The profile summary comprises a candidate's academics, skills, experiences, and long term goals. An ideal profile summary consists of the best attributes of a candidate in a few sentences or phrases. Usually, sometimes candidates get overwhelmed while writing it hence end up making it unnecessarily long and boring, which is enough for the recruiter to lose interest in their resume.

A profile summary should never be confused with "Resume Headline or Career Objective". A resume headline is a brief-phrase at the top of the resume comprises of skills and work experiences. It helps the recruiter to analyze the candidate profile. While career objective is a statement that helps the recruiter to understand his career goals. All of these three serve different purposes hence their position is chose accordingly.

So, we will discuss vital points that will help you in writing a resume profile summary in this blog.

Why add a profile summary?

A profile summary is the best way to showcase the most important attributes of one's professional career. Candidates who have many years of experience can easily grab the attention of the recruiter by putting the relevant years of experience, professional achievements, and broadly understood expertise. Early job seekers or fresh graduates can highlight their academic or internship achievements as they do have real work experience. In some cases they can avoid it or just writing a resume headline is enough.

A crisp profile summary listed in proper bullet points or in a short paragraph gives a snapshot of a candidate's skills and expertise to the hiring manager. This makes it easier for the hiring manager to know whether your candidature can be a good fit or not for the role. He can further choose whether it's worth reading your resume and invite you for an HR interview round.

It is very advisable to write a different profile summary for each time as every hiring manager asks for different skills. To chose what to highlight and what not research the position properly, see what kind of skills and years of experience is required. Are they asking for any particular certification or knowledge of any tools, you are familiar with?

Asses your professional background and other professional attributes. How much your expertise aligns with the requirement of the job description. Select years of experience, skillset and expertise, knowledge of any tool or any certification, and professional accomplishments that you want to highlight in your profile selection. This will make you stand apart from other applicants and will increase your chances of getting an interview invitation.

Tips for writing a profile summary

Put you summary below resume headline:- The profile summary is placed in the topmost section of the resume under the headline. If the headline is not included then put it underneath the name and contact section.

Use bullet points or comprise the whole summary in a short crisp paragraph:- You can either use the bullet points to highlight the important attributes or simply write a short crips paragraph rich of keywords matching to the job description. Ther is no need to capitalize on every word just the first letter of the sentence is enough.

Use proper keywords matching to job listing:- Research the job description and the position first. See what skills are most prominent for this role. Circle those important keywords and include them in your resume summary. This will help you to quickly grab the attention of the hiring manager.

Keep it short and crisp:- While writing the profile summary candidate get overwhelmed and skeptical about what to put or whatnot. it's advisable to highlight only the most prominent attributes to keep it short and concise.

Keep it appropriate:- Every hiring manager ask for different skills and expertise. Changing the profile summary according to the job description makes your profile more relevant to the job role.

Try to include useful phrases:- Incorporate useful phrases when you are writing a profile summary. The phrases may include 'key skills are', 'experienced in', 'highly skilled in',  'proven track record', 'adept at', 'highly professional,  , 'committed individual', 'result-focused', 'goal-driven', etc.

Profile Summary Examples:-

Let us check out a few a examples below.

For Fresher's

Self-motivated college graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in Secondary Education and experience in learning technology.

For Experienced

Well-organized dental office partner with five years of experience keeping up viable client schedules, office workflows, and billing policies.

Community Manager

Vivacious community outreach manager experienced in making and completing outreach seminars in urban communities.

Content Writer/copywriter

A capable, keen author with many bylined works published in significant print and online periodicals.

Property Manager

A polite property manager with Certified Property Manager qualifications and five years of supervisory experience.

In the end, we are sure that you know about the resume profile summary and also know how to write one for your next resume.