This page covers everything you need to know about a CV summary, including how to write one and professional examples.
OUR USERS HAVE BEEN HIRED BY
A CV summary is a paragraph at the top of your CV and provides an overview of your work history and years of experience, skills, and qualifications.
Sometimes a summary is referred to as a personal profile, personal statement, or a professional summary. In every case, a summary acts as an introduction to you as a work professional. This can be particularly important if you are just starting out in the work world, are making a career change, or are looking at a specific sector of work. Writing a good CV summary can benefit any CV.
In this post, we’ll be giving you tips on how to write a CV summary, explaining why it’s important for job seekers, and providing examples of summaries for different careers.
A summary statement allows you to quickly get across your career focus and major strengths as a job candidate to the hiring manager. They can be utilised by anyone writing a CV, but they are particularly useful in these three situations:
CV summaries are placed at the top of a CV, providing an overview at a glance for recruiters of what your full CV contains. They’re a great way to grab an employer’s attention straight away.
So you’ve decided that you want to add a summary section to your CV. But where to start? These next steps provide you with a step-by-step guide on how to achieve the best CV summary. You can also find many CV summary examples and resume summary examples for inspiration at CVHelp
.
Mark out the most important elements of the job description you’re looking at and write down examples of when you’ve achieved this in your professional experience. These may be specific skills and competencies, relevant experiences, management, specialist or IT knowledge, or academic achievements. Once you’ve studied the job description, pick two or three of these key requirements to highlight in your career summary for your potential employer.
Tell the recruiter what kind of work you’re currently doing. It’s a space to write a few lines about your profession, how long you’ve worked in this field, and what you could contribute to the role. If you have any quantifiable data proving your track record of success, include it here.
If you’re new to working, now is your opportunity to talk passionately about your work aspirations. If you are looking for a career change, you can talk about your transferable skills and your reasons for looking for new types of opportunities.
Don’t forget that relevant skills apply to many roles. Problem-solving, time management, and communication skills are important elements of your skill set no matter what role you’re applying for, so don’t be afraid to mention them.
Pulling from your past work experiences is a great way of showing that you’re qualified for a role. Any professional experience should be referenced in the CV summary. But also add any other facts that may contribute to making an attention-grabbing application. What makes YOU right for the role? You can list achievements in bullet points if you wish to condense information. For some roles, it can be good to list relevant internships, certifications, or awards you’ve gained along your career journey
Your CV summary will be different depending on the type of role you’re applying for. Therefore, it’s important to tailor your CV summary to each job description on each job application.
Here are some examples of professional CV summaries with different sector focuses:
Detail-oriented project manager with 5+ years of professional experience and exemplary organisational and creative problem-solving skills. Proven track record of meeting deadlines and increasing team output by 15%.
Human resources professional with 7 years of experience managing hiring and onboarding, employee benefits, payroll, performance tracking methods, and training schemes. A reliable team member with outstanding interpersonal skills.
Marketing manager with over 8 years of experience leading marketing campaigns. Expertise includes all aspects of digital marketing, including social media, email marketing, and SEO optimisation, with a proven track record of increasing website traffic leading to higher conversion rates.
Now that you’ve written yourself the perfect CV summary, check our blogs for help with writing the rest of your CV and cover letter. Explore our CV templates and cover letter templates for inspiration. Here at CVHelp, we’ve got all the information you’ll need to bag yourself that dream job.
A CV summary is a short description of your qualifications, skills, or experiences that explains why you’re a good fit for the role. A CV objective is a brief statement that communicates your career goals and ambitions, along with your top skills.
Yes. You should tailor your CV, and your summary section, for each job application. During your job search, pay attention to each job title and its description. Use the information given to you to customise your CV so that it addresses the needs of the recruiter. You should demonstrate you are perfect for the role you’re applying for, so a generic CV won’t do that. Human resources departments are adept at spotting overly generic CVs.
Your CV should include a header at the top with your contact information and links to related social media profiles or portfolio sites. You should then have your CV summary or objective, your skills section, your professional experience section, and your qualifications. Check out our collection of CV templates and examples so you don’t have to start from scratch.
We personalize your experience.
We use cookies in our website to ensure we give you the best experience, get to know our users and deliver better marketing. For this purpose, we may share the information collected with third parties. By clicking “Allow cookies” you give us your consent to use all cookies. If you prefer to manage your cookies click on the “Manage cookies” link below.