I know you hear me talking about how important resumes are in your career development but don’t ignore it.. Did you know that your “well written” resume helps to communicate your your skills, knowledge based and qualifications to potential employers? Do you understand that it showcase what you can do for employers, when written strategically?

I need you to truly understand your resume is the advertisement for the business of YOU! Let that sink in for a moment. Do you think you didn’t have to sell when looking for jobs or career opportunities? Think again!

There are five to six key elements to an efficiently written resume. In this article, we will discuss one of the most important attention grabbing elements.

Your SUMMARY STATEMENTS (Summary Paragraph)
So, you’re asking me, what is a summary statement on a resume. It is a one to three statements communicating your specific years of expertise, knowledge base and skills relevant to the industry or position(s) for which you are applying. This paragraph should mention specific key words associated with the actual position, so it may change frequently based on the position(s). If you are over the age of forty years old, you may have some familiarity with the “OBJECTIVE” on a resume. The summary paragraph took the place of the objective and communicated more efficiently with the employer about what you have to offer.

Do you have a summary paragraph on your resume? If not, here is a sample I provided to one of my clients when I completed a full resume revision for them. They were applying for social work and youth rehabilitation type of positions for group homes and orphanages.

“Solid 20+ years of results oriented experience in social work and youth counseling with strong emphasis in teaching youth self-control, life skills, self-esteem and self-motivation. Consistently exceeding company goals and service expectations. Skilled in developing and implementing standardized policies and procedures that tangibly improved the lives of the youth population systematically.”

Now, this summary paragraph gave the employer a snapshot of what my client’s skills, their capabilities and their years of experience accomplishing the goals in their role. Now, keep in mind, the rest of the resume should quantify all the statements in the summary paragraph but it paints a great picture of my client so far.

By the way, does your resume have a summary paragraph helping to sell your skills, knowledge base, experience and qualification? If not, then a couple of resources to help you with that. If you’re looking to have your resume reviewed to see if it is working for you…then check out my first resource here. If you need your resume to be complete rewritten or created because you don’t have one or have a ineffective one….then check out my second resource here.

I want you to win in your career and your economic life, so your #1 career tool, also known as your resume, must work for you, not against you. If you have any questions about resumes, careers, interviewing or negotiation strategies, you can leave me a voicemail message by clicking the gray “send voicemail” tab on the right side of the page or go here and send me an email.