Job Search Strategies: A summary for your resume

Aurora Donnelly is a solo practitioner always looking forward to the next exciting transition.

Over the years I have read a lot about including a short description of who you are, professionally, at the top of your resume. This is a short paragraph that lists your particular talents, makes a quick reference to your experience and triumphs, and briefly highlights what you have to offer a prospective employer.

You have probably heard about the “commercial” or brief personal story that you should prepare when you start your job search.  Well, the resume summary serves a similar purpose, except that it is inserted in your resume, instead of being spoken to possible job contacts.

Career strategists and career coaches, outplacement professionals, all have their own, firmly held opinions about this summary.  Having read and evaluated hundreds of resumes in a previous career, and having myself been the beneficiary of much advice from said career coaches, etc., I come down vehemently on the side of the “pro summary” crowd.

The “con” crowd arguments are: 1) that recruiters will not read the summary; 2) the employer doesn’t care about you, just what you can do for them 3) the summary just takes up precious space on your resume that can be devoted instead to pertinent experience you have to offer. There are probably several other “con” arguments that I can’t remember right now.

All good writing provides summaries of some kind to lead the reader through the content and purpose of a piece.  Having come from a business background where speed and efficiency are hugely important I know the value of a summary.  Every business proposal contains, at the very beginning, an executive summary.  For example, as a business executive you should be able to read a high level summary of the project/idea/plan and be able to determine its value, possibly without reading the detail further on in the proposal.

Similarly, in a memorandum of law the legal issues are presented and summarized up front to inform readers of the general content to follow.  Often, for complex legal questions, a summary of the facts is used to help the reader grasp the legal questions being analyzed.

When I read a resume, I want to be able to determine very quickly whether the applicant is qualified for the job I have to fill.  I want to know if the applicant can write and, if the applicant can sell his or herself.  Every job involves selling, every successful resume tells a compelling story.

Without the upfront framework and information provided by the summary, as an interviewer you start out reading blind and have to modify your opinion of the applicant’s background and qualifications as you move down the resume, a much more laborious process.

Of course, equally important is the education section.  But, again, you can cover pertinent education right away in your summary and give the hiring manager a quick overview of your degrees, licenses/bar admissions and experience.

The summary should, unequivocally, describe what you can do for an employer and as such, is your advertising “tagline.”  The summary positions you in the prospective employer’s mind as a candidate worth considering.  For example, if you are a patent attorney applying for a job practicing patent law, you say so immediately in the summary. You mention, very briefly, what types of products/services/intellectual property you have worked on (hopefully the kind of work the employer is looking for), what degrees you have earned, special projects/cases you have worked on, major successes or special skills, languages, for example.  This format also permits you to introduce two or three key words about your work style or your personal qualities.

All this information should be laid out in an easy-to-read narrative style, in one to three sentences, altogether no more than about 50 words.   A well-written succinct summary highlighting key skills, experience and educational accomplishments, slanted to the particular position, is key.  This will give you a better chance to gain the prospective employer’s interest and continue to read the body of the resume.

I do not have sufficient space here to outline the summary idea in any more detail, but look at some sample resumes with summaries.  Ask people who regularly look at resumes.  Then decide for yourself.