Please submit a copy of your resume. Note to Applicant & Clarification Statement If the Company offers you employment the offer of employment will be contingent upon the satisfactory result of a confidential pre-hiring drug test. Finance Managers enable management and clients to make informed business decisions by offering financial support and advice. Essential responsibilities of a Finance Manager include gathering and analyzing financial data, forecasting future trends, developing business plans, making recommendations to improve business performance, mitigating financial risk, finding ways to reduce costs,. Even the phrase is scary, calling to mind yawning chasms void of all light and sound—and any hope for a new job. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Knowing how to explain gaps in your employment history isn't as difficult as you may think. There are dozens of reasons why you might have gaps in your resume. Good news: It shouldn't hinder your job search.
There are a couple big reasons your resume summary statement (or your CV “profile” if you’re in the UK) is so important.
Someone asked me recently:
“Biron… I heard hiring managers only spend an average of 10 seconds reading a resume. So resumes are meaningless, right?”
My answer: Disk cleaner free your hard drive space 1 2.
“That’s how long they take to scan your resume while DECIDING whether to keep reading. If they like what they see, they’re going to keep reading past 10 seconds. But you have to grab their attention.”
And your resume summary is one of the best places to do this because it appears at the very top and gets seen almost every time.
So I got in touch with a select group of professional resume writers, coaches and career experts to get their best resume summary examples you can copy and adapt into your own resume or CV. I included two I’ve personally written for clients as well.
These examples will help you at any experience level – whether you’re writing a professional summary after a long executive career, or writing your first resume summary without any experience!
After you finish this article you’re NEVER going to have to send out a limp, weak resume summary statement again (and you’ll get far more interviews because of it).
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Why this resume summary is good:
This summary’s strength lies in the unique information that has been included. By including revenue stats, names of past employers and partners, the reader right away sees that this person will bring to the role a strong networking ability with key players in his industry, and more importantly can build, grow and revitalize a sales organization, market or product.
By: Virginia Franco, Founder of Virginia Franco Resumes and Forbes contributor.
Marketing Professional | Medical Educator | Nutritional Advocate
Dynamic and motivated professional with a proven record of generating and building relationships, managing projects from concept to completion, designing educational strategies, and coaching individuals to success. Skilled in building cross-functional teams, demonstrating exceptional communication skills, and making critical decisions during challenges. Adaptable and transformational leader with an ability to work independently, creating effective presentations, and developing opportunities that further establish organizational goals.
Why this is a good summary section:
This is a resume summary statement that was for a candidate returning to work after having her own business for 15+ years. Because of this, we needed to emphasize her soft skills and what she can bring to this potential position. In addition, we highlighted the skills she has honed as a business owner so that she can utilize these qualifications as a sales professional, account manager, and someone knowledgeable about nutrition, medicine, and the overall sales process.
By: Dr. Heather Rothbauer-Wanish. MBA, PhD, CPRW, and Founder of Feather Communications
Human Resources Generalist with progressive experience managing employee benefits & compliance, employee hiring & onboarding, performance management processes, licensure tracking and HR records. Dependable and organized team player with the ability to communicate effectively and efficiently. Skilled at building relationships with employees across all levels of an organization. Proficient with HRIS, applicant tracking and benefits management.
Why this is a good resume summary:
The applicant highlights their experience across a wide range of HR functions from the very first sentence, andcontinues this pattern throughout the rest of the summary.They then use easily digestible langue to showcase their hard skills (in the first & fourth sentences) and soft skills (in the second & third sentences). They also integrate a variety of keywords to get past automated job application systems, without sounding spammy or without over-doing it.
By: Kyle Elliott, MPA/CHES, Career Coach and Consultant
Social media expert with expertise in the creation and management of social media strategies and campaigns for global retail organisations
With extensive experience in the commercial utilisation of multiple social media channels including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube; I build successful social strategies that increase brand awareness, promote customer engagement and ultimately drive web traffic and conversions. With a degree in psychology and strong business acumen, I bring a customer focused approach to online and social marketing.
Why this summary is good:
This summary is well-written, short, sharp and gives recruiters a high-level explanation of the candidate’s core offerings in a persuasive and punchy style. A quick scan of this profile tells you the exact type of social media platforms the candidate is expert in, as well as the campaigns they have experience of running and types of organisations they have worked for. Most importantly, the summary is rounded off by showing the results that this person achieves for their employers, such as increased web traffic and conversions.
Editor’s note: This CV profile summary was written for the UK market… this is a great one to use/copy, but make sure you put it through a spell-checker if you’re applying for jobs in the US (utilisation vs. utilization, etc.)
By: Andrew Fennell, Director at StandOut CV, contributor for The Guardian and Business Insider
Marketing Manager with over eight years of experience. Proven success in running email marketing campaigns and implementing marketing strategies that have pulled in a 20% increase in qualified leads. Proficient in content, social media and inbound marketing strategies. Skilled, creative and innovative.
Why this summary is good:
This resume summary stands out because it gets straight to the point. Through immediately introducing the number of years experience the candidate has, the HR manager doesn’t need to spend time adding up years. The candidate also jumps right into his or her strongest skill, provides a statistic, then gives additional skills.
By: Sarah Landrum, Founder of Punched Clocks, contributor at Entrepreneur.com and Forbes
Warehouse Supervisor with Management, Customer Service, & Forklift Experience
Why this summary is good:
The applicant was applying for a warehouse supervisor position that required them to have demonstrated management, customer service and forklift experience. As such, the applicant showcased their experience in these areas with a few keywords in the title, followed by additional details in the accompanying bullet points. Their final bullet shows a record of promotions, while reinforcing the applicant’s customer service and project management skills.
By: Kyle Elliott, MPA/CHES, Career Coach and Consultant
Experienced Project Manager with vast IT experience. Skills include computer networking, analytical thinking and creative problem solving. Able to apply customer service concepts to IT to improve user experience for clients, employees and administration.
Why this resume summary is good:
Because this candidate is switching career paths, it’s important he or she take skills used for previous positions and apply those skills to the new job listing. This is a great example because the candidate makes it clear that his or her experience is not in the new field, but that they are still able to bring relevant experience to the table.
When writing your resume summary, keep these tips in mind: Use writing that is straight to the point, clear and concise, you’ll have a higher chance of getting noticed by the hiring manager.
By: Sarah Landrum, Founder of Punched Clocks, contributor at Entrepreneur.com and Forbes
Earn trust, uncover key business drivers and find common ground as chief negotiator and identifier of revenue opportunities in sales, leadership and account management roles spanning e-Commerce, air travel and high-tech retail.
Navigate cultural challenges while jumping time zones, lead international airline crews and manage corporate accounts to deliver an exceptional customer experience. A self-taught techie sought after as a go-to for complex billing systems and SaaS platforms alike—bridging the divide between technology and plain-speak.
Why this summary is good:
This client was eager for a career change and had moved from role to role and industry-to-industry. After completing her Master’s degree, she was eager to tie her skills together to land a role – which she did – as a Senior Technology Account Strategist for a global travel company.
Although a bit longer than a traditional summary, the strength of it lies in the details. Without ever getting to the experience section, the reader gets a clear idea of the scope of responsibility, and hard and soft skills the candidate brings to the table.
By: Virginia Franco, Founder of Virginia Franco Resumes and Forbes contributor.
15+ years of initiating and delivering sustained results and effective change for Fortune 500 firms across a wide range of industries including enterprise software, digital marketing, advertising technology, e-commerce and government. Major experience lies in strategizing and leading cross-functional teams to bring about fundamental change and improvement in strategy, process, and profitability – both as a leader and expert consultant.
Why this summary is good:
“Project Manager” is one of those job titles that’s REALLY broad. You can find project managers earning $50K, and others earning $250K. The client I wrote this for was at the Director level, and had worked for some of the biggest and best tech companies in her city. So this resume profile section shows her level and experience, and the wide array of areas she has responsibility for in her current work. You can borrow or use some of the phrasing here to show that you’ve been responsible for many important areas in your past work.
By: Biron Clark, Founder of CareerSidekick.com, contributor for Huffington Post and Business.com
Experienced strategist, entrepreneur and startup enthusiast with a passion for building businesses and challenging the status quo. 8+ year track-record of defining new business strategies, launching new ventures, and delivering operational impact, both as a co-founder and management consultant.
Why this summary is good:
This summary was for a highly-talented management consultant looking to break out of finance, and into trendier tech companies like Uber. His track record and educational background were great, so the goal of this summary section was to stand out and show he’s more than just the typical consultant with a finance background. So we emphasized his passion for startups, his ability to think outside the box and challenge the status quo. That’s something that companies like Uber and other “disruptive” tech companies look for.
By: Biron Clark, Founder of CareerSidekick.com, contributor for Huffington Post and Business.com
Now you have 10 resume summary statements and explanations for why they’re effective. Use this as a starting point while writing your own, and make sure yours is attention-grabbing, specific, and to-the-point.
As you read this, you probably noticed there are some short single-paragraph professional summary examples, and much longer resume summaries that are 2-3 paragraphs plus bullet points.
So how long should YOUR professional summary on your resume be?
When you’re creating your resume, here’s what I recommend:
If you have relevant work experience, keep your summary super short. The piece you really want the hiring manager reading is your most recent work experience (and make sure you tailored that info to fit the job description).
The resume summary is just a “bridge” to get the hiring manager into your experience.
However, if you’re changing careers, or you’re looking for jobs without any work experience, the summary section needs to stand on its own, and should be longer. So use the longer examples above.
If you follow the advice above, you’ll have a great professional resume summary to make your qualifications stand out to employers.
But landing the interview is only half the battle… So make sure you go into every interview ready to convince employers that they should hire you, too!
If you write a great resume summary example that gets employers excited to interview you, they’re going to ask you questions like, “tell me about yourself” early in the interview to learn more about your background. So make sure you’re prepared with an answer.
I also recommend you review the top 14 interview questions and answers here.
Your resume caught their interest, so naturally, they’re going to follow up with a variety of questions to learn more about your professional background.
The bottom line is: A strong professional resume summary, followed up by other well-written resume sections will get you the interview, but your interview performance is what determines whether you get the job offer!
You don’t want to waste all the work that went into applying for jobs and writing an awesome resume, so prepare for each and every interview!
Here are a few other recommended resources to help with this:
UPDATE:
If you have interviews coming up and don’t want to leave anything to chance, I’ve created a new guide where you can copy my exact step-by-step method for getting job offers. You can get more details here.
Listing achievements is what differentiates the top candidates from the rest.
See, most job-seekers only talk about their responsibilities and day-to-day tasks.
But that’s not what’s going to make you stand out.
The hiring manager knows EXACTLY what responsibilities you have for your profession. After all, they’re the one that wrote your job description!
Instead, to really get ahead of the competition, you should talk about your achievements and accomplishments.
This way, your resume is focused on how you stand out and not on what your job title is.
This guide will cover:
Now, let’s start with the “Why?”
Why are achievements and accomplishments so important?
Well, compare these 2 entries:
See the difference?
The first shows how, exactly, you stand out from the rest. You managed to hit KPIs (which is good) AND exceed them (even better) for 5 months in a row (amazing!).
The second example, on the other hand, doesn’t say anything at all. It’s pretty obvious that you did sales - you do, after all, work in sales.
Huge difference, right?
Now, let’s move on to the next topic:
You should list your achievements in the following sections on your resume:
Now, let’s cover each section one by one.
Listing accomplishments in the work experience section is the most common way to go:
You should also include achievements in your resume summary.
A resume summary is a short summary of your career that goes on top of your resume:
This section acts as an introduction to the rest of your resume, covering the main points and highlights.
Here’s what your average resume summary looks like:
“Experienced project manager with 5+ years of work experience seeking a position at Company X. Previous experience includes working at Company Y, developing software for clients such as Client A and Client B.”
This summary example is OK at best. All it says is that you’ve worked as a project manager for 5+ years in 2 companies.
Newsflash: so have all the other candidates.
Now, here’s what happens if we add an achievement or two.
“Experienced project manager with 5+ years of work experience seeking a position at Company X. Managed cross-department teams of 15+ people. Successfully managed the development of several software projects, including Project A and Project B.”
Yep - there’s a RIGHT way to list achievements.
See, the more detailed you write them, the more you’ll stand out.
Compare these 2 examples:
Significantly improved sales.
VS
Improved product sales by 12%, which led to a 20% increase in annual revenue.
The first is OK, but it’s not nearly detailed enough.
What’s “significant?” You could’ve improved sales by selling ONE extra product, or you could have lifted company revenue by 10%.
The HR manager has no way of knowing which one it was! Ford focus 3.
So, when possible, each of your achievements should include:
1) Timeframe
2) Scale
3. Results
This is a very common question among job-seekers.
Unless you were actively keeping track of your results at your job, you probably don’t know how much impact, exactly, did your work have.
The solution here is pretty straightforward: just reach out to your previous employer and ask for the data. They should be more than happy to send it over!
Moving forward, though, we’d recommend really keeping track of your results and achievements in your next job.
You’ll thank us for it later!
If you’re a student or a recent graduate, you probably don’t have that much work experience (so you can’t exactly list too many achievements there).
What you can do, though, is list your achievements in several other sections, such as:
How to use xbox 360 controller for terraria mac. Need some inspiration?
Here are 101 achievements you can steal (for different positions):
Sales Associate
For more examples, check out our guide to the sales associate resume.
Customer Service
For more examples, check out our guide to the customer service resume.
Cashier
For more examples, check out our guide to the cashier resume.
Office Manager
Administrative Assistant
For more examples, check out our guide to the administrative assistant resume.
Accountant
Financial Analyst
For more examples, check out our guide to the financial analyst resume.
Bank Teller
Branch Manager
Recruiter
Data Analyst
For more examples, check out our guide to the data analyst resume.
Business Development Manager
For more examples, check out our guide to the business development resume.
Project Manager
For more examples, check out our guide to the project manager resume.
Marketing Manager
For more examples, check out our guide to the marketing manager resume.
Media Buying Specialist
SEO Specialist
IT Specialist
For more examples, check out our guide to the IT resume.
Software Engineer
For more examples, check out our guide to the computer science resume.
Professor
Teacher
For more examples, check out our guide to the teacher resume.
Tutor
Architect
For more examples, check out our guide to the architect resume.
Bar & Restaurant Manager
For more examples, check out our guide to the bar manager resume.
Engineering Resume
For more examples, check out our guide to the engineering resume.
High School Resume
For more examples, check out our guide to the high school resume.
Now, let’s recap everything we’ve learned:
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