The Profile or Summary section at the very beginning of many résumés is the most underrated and abused section of all. Underrated because most professionals don’t fully understand how powerful this opening section of the CV can be, which is to say, extremely powerful. Abused because far too many people create fluffy and meaningless Profile sections that negatively impact their chances of being a top candidate.
Objectives – as dead as Novell Netware
First things first. If you still have an “Objective” statement on your résumé, that needs to go. Remove it. Prospective employers are looking for what’s in it for them – from the very first moment they review your résumé. While they are ultimately interested in your career goals, that interest will only be a focus once you have been chosen as a front-running candidate. Job #1 for your résumé is to get the prospective hiring leader or HR person hooked. The old-fashioned “Objective” does not do that.
Other opening gambits?
What about starting your CV with your Education, Certs and Skills? Or just leading with your Experience? Opening a résumé with Education is worthwhile for a recent grad (either undergrad or career-changing master’s or MBA grad because you are showcasing your new degree and using that as leverage for a career change). For everyone else, Education, Certs and Technical Skills belong AFTER the Experience section.
Making the abrupt jump from your name and contact details to your Experience section is a fail because you have just lost an important opportunity to market your entire career and fit for the job you’ve targeted. It’s a critical first impression that you potentially will now never have another chance to make.
Enter the Profile
The purpose of the Profile, Summary or Summary of Qualifications (whatever you choose to call it) is to provide the reviewer with an executive summary of your career: the big picture overview of who you are as a professional, how you have developed, your industry sector experience, certs and hot skills.
This overview also includes the elements of your career that generally appear on the second or third pages of your resume such as the highlights of early career work (consulting, Big 4, big-name company), post-grad degrees, certifications or technical skills. You want the hiring manager to know about those items in your Profile because they may never even get to the second or third page if you don’t.
Your marketing goals are to: 1) introduce yourself in the most compelling way possible to get the reviewer to ACTUALLY read your entire resume; 2) demonstrate that you have the self-awareness, business savvy, and writing skills to craft a highly informative executive summary.
You want to show the external reviewer of your résumé (a prospective boss typically) that you understand the breadth and depth of your own work and also of their role well enough to write a Profile that captures their attention and makes them consider you for the role.
Key takeaway: You want your résumé to be in the “keep” pile rather than the waste bin. A robust Profile is your first best move for advancing your candidacy.
One size does NOT fit all
The concept of using the Profile to signal and demonstrate your understanding of the job you are targeting means that you must take the time to customize your Profile for each job pursuit. The Profile section is not something you write once and then “done and dusted,” you never touch it again. Nope, it is a very dynamic part of your résumé. Review it and polish it every time you are applying for a job.
Think of your Profile as a short story, with a beginning, middle and end:
- The beginning is typically a single sentence where you tell the reviewer who you are as a professional (such as a senior information security analyst; an IT audit leader; an IT risk management professional).
- The middle provides the content that aligns with the target company, industry and job description. Include key technical skills and experience such as work in the same or allied industry vertical; large/small/start-up/global/private company experience, and so forth.
- A compelling accomplishment and/or leadership experience appropriate for the role also belongs in the middle section.
- The end could be some combo of your certifications; master’s degree; public speaking; published author; board membership; entrepreneurial experience; volunteer or community work that demonstrates important leadership; or other eye-catching and relevant elements of your story.
Putting this into practice
If the role requires third-party vendor management skills and you have done that in all three of your past roles with increasing depth in that area, you need to say that in your summary. If you have worked with blockchain, and the job description references blockchain experience, you need to call that out. If you have written complex IT audit programs from scratch, and that is what the job calls for, then let the hiring leader know that right in your Profile.
Profile abuse: The inclusion of self-description and big talk
This is where so many Profiles fall down. Self-assessments such as “visionary,” “excellent communicator,” “team player,” “highly collaborative,” and “innovative” must be deleted from your Profile. Similarly, claims and accomplishments that sound inflated.
Why? Simply put, hiring managers don’t believe this stuff.
Fluff hurts more than helps
When a résumé reviewer is confronted with a boatload of high-praise adjectives in the Profile, the candidate has instantly set a high bar. The self-praise typically creates the impression that the candidate is lacking in appropriate self-awareness. Worse yet, it may cause the hiring manager to judge the candidate’s experience even more critically than they might have done otherwise because they start reading the CV with a certain skepticism, the “Oh yeah, you think you’re all that—let’s see” lens.
Key takeaway: A well-written Profile is based on the facts of your experience. Lofty self-description and claims you cannot support with solid résumé content do not belong in your Profile.
The litmus test for a powerful Profile
Once you have written your Profile, have a mentor or other critical reviewer read it and provide the following feedback:
- What is their response to your Profile?
- Did it draw them in? (Like a good hook at the beginning of an article.)
- Show them the job description. Do they see the alignment?
- Would they short-list you for the role based only on the Profile?
The future of your career hangs in the balance
It is absolutely worthwhile to spend the time to learn how to write a show-stopping Profile. Mastering the Profile is a skill that, once attained, will serve you well for the entirety of your career.
It is not overstating it to say that certain opportunities may come your way simply because your Profile actually caused a hiring leader to read your résumé and put it on the top candidate pile.