Creating an opening paragraph or bullet list with the heading "Profile" or "Summary of Qualifications" is an excellent opportunity to present your reader with a thumbnail sketch of who you are, what you're doing with your career, and what your most marketable attributes are.For those of you who consider this type of information "fluff" or "b.s.," I respectfully beg to differ. Surely, if that's the kind of information you've seen in summary statements, then they were misused, like the much maligned objective statement that says "a challenging career-oriented position using my education and experience, blah, blah, blah."
The Profile or Highlights Section is the place where you can sum up all the great information on the resume, add relevant information that just doesn't have any other place to go on the resume, and create an impression of you as a living, breathing, unique individual. It doesn't have to be fluff or flowery, meaningless information. If it's done properly, it can add "sizzle" to the steak when being read by a human being, and it contains relevant key words that will boost the number of hits your resume gets in a database search. Most or all of what is stated up front is backed up by the remainder of the resume. For those of you resume buffs out there, no, this isn't a functional resume per se. Observe:
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JANET PROMOTABLE PROFILE Telecommunications Project Manager with 10+ years of rapid advancement with Fortune 100 companies. Consultative and clear communication style, resulting in the development of innovative business solutions that exceed client expectations. Articulate and persuasive presentation skills. Outstanding knowledge of voice, data, and networking products; demonstrated ability to coordinate contributions from multi-disciplinary team members. Dedicated to maintaining cutting-edge technical skills. Consistently recognized by managers, clients, vendors, and colleagues for ability to orchestrate all details of critical projects with a high degree of service, within tight deadlines and budgets. |
Then, of course, the rest of Janet's resume covers the detail-rich, quantifiable accomplishments in each position that back up these statements. By introducing her in this way, however, we don't have to count on the recruiter's ability to sum her up accurately.So if your resume is not getting you the attention you deserve sans profile, perhaps now would be the time to sum yourself up.
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