Using Profiles, Summaries, and Objectives on Resumes
It seems like every new client I get sends me a resume with a long section at the top of the resume that precedes actual work experience. Sometimes the top section is labeled, "Profile" or "Executive Profile" or "Summary" or even "Objective". Apparently there are some resume reviewers/writers who insist on including some sort of header section. I don't really get it.
As someone who has worked a variety of recruiting and hiring capacities including in-house recruiter, headhunter, and hiring manager I would be the first to say that when I was making recruiting or hiring decisions I never really read those sections. Except as a way to possibly eliminate candidates that is. If you list an "Objective" section it is, by definition, a limiting statement. You probably won't be considered for any job that falls outside of the definition you list. That is fine if you really only want to be considered for a specific job or for a job in a specific industry. But if you expect for someone reading the resume to consider you for a similar, but not exact job, you are being awfully optimistic.
Sections labeled "Profile" or "Summary" are often just a list of subjective statements that represent the opinion that the resume owner has of him or herself. In which case they are useless. Why would a recruiter care that you think you have great people skills or that you think you are a gifted communicator unless the statement is backed up by specific accomplishments in the resume? News flash: EVERYONE describes themselves as having "great people skills". Guess what? Few people actually have great interpersonal skills. And generally if you do have great communication or people skills that becomes pretty obvious when someone reads your accomplishments if those skills have helped you to achieve results for your employer.
When I was a recruiter I used to think to myself when I read one of those sentences, "So, you think you are a great communicator, huh? I will be the judge of that." And if I read further into the resume and found grammatical, spelling, or syntax errors I rejected the candidate outright, in part because of the errors, but also because he/she didn't understand that "great communication skills" extend to written skills.
I am amazed at the length of some of these header sections too. A potential new client sent me his 7 page resume today. He graduated from college less than 10 years ago so his resume is excessively long by any standard. Anyway, the entire first page is a "summary". He has a keywords section that lists things like "project management" followed by a paragraph-long narrative that I didn't even bother to read. Then he has 1/2 page dedicated to bullet points that say things like "experienced at delivering software implementations on-time and under-budget".
First of all, simply listing key words or phrases without any context is meaningless. Yes, I know you want to ensure that your resume gets picked up in a keyword search but if you want it to mean anything you need to integrate the key words into accomplishments. Anyone can say they have managed a project but true professional project managers are in high demand.
I used to work for an engineering firm at which the CEO's executive secretary was put in charge of all kinds of projects - therefore she could legitimately list project management as a skill set on her resume. But in the engineering department of that same company you could find at least 10 certified project managers who managed multi-million dollar machinery installations for Fortune 500 clients. Big difference between managing the CEO's pet projects like the annual sales luncheon and a $10 million dairy installation right? So, if you are one of the engineers and you just put "project management" at the top of your resume without context you are on the same level as someone who isn't a "real" project manager. (Don't get me wrong, the CEO's secretary was fantastic at managing the projects she was in charge of but they were completely different from the engineering projects.)
Just putting the words "project management" on your resume without describing the project or your results doesn't tell the reader much. And recruiters are pretty smart at about that. No context and no accomplishments means no phone call from a recruiter.
Make sure that your achievements are clearly associated with the job in which you accomplished them. It's very frustrating to read something like,"experienced at delivering software implementations on-time and under-budget" but to not know at what company this happened, what kind of software was implemented, and how much under budget the project was delivered. Yes, its catchy to put that near the top of your resume but you force the reader to hunt around the resume to find out more information. And guess what? A lot of people won't bother. They will set your resume aside and go on to the next one. And, if the next resume is one that I wrote and the candidate possesses the requisite skills - the recruiter will pick up the phone and call my client because the information in the resume will be organized in a way that is accessible to recruiters and there won't be a bunch of fluff to wade through.
If you are absolutely convinced that your resume needs a header of some kind here are a few tips to make it as effective as possible:
Keep it short (1-2 sentences maximum)
Make sure that if you are writing a profile or summary that the information you include is substantiated in a tangible way by the rest of the information in your resume
If you write an objective make sure that you think about the limits it could place on your candidacy before submitting it to a recruiter
Don't write anything that could cause recruiters or hiring managers to roll their eyes or laugh at your resume. Example: listing membership in Mensa or talking about your "great people skills".
Article by Liz Handlin and courtesy of Ultimate Resumes
Right on - a resume is about the facts, not being verbose.