How to Write Solid Resume Summaries - Plus, a Few Examples to Help
Welcome to the FIRST RESUME WRITING TIP as part of this series. We're starting at the top with resume summaries, which is an unusual place to begin because they should be written last.
If you're a new resume writer, this is likely news to you.
If you're a somewhat seasoned resume writer, you likely do this already.
Why write them last? When writing resume summaries, your goal is to take the best bits about your clients and roll those into something eye-catching, unique, and relevant. We, as resume writers, don't always know those best career bits UNTIL AFTER we've conducted the project intake, mulled through our notes, and written about 90% of the new resume.
Why are resume summaries so important? The top section of every resume is valuable "real estate," providing recent, relevant, and unique career details to hiring managers and recruiters. A great approach when writing resume summaries is to consider them as stand-alone pieces of content that should provide the most essential details that could/should sway hiring personnel to take action.
Resume summaries could include the following:
- Highly Relevant Skills Obtained
- Recent Achievements Completed
- Projects Worked
- Awards Received
Now, let's look at a few example resume summaries.
Example #1
The first example is for an experienced sales rep with impressive performance, and the resume summary showcases many outstanding achievements:
OUTSIDE SALES EXECUTIVE - MAJOR GROWTH STRATEGIST ACROSS SMALLER TERRITORIES
Deliver 200%-600% Sales Growth — Top 2% B2B Sales Performer — Motivate & Train Newly Hired Sales RepsAward-winning sales executive who uses persistent new business, prospect nurturing, and account development skills that shortens the sales lifecycle and boosts win rates. Generated $3.1M in revenue with JBS International and put an additional $1.58M in the sales pipeline, which was accomplished after researching and pursuing alternative sales verticals. Nurtured a 320% jump in sales for major client, JanetJet, Inc.
Writing an optimal summary for a successful sales professional is most often a breeze because there are so many achievements to choose from.
Example #2
What do you do when the client doesn't have the above level of success? For example, let's consider a resume summary for someone in academia. Those job roles don't generally have much impact on what we commonly think of when we ponder achievements, such as increases in revenue, reductions in costs, and so on.
Yet, in this scenario, there are other significant details to write about, like this:
INSTRUCTOR & PROGRAM DEVELOPER — LED GRANT WRITING EFFORTS THAT SECURED $1.1M USED TO FUND NEW EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS & IMPROVE LEARNING OUTCOMES
Fund and manage student success programs (e.g., social and academic support) delivered annually to at-risk students throughout Detroit, MI. Collaborate with a program team that oversee the concept, objectives, development, and delivery of a portfolio of new programs. Provide students with empowering, interactive, and self-directed success tools; e.g., access to individual support services, independent learning modules, time management coaching, and peer networking groups and mentoring sessions. Boosted student GPAs by nearly 10% within the first 12 months , while increasing student retention by 10.3% during the first 6 months.
Example #3
Okay, maybe we made that look too easy. How about a resume summary for an administrative professional who CONTRIBUTES but can't take 100% credit for what the team, department, or company accomplished?
This is where words can be magical.
Take this example for an administrative assistant:
EXECUTIVE / PERSONAL ASSISTANT — Support Executives During Major M&As, Business Development & Customer Success Goals — Initiate Training & Performance Skills For New Systems & Procedures — Nurture Peer Relationships Known to Reduce Admin Staff by up to 10%
Deliver comprehensive support (e.g., travel assistance, client services, research, and meeting management) to a fast-paced executive team bridged across 3 countries. Produce quarterly presentations, business intelligence (BI) reports, and other performance metrics to the Board of Directors. Handle ad-hoc projects associated with special events, including holiday parties and scheduled public speaking events that require fact-checking and special document preparation. Identified expense report discrepancies that led to the dismissal of the Purchasing Manager, which was later discovered to have skimmed nearly $129,000 from the company.
What does the above tell you? The above tells you that clients can be on the lowest rung of the corporate ladder yet impact the company in significant ways.
Cool, right?
