Career Development Guide - Western Michigan University

RESUME WRITING
14
Objectives, Summaries, and Profiles
Writing objective statements, summaries, or profiles can be one of the most challenging parts of creating an effective
resume. Statements are positioned after your contact information, and use sentence fragments or phrases with minimal
punctuation. These statements establish a professional identity and summarize key qualifications and accomplishments
while informing the reader of position(s) being sought or career goals.
Consider the following two resume objectives. Which tells the hiring manager more?
� Sample #1: Seeking a position allowing me to utilize my knowledge and expertise in different areas.
� Sample #2: Enthusiastic management student in search of an internship with Target Stores that will utilize
communication and customer service skills in a high-paced, team-oriented environment.
An objective, summary or profile should answer the following questions:
� Who are you? What are your personal attributes and field of work?
� What type of position (part-time, internship, full-time) are you seeking? State the job title if applying for a specific
position.
� What can you contribute (strengths, skills, areas of expertise)? Be specific and align with employer needs.
� What type of organization or work setting is of interest to you?
Objectives
Objective statements should be brief (2-3 lines), simple, and specific. Remember, a recruiter is more interested in what
you can give the company than what you hope to get from it. Objectives work best for people who know what job they
want, who have little experience in their field (i.e. student or recent graduate), who are making a significant career
change, or career goals are not obvious from their career history.
Creative and enthusiastic classroom leader seeks a 6-12 secondary English teaching position with Kalamazoo Public
Schools where I can foster growth in students’ knowledge through inquiry-based learning while having the opportunity to
participate in extracurricular activities including academic and athletic programming.
Summaries
Professional summaries highlight the most important experiences relevant to the position you are seeking, giving greater
visibility to your most important strengths and talents. Summaries are often used by those with a variety of experiences
and who want the flexibility to keep the summary generic about past experiences and customizing the cover letter or
email to express interest about a specific position.
Four years of editing and writing experience for college and high school newspapers. Interned as an assistant account
executive with copywriting responsibilities at local advertising agency. Sold advertising space, managed advertising
sales, promotion, production, and circulation. Winner of the 2011 Western Michigan University Lawrence, Clara, and
Evelyn E. Burke Journalism Scholarship.
Profiles
Profiles are similar to summaries; many use the two terms interchangeably. Profiles have opening statements packed with
skills, abilities, personal attributes, and often bullet several accomplishments immediately following the profile. Based on
your job-search situation, your profile may also include an objective.
Master’s prepared candidate in engineering management searching for a space planner position with a global
manufacturing organization. Two years experience in design, process management and space planning for large hospital
system. Proficient in database design, process mapping and time studies. Excellent leadership, project management, and
conflict management skills. Fluent in conducting business in Spanish and French.
� Redesigned an outpatient clinic that resulted in a 15 percent increase in productivity.
� Led a project team to evaluate space utilization in a pharmacy that managed over 3,000 medications.
� Utilized data, focus groups and process improvement teams to lead space utilization and process improvement
initiatives with 12 food service employees.