Is a Professional Summary that important?

Fayz

Hey guys,

Is a professional summary all that important on a resume? Are recruiters going to skip that and jump to look at the experience, education and certification sections?

networker050184

I always read the summary and skim around the rest when I look at resumes on the first pass personally.

danny069

When my eyes skim a resume, because I don't think many people read the whole thing, my eyes usually go like this: Name (1/4 of a second) , Location (1/2 of a second), Summary (5 seconds), Experience (5 Seconds on most recent), Experience #2 (1 second), Experience #3 (1/4 of a second), Education (1 second on the most recent only) Certs (5 seconds)

Bloogen

I think it is very important, especially for those with less experience, for them it is probably the single most important and useful spot on your resume. Not only are you generating first impressions but it's an area where you are able to present yourself in a way that goes beyond the binary list of jobs and certifications completed.

Remember your resume is not just a list of facts, it tells a story to the reader of who you are. As someone who reads a lot of resumes when you read/skim through it you subconsciously make a kind of one sentence summary of the person based on your impressions.

As you read through your resume, ask yourself what does the reader think about? What do you want them to think about? You then craft every section to angle the reader to thinking what you want them to think.

Imagine two hiring managers talking to each other after reviewing resumes for half the day and one asking the other, "Hey, what did you think of Fayz?"

The other person is going to say, "Was he the the ______ guy with the _____?." What will those blanks be for you? If you want to be known as someone who specializes in a specific area don't leave them to deduce this from a random bullet point. The professional summary is the first element on your resume and the one you can be the most creative with, so use it.

Whenever formatting a resume also remember a rule I use, whatever appears first and most often will be considered the most. That applies within the entire structure in the resume or even a bullet list. If you you have many high level certifications, start with that, if your school background is more impressive, put that first. If you have your CCIE don't list certs starting with A+, Network+ etc then finally get to CCIE 5 bullets down the list.

Remember they are creating an impression of who you are as they read, so lead with things you are strongest in and more importantly things you want to be known for.

TechGuru80

How else does a company know your career intentions? If they want for example...somebody who wants to get into management, but you simply want to be a technical employee it's probably not the right fit for either person.

cyberguypr

Extremely valuable. When I moved from Systems Engineer to Infosec Engineer the Professional Summary was a key component in communicating my expertise, accomplishments, strengths, as well as how all of these would coalesce with my future employer's needs.

OctalDump

TechGuru80 wrote: »

How else does a company know your career intentions? If they want for example...somebody who wants to get into management, but you simply want to be a technical employee it's probably not the right fit for either person.

This makes me wonder how many people, particularly early in their career, would be that focussed on a particular path. I'm guessing that most people are happy to take the job and see what happens. So, maybe this "professional summary" is the bit where to put in what things you might think are really important to point out, which for some people might be along the lines of "flexible".

Kinet1c

I have 3 bullet points as a professional summary and they are somewhat like this:
1. Improve my skillset regularly and aim to share what I've learned
2. Work with people who follow item 1
3. Work smarter, not harder

If a company doesn't see value in the above, then I don't want to work for them as they're most likely an inefficient company who places little value on personal growth.