By Randeep Singh / Resume Writing
Does the thought of getting drowned in a sea of resumes, and never getting noticed, owing to the number of candidates apply through for any job dampen your spirits? Do you often struggle to find words and phrases when it comes to describing yourself, your achievements, or how you do what you do to others in a nut shell? A well written resume with professional summary at the top can help you get the desired attention from your target employers.
The challenge is to catch the interest of the target recruiters while they sift through loads of resumes with not enough time to read into details of all of them. The profile summary in resume is like a beacon which shouts out to the recruiter: “I am the one you are looking for.”
As a routine, recruiters are used to seeing resumes with similar attributes, talking about unreal traits and achievements, look alike formatting, and resumes that smell of being baked in the same common oven; mostly copied from free formats available online or elsewhere, .
Employers are NOT AT ALL interested in how much experienced you are or at doing certain things in general related to your KRAs. What they are looking for is what benefit can you be of to what their business is at present.
They cannot afford to give more than 10 seconds worth of a glance to individual resumes at the screening stage. Experienced recruiters can smell the worth of the profile at hand even in lesser time. So how do you catch their attention at this stage and trigger their inquisitiveness to know you more, or read the resume further.
This is where the role of resume with professional summary comes in. These lines placed at the top of the resume have the task of catching and projecting the essence of: how good you are at what you do? what is so different about you? can you add to the profits of the prospective business?
Resume with Vague Professional Summary
Recruiters of various organizations, more se of reputed ones, receive a deluge of resume profiles as soon a new vacancy is put out to the prospective candidates. Do you think they go through each and every details of the resume before screening them for an interview call? Is it even practically possible.
A fool gives away his foolishness to others the moment he opens his mouth. First impression do matter anywhere. Similarly, the way you had expressed yourself on to your resume will decide whether you will get an interview call or not.
Let us examine the contents of a resumes with professional summary and attempt to understand whether it can stand a chance of getting a job interview.
Put yourself in the recruiter’s position, as if you are screening this resume for your own organization (for any position), and contemplate on if you would like to meet this candidate face to face.
Resume with Professional Summary – 1
Over 23 years’ experience in Strategic Planning, Manufacturing Operations, Systems Reengineering, Process Management and Quality Management with reputed organisations in India and Overseas, including 5 years experience as Profit Center Head with Profit and Loss Responsibilities, New Product Development, Product Costing & Supply Chain Management and 8 years experiences in Steel Pipe manufacturing.
Skilled in Design, Development and management of Robust Processes & Methods and procured new machineries for achieving Productivity enhancement as well as reduction in Rejection Levels & Costs.
Well-versed with Quality Management approaches like Lean Practices, 5-S, Kaizen, Quality Circles, TPM and Six Sigma Black Belt Certified Professional.
Successfully handled the “MPVC Pipe Project Implementation” from Scratch to Manufacturing with accreditation of AS/NZS (Australian/New Zealand) Product Standards.
An Effective Communicator with Strong Leadership, People Management, Coordination, Interpersonal Skills and Analytical Skills
The first profile talks about the years of experience in numbers (23years), the areas this experience is in and another 5 years at a certain position with certain responsibilities. Next, it talks about holding another 8 years of experience in another area of work.
What does all this signify? A very general representation of roles and responsibilities this profile has held for a period of around 36 years. Does it in any way convey the quality of work this profile has done over that long a span of work history.
‘Handling certain responsibilities’ does not convey the achievements or the effectiveness of how those responsibilities were fulfilled by the incumbent. In large organisations, even a mediocre performer can keep sitting on certain responsibilities without loosing his, or her Job on the same, for years together,
Why would a recruiter want to meet someone who is being represented by such a generalised resume with profile summary that vague and casual. Rather writing a resume with professional summary that exhibits – clarity, is brief, and tempting for the recruiter – must be a very crucial part of the over all job interview strategy of any aspiring candidate.
Lastly the profile mentions the list of hard and soft skills the holder of the profile possesses ; again, without any proof or data that can substantiate the claims so made.
Such a profile appears to be the work of some one who is either not adept at conveying the facts in a format the recruiter is looking for or the profile has been copy pasted from some related or unrelated source.
Essentials of Profile Summary on Resume
The profile summary as mentioned in the resume above appears drab and bereft of anything concrete. Getting hired is a serious job. In case that priceless real estate (space) at the top of your resume doesn’t exhibit any real substance, about you, that can hook on to the hiring managers eye, there is by sure, a lost opportunity on your part.
Any organization, including your target one, is a commercial setup: it has to make money in order to sustain its existence. Does the profile summary on resume as mentioned above, in any way, talk about your abilities to make money for your employer?
Not at all! Forget about how much? Secondly does it, by any degree, anywhere, imply how do you fit into the prospective organization’s culture, values and belief system? Not. Don.t you think, however qualified, and apt you may be for the position in question, you can cause a lot of friction in their set up in case you do not align with their work culture.
The amount of fiscal boost you can give to the organization with your presence with them will be your value addition to the company, and the way your work style ( how you do things or make it happen) aligns with the organization’s work culture is your personal brand statement to them.
So, the value addition (in monetary terms) you can provide to the organization by seamlessly gelling with their work style (the way they work) is what the recruiter would be more interested to know first.
Very important! the value addition so projected must be ‘measurable’ and verifiable with concrete examples. Can you mention the percentage increase (20 % or 25 %) in the gross margins ( related to your work area) which can be clearly, compellingly, and briefly attributed to you?
A placement officer, in a institute, can mention the percentage of total candidates placed in various organizations on monthly basis. Placements are in any way directly linked to sales (new registrations) in any institute. Draw a clear equation between how much, in numbers, and percentage, the placements were effected which resulted into the related increase in sales.
‘ Placed a total of 1500 candidates over a period of 6 months ( since I joined the particular organization), which was 40 % increase over earlier period. This had contributed to a 15% of increase in sales of the various courses by way of references.
That’s a clear value addition you have effected to the organization’s revenue.
An effective resume with profile summary is the right place to add your personal brand to this mention of value addition. How did you achieve this? ‘Possess excellent convincing skills in counselling the clients (to look at the benefits of hiring our students) and the students ( to join the companies which would be beneficial for their desired career paths) to get into a profitable collaboration with each other.’
Thus the mention of the monetary benefits (value addition) you can contribute to the organization, and your working style ( passion, beliefs, soft skills that cannot be quantified are a must on your resume with profile summary.
These are the two main attributes the recruiters anywhere in the world look for, and can actually get you an invitation for a job hiring interview.
Four must haves on a Profile Summary on a Resume
Most of the resumes one cones across only speaks of ‘ responsible for’ details and not ‘money’ or potential of future ‘value addition’ of any kind. Such resumes are not written around what the decision makers are actually looking for.
Resumes based on career chronologies carry little value for a business setup against the one’s which talk about concrete monetary results. In case one wants to compel the target employer to pick up the phone and call one for a face to face conversation, the resume has to have these four essential elements within it.
These four elements, if presented on a resume with profile summary, can make the required impact as they would clearly and concisely convey ‘ what you do’ and ‘ how you do it’ to the decision maker.
1) Value addition one can bring in – the main thing one can do and how it can add value to the employers existing business.
2) Evidence of what one has done of value, and vouches for its exact repetition.
3) What is so unique about how one adds value to what one does. the personal brand statement.
4) How much passionate one is about what one does. How one thinks and feels about one’s job.
One must use these five elements to project oneself as a unique contributor to the business of one’s employers. It should talk about how one uses one’s personality traits to generate money for the employer.
Value Addition one can bring in
One must begin one’s resume with profile summary by keying in the value one can add to the business. The ultimate value one can add to the business of one’s employer is, of course, help him make more money.
One may not be a part of the sales team where the value addition is clearly discernible in terms of daily collections one has made. One may be good at establishing rapport with one’s colleagues as well as customers which can help ease out the selling and buying process for both the parties.
One must not shy away from putting one’s real qualities on the resume, be bold and professional. one must stand up for oneself.
All your previous job descriptions must be squeezed around this approach.
Evidence of Accomplishments
Next, move on to the evidence part. These are how one has used one’s unique abilities to accomplish what. How one’s negotiation skills had helped one close difficult deals with which clients.
Accomplishments with evidences when put on resume with professional summary can get one hired. These must be quantifiable in terms of money.
Mention what you achieved financially with what you possess – traits and knowledge. Translate this achievement in terms of money. For Example: Brought down the waste by 30 % over the previous period which saved the organization INR 5000 every month.
Another thing which is very important is that one may have achieved, accomplished certain things in one’s present organization, butt, does the prospect employer need them. What if there is no relation between your ability to identify and cut down on waste and the role they are looking for at present.
Just talk about results! if one can get results, one will get hired. The results one can deliver must be what the prospective employer is looking for.
Write your achievements in the profile summary on the resume as succinctly as possible. Do not stretch beyond two lines.
Personal Brand Statement
Personal brand statement is what puts one apart from all the others. That one unique thing which no one else possess. One’s unique selling preposition, in sales terminology, after all getting a job is a sales process in itself.
‘My speech has a certain calming quality to it,’ which helps me handle crisis situations better. ‘I possess a personality and mannerisms which inspire others to follow me,’ this makes me a better team leader.
Each one of us has that unique quality which others do not, have you identified it yet? and more important, have to put it to use to affect business results in your present organization. If not. Work on identifying it so that you can explain it along with the associated concrete benefits to your prospective employer.
No one like run of the mill personalities. If that was the case then why do people have different pay packages at similar qualifications and experience. Develop your personal brand statement as it is one of the most potent weapon in your resume with professional summary.
Passion for what you do
Positive energy is a magnetic force that can pull everything you want towards you. Passion is one of the manifestations of this energy. Your resume must clearly smell of your passion for your job.
If you do your job as if ‘because you have to do it’, or ‘ do not have any other option’ you will never be able to excel in it. There is a saying,’ love your job and it will never feel like work to you.’ This is the approach which the recruiters are looking for.
Phrases like, ‘I love expressing myself and interacting with others,’ exhibit your passion for the communication aspect of your job. Project yourself as if you are in the job by choice and not by compulsion. Its the passion for what you do that blinds you off to a lot of distractions in your path to achieve the desired results.
Adding lines like ‘Passionate about connecting with people’ can give you some extra brownie points for a position which is in anyway associated with customer service. ‘Enjoy interpreting data and enthused about how it can affect major decisions in my area of work.
Rub a smack of passion on to your resume with professional summary and see how it enchants your decision maker to nod in your favor.
Other Informative Articles….