount to saying you don’t want to maximize the effectiveness of your resume.

You don’t need one: As I said, you don’t have to include a summary. It’s not a required element of resume. The basics that are essential to a resume are your name, contact info, education and work experience. Everything else that you may include is designed to help sell your potential to an employer. The resume police won’t hunt you done if you don’t have a good summary statement, but your odds of landing an interview may be lower without one.

You don’t have room: The third point is the one that I really have trouble with. The more information on your resume, the more important it is to have a summary. If you have no experience to write about, there’s nothing to summarize. On the other hand, if you have 30 years of experience, a summary can help frame your potential and build interest in reader to look closely at your resume.

A good summary statement is similar to an eye catching headline in a newspaper or an action packed opening scene of a movie. Both of these are designed to grab the attention of the audience quickly with the most exciting information.

The key to an effective summary statement is to present a summary of the most important information to the hiring manager. You want to get the hiring manager excited and interested.

The term objective statement is misleading for many job seekers. Hiring managers want to know what type of position you will consider accepting – not what your goals, wants and desires are. Focus on the elements of your background that help sell you to an employer. This short sales pitch should generate interest in reading your resume closely. If you do this, you will be far ahead of most job seekers.

50 Resume Objective Statements

To help you write a good objective statement, we listed 50 objective statements taken from a random selection of manager and executive resumes. Some are very descriptive and others are extremely vague and generic.

To help you write an effective objective, we have listed 50 objective statements from actual job seekers. You can see what works, and what doesn’t. A hiring manager will often read dozens, if not hundreds of resumes at a time. There is no shortage of job seekers. Reading through the list below can help you see the objective statements from the perspective of a hiring manager screening resumes. These are actual objective statements from resumes and are unedited, and are provided to give you an idea of how a typical resume starts.

An objective statement on a resume can help you get a closer look from a hiring manager. Often, the person screening resumes will have a number of different positions that need to be filled. If it isn’t clear what your goals are, the screener may discard your resume without considering you for the specific job you seek. This is especially important if you are trying to break into a new career field.

The object statements below offer a wide range of styles and content. As you read these, consider a few best practices for objective statements. And check out How to Fix Your Resume Objective: 13 Easy Steps to learn how write an impressive, effective intro to your resume.

Three Keys to an Effective Objective Statement:

Learn how to start your resume effectively

Keep it Short: A hiring manage does not want to read a book on want you want. Make sure your objective is short and concise. Often one short sentence is sufficient. In the worst resumes, we have seen objectives that are in excess of 150 words.
WIIFT: Your objective is “What’s In It For Me,” but your resume is sales pitch to get you hired. It needs to focus on “What’s In It For Them.” Provide just enough information in your objective for a hiring manager to know what job you are seeking, and get back to selling your potential. A good way to do this is by listing a key skill and how you have added value with the skill. Start with a short one line objective, concluding with specific skill you want to utilize. Then, after the objective statement, add three bullet points showing specific accomplishments using the skill. Make sure the accomplishments have specific, quantified results.
Be Specific: Many of the objectives below do not say anything. Almost any job would meet the objective. If you are going to write an objective statement, it needs to be specific. What job and industry do you want? Saying you want to be part of a successful company, where you can utilize your skills and abilities, does not say anything. Who wants to work for a failing company where they are unqualified and can’t do the job? If you are going to take the time to put an objective statement on your resume, make it valuable.

Few of the objective statements below satisfy these best practices, and this is typical of most resumes. Many are short, but that’s about all they have going for them. Look for the ones that are specific. Most are too general. You do not need to pick a single objective that you use for every application. You can and should change your resume to fit every employer and job you apply for.

50 Examples of Objective Statements:

Objective: General Manager in an established and successful business.
Position Targets: Director of Lean Manufacturing, Continuous Improvement Change Agent, Value Stream Manager, Lean Manufacturing Champion, Process Improvement Manager, Continuous Improvement Leader, Operations Manager and Management Process Improvement Consultant.
OBJECTIVE: Obtain a challenging leadership position applying creative problem solving and lean management skills with a growing company to achieve optimum utilization of its resources and maximum profits.
PROFESSIONAL OBJECTIVE: To continue my career with an organization that will utilize my MANAGEMENT, SUPERVISION & ADMINISTRATIVE skills to benefit mutual growth and success.
Objective: I am currently looking for a full time position in an environment that offers a greater challenge, increased benefits for my family, and the opportunity to help the company advance efficiently and productively
Objective Director of Operations/General Manager
JOB TARGET: My goal is to become associated with a company where I can utilize my skills and gain further experience while enhancing the company’s productivity and reputation.
Objective: To secure a position with a stable and profitable organization, where I can be a member of a team and utilize my business experience to the fullest.
Objective: To further my professional career with an executive level management position in a world class company. Seek to diversify my skills in another industry and as part of a larger organization. Relocation desirable.
Employment Objective: long term consulting project or Permanent Position.
OBJECTIVE: I am pursuing a career as an account manager with limited overnight travel. I am seeking to deliver my research, analytical, as well as presentation skills that will benefit in volume, growth, brand, and profits.
OBJECTIVE: To contribute superior project and operations management skills and experience in an IT Service Management role.
Objective: My objective is to obtain a position in a professional office environment where my skills are valued and can benefit the organization. Ideally, I wish to have a focus in marketing for a growing organization preferably dealing in commercial real estate and/or land acquisitions.
Objective: Seeking a position as an engineering VP/director/manager in initiatives that utilize state-of-the-art, software and/or hardware components with a creative, technology-driven organization in an environment that encourages innovative thinking, recognition, and career development. Customer interaction is a plus.
OBJECTIVE: To obtain a challenging position in a high quality engineering environment where my resourceful experience and academic skills will add value to organizational operations.
CAREER OBJECTIVE: A challenging and rewarding Logistics / Distribution Center Operations Management position within the private sector where prior experience, personal ability, and a commitment to professionalism would be of value. Position should allow for continued personal and professional growth commensurate with achievements.
Objective: Seeking a fulfilling position in the maintenance industry that offers growth opportunities and allows me to utilize my leadership skills and experience.
Short Objective: Seeking position as System Engineer and support of all IT Needs.
CAREER OBJECTIVE: Position as an engineer or related position which offers key participation, team oriented tasks, immediate challenges, and career opportunity.
PROFESSIONAL OBJECTIVE: Secure a responsible position in account management and serve as an account representative sharing my breadth of experience and abilities effecting mutual employee and employer growth and success.
Objective: To obtain a New Business Development position by adding value through utilizing my superior knowledge, prospecting and selling abilities in the business to business arena.
Objective: to acquire a challenging career with a solid company utilizing the opportunity to offer proven and developing skills within the company.
Objective Expand leadership responsibilities, improve organizational ability to exceed corporate goals, and help honor all long-term commitments made to customers, stockholders, employees and the communities in which we live.
OBJECTIVE: To work as an ophthalmic assistant or administrator in hospitals, or with professionals as surgeons or physicians with a specialty.
Objective: Seeking Position in systems/ or network engineering / Team Lead
OBJECTIVE: Seek to work in an environment that will challenge me further; while allowing me to contribute to the continued growth and success of the organization. Obtain a position that will provide me the ability to apply my sales and work experience to a growing industry. Look forward to working with a company that promotes quality products and services; and provides me with the opportunity to meet and exceed assigned sales goals. Consultative selling approach coupled with the energy and drive as an individual contributor with minimal supervision or team selling environment. Experience with quotas ranging from 15k per month to 800k per year with excellent attainment.
OBJECTIVE: To lead, challenge and be challenged in a marketing strategy or business/market development position. Analyze and improve marketing, sales and operational performance. Develop products, markets and relationships.
Objective: An able, enthusiastic, skilled, and reliable computer technician seeking a position that reflects my experience, skills, and personal attributes including dedication, meeting goals, creativity, and the ability to follow through.
Objective: Seeking a position in Management
OBJECTIVE: To Acquire A Challenging Position In An Environment Where I Can Best Utilize My Skills And Education.
OBJECTIVE: To obtain a management position, in which I am given the opportunity to play a direct role in the unlimited growth and success of solid organization.
OBJECTIVE: My goal is to obtain a dynamic, challenging opportunity that contributes to the outstanding success of the business via 15+ years Information Technology experience from various global industries.
OBJECTIVE: To secure a position as a public relations / marketing professional in order to utilize my administrative, marketing, and interpersonal skills with accuracy and efficiency while maintaining a motivated, productive, and goal oriented environment for the entire professional team on board while maintaining extensive customer loyalty.
OBJECTIVE: Seeking a sales position with a reparable company on a long term basis who is looking for an experienced, hardworking, detail oriented team player.
CAREER OBJECTIVE: Looking at new opportunities to leverage my 20+ years professional experience in a New Business Sales capacity to have an immediate impact on new business revenue while increasing profitability.
PROFESSIONAL OBJECTIVE: To build upon my existing corporate finance skill set in both analytics and transaction execution, leading to increasingly responsible positions in treasury.
OBJECTIVE: VICE PRESIDENT/DIRECTOR. Travel/Relocate Internationally. Operating business philosophy: Amazing things can be accomplished when no one cares who gets the credit.
Objective: To participate as a team member in a dynamic work environment focused on promoting business growth by providing superior value and service
PROFESSIONAL OBJECTIVE: Position in Human Resources, providing opportunity to make a strong contribution by utilizing and expanding upon related education, skills, experiences and capabilities.
OBJECTIVE: To further my experience and knowledge in the field of electronics and warehouse
Objective: Position at a leading organization as a financial analyst or trader and continue my education in the financial field by obtaining the CFA designation.
OBJECTIVE: Obtain a management, analyst or consulting position, in the Healthcare IT industry.
OBJECTIVE: To gain long term employment with a company that is on or looking to be on the cutting edge, a company that puts value on people and the products they are promoting. Honest and Ethical, I am looking to call this company my family.
CAREER OBJECTIVE: Exploring career opportunities in the to utilize Sales, Account Management and Public Interfacing abilities in a challenging Business Development/Senior Sales Management assignment.
OBJECTIVE: To secure a responsible career opportunity, where I can fully utilize my training, human resource and management skills, while making a significant contribution to the success of my employer.
Objective: To apply my expertise as ‘Marketing Director’ for a dynamic organization that encompasses hiring a marketing director is an investment. An investment that is crucial to the success of almost all aspects of the organization: Business Development, Sales, Customer Retention, Public Relations, Recruiting and Database Management.
OBJECTIVE: I AM A CONSISTENT, HARD WORKING, HIGHLY MOTIVATED PERSON. I ENJOY WORKING WITH THE PUBLIC. I FEEL THAT I AM A FRIENDLY, OUTGOING AND DEPENDABLE PERSON. I FEEL IT IS CRUCIAL TO DEMONSTRATE THE IMPORTANCE OF MY JOB DUTIES AND EXPECTATIONS. I AM LOOKING TO IMPROVE MY POSITION IN THE WORK FORCE, EXPAND MY KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS. I AM ALSO LOOKING TO ESTABLISH LONG TERM EMPLOYMENT IN A FRIENDLY ENVIRONMENT.
Objective: Seeking employment in Transportation Coordination, Equipment Manager, but would enjoy discussing other available positions for which I am qualified.
OBJECTIVE: IT Director – Information Technology Vice President (VP) – Chief Information Officer (CIO) Information Technology senior management, executive position in a leading multinational organization, contributing business value by developing and executing a strategic, long-term vision, while leading the firm to achieve measurable business results and growth, effectively managing the IT portfolio of investments. A strong desire to transform “as-is” organizations into “to-be” market and industry leaders. Additional interest in organizations looking to expand their global presence.
Objectives Summary: My objective is to leverage my experience while continuing to be challenged. I have 20 years of experience working for service providers delivering marketing intelligence products and services. My background in Management, Account Management, Project Management and Technical Process Management represent a unique combination of disciplines. Personally, I have the drive and determination to consistently achieve success as a leader in all of the organizations that I have worked with in the past.

To learn more about writing objective statements, read our article, How to Fix Your Resume Objective: 13 Easy Steps. This gives practical, easy to follow instructions for improving your objective statement.