You will only have about 8 seconds to get the attention of the person reading your resume.  That’s nearly impossible, UNLESS you have a clear and concise Professional Summary Statement.  Here are some tips for writing that concise Professional Summary:

1. You Professional Summary needs to be built around your own personal brand.  What do people think about when they hear your name?  What do you WANT them to think?  Tom Peters has written the classic article on ‘Brand You’ — and you can find it at Fast Company (here).
2. Keep it short — 10-15 words is best.  At MOST it should be only 2 sentences.  You want the reader to know what you can do for them — without putting you in a box. Your goal for the Professional Summary is to get them to read the rest of the resume. Period.
3. Don’t put yourself in a box — don’t use a title unless you are applying for a specific job.  Think about what you do for a company.  What kind of ROI (Return on Investment) will their organization get from hiring you?  If you say, “Accountant” they will put you in the “Accountant” box in their mind.  If you say “Save a company money by organizing key financial data” they will actually want to read on.
4. Get them to read further and make EVERYTHING on the rest of the resume point to your Professional Summary.  If you have done things in your past that don’t relate to your summary, you probably want to leave them off.  The resume should be a FOCUSED document.
5. Remember that the point of the Resume is to get an interview.  The Professional Summary should get them to read the resume, so that they will want to interview you.

With only 8 seconds to grab the attention of your potential employer, you better have a clear Professional Summary.  A good Summary will help them see that you are a person they want to learn more about. . . and ultimately that’s what it takes to get the job!

Need more?  If you want some samples of professional resume summary’s please shoot me an email – info@orcms.com

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