How to Write a Resume Summary (With Examples)
Your summary sits at the top of page one, so a reader usually sees it before anything else. Adjectives such as "hard-working" or "results-driven" use that space without telling the reader anything about you. A summary built from the four parts below tells them, in two or three sentences, which role you want and what evidence you have for it.
By ATSResumeKit TeamUpdated 5 min read
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The four parts
Write your summary from these four parts:
- The job title you are applying for, stated plainly.
- Your level: years of experience, or your strongest qualification if you are early in your career.
- Your specialty: two or three concrete skills or areas.
- One result with a number, ideally the strongest on your resume.
As a template: [target role] with [years of experience or qualification] in [one or two specialties from the posting]. [One result with a number.] Then edit it until it reads like you.
Aim for two or three sentences, about 40 to 70 words. The ATS checker flags a summary under 25 words, which leaves too little room for all four parts, and one over 110 words.
The summary goes directly under your contact details. The resume structure guide shows the order of the sections that follow it.
Before and after
The numbers in these examples are illustrations.
Before
Hardworking and motivated professional seeking a challenging position where I can utilise my skills and grow with the organisation.
After
Backend Developer with 6 years building high-throughput services in Node.js and Go. Scaled an event pipeline to 4.2M daily events at 99.98% reliability and cut database load by 60%.
Before
Recent graduate looking for an entry-level opportunity in data.
After
Statistics graduate seeking a Data Analyst role, with SQL, Python and Power BI experience from three complete projects, including a churn analysis of 40,000 customer records that identified two reasons customers left.
Examples from different jobs
The evidence changes with the job. A nurse proves different things from a business analyst, so changing the job title on a generic summary does not work. These examples use illustrative numbers.
Business Analyst with 5 years in insurance operations, specialising in requirements gathering and process redesign. Mapped and rebuilt a claims intake process that reduced average handling time from 11 days to 4.
The result is a change to a process.
Registered Nurse with 7 years in adult ICU and step-down care, BLS and ACLS certified. Charge nurse for a 24-bed unit; led a pressure-injury prevention programme that reduced hospital-acquired pressure injuries by 40% in a year.
Unit type and certifications come first because nursing postings often require them.
Licensed secondary Mathematics teacher with 9 years teaching grades 9 to 12, including AP Calculus. Redesigned the algebra support programme; the share of students passing the end-of-course exam rose from 61% to 78% over two years.
Subject, grades and licence come before the result.
Secondary teacher of 8 years moving into instructional design, with experience in curriculum development, assessment design and rolling out classroom software. Built a reading programme that met growth targets for 15 of 18 students with learning plans.
States the change in the first sentence and describes teaching work in instructional design terms.
Customer Service Representative with 3 years of phone and chat support for a broadband provider, using Zendesk and Salesforce. Resolved an average of 45 contacts a day and kept a customer satisfaction score of 92% over the last year.
Daily volume and a satisfaction score show how large the job was and how well it was done.
Commerce graduate applying for Accounts Assistant roles, with Tally, GST filing and Excel experience from a six-month internship at a chartered accountancy firm. Reconciled 300 vendor invoices a month during the internship with no errors raised at review.
The internship supplies the result. Name the tools that the posting you are answering asks for.
With no work experience at all, build the summary from your degree and your projects, as the statistics graduate did in the before-and-after example above. The fresher resume guide covers what else can go on a first resume, and the guides page lists a guide for each of the other sections.
The headline above your summary
A headline is an optional single line under your name that states your target role, for example "Registered Nurse (BSN, CCRN) | Adult Telemetry". It puts the job title at the top of the page, where a reader sees it first.
If your official job title differs from the posting's title for the same work, you can use the posting's wording in the headline. A "Software Engineer II" applying for a "Backend Developer" role can write "Backend Developer | Node.js, PostgreSQL". Your work history must still show your real job titles.
Before
Experienced professional open to new challenges
After
Financial Analyst | FP&A, Forecasting, Budget Planning
Adjusting your summary for each job
Match the job title where it is accurate, open with the two or three requirements the posting stresses most, and choose the result that best proves the most important one. Change what you put first and keep the facts the same. The tailoring guide covers the rest of the resume.
The builder's Summary tool can draft a summary from your experience, skills and dates, and it can critique the summary you have written.
Openers to delete
These phrases say nothing specific about you. The resume mistakes guide lists more of them, with what to write instead:
- "Hardworking and motivated individual…"
- "Seeking a challenging position where I can utilise my skills…"
- "Dynamic team player with excellent communication skills…"
- "To obtain a position that allows me to grow…" (this describes what you want, not what you offer)
Frequently asked questions
- Should I write a summary or an objective?
- Use a summary in most cases. An objective says what you want; a summary says what you offer. If you are changing careers and your target role is not obvious from your history, open the summary with the role you are aiming for.
- Do I need a summary if I have no work experience?
- Yes. Your job history does not yet show what you are aiming for, so use the summary to name the role and your evidence for it.
- Do I need a headline?
- No. It takes one line and puts your target title at the top, which helps most when your official title differs from the posting's.
Draft or critique your summary
The builder's Summary tool drafts a summary from your experience, skills and dates, or critiques the one you have written.
Open the builderRelated guides
- How to Tailor Your Resume to a Job DescriptionA step-by-step way to tailor your resume or CV to a job description: find the real requirements, match them to your experience, and check the result.Read the guide
- Resume Keywords and How to Use ThemHow keyword search in an applicant tracking system works, where to put keywords on your resume, how often to use them, and how to read a match score.Read the guide
- How to Write Resume Bullet PointsHow to structure a resume bullet, choose a verb that matches your part in the work, fix passive phrasing, and decide how many bullets each job needs.Read the guide
- What Makes a Resume ATS-FriendlyWhat an applicant tracking system does with your resume, which common beliefs about it are wrong, and which changes make a real difference.Read the guide
All 15 resume guides, in the order you would use them while writing a resume.