Quintessential Careers Press:
The Quintessential Guide to Words to Get Hired By
Chapter 3: Your Professional Profile: Bullet Points that Capture your Strengths in a Nutshell
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Clearly, that's a lot of potential material to cram into a Summary/Profile section. How do you choose what to list in this section? Be primarily guided by your own unique selling points and the requirements of the job or type of job you seek. Chapter 2 on keywords explains how to translate the keywords from a job listing into a Profile/Summary section.
How many bullet points should you present? About three to five is ideal.
Be sure to include bullet points from areas that:
- Are truly strong points for you (Refer to Chapter 4 for assistance with skills identification.)
- Are relevant to the job or type of job you seek (See Chapter 2 on keywords for help with zeroing in on the skills that are important for a given job.)
- Can be substantiated with numbers, quotes (testimonials), or examples either in the Summary/Profile section itself or later in the resume. (You may find Chapter 7 on accomplishments helpful here.)
Begin your Summary/Profile section with a bullet point that describes your professional identity in a nutshell. It's the most important bullet point because it puts you into focus, characterizes who you are, and tells what you can contribute. If the reader should happen to read no further in your Summary/Profile section, he or she should at least have a sense of your essence from this first bullet point.
Examples:
Dynamic MBA-level professional with more than seven years of experience in successful leadership of business and organizational turnarounds that involve multiple, complex dynamics and cross disciplines and management levels.
PhD-level leader, change agent, and social activist who has developed broad range of programs and procedures that yielded cost effectiveness and maximum utilization of resources and accountability.
Dynamic and versatile project/program management executive with 15+ years of leadership and business management expertise gained from positions of increasing responsibility in both the US Navy and the private sector.
Creative outside-the-box thinker who approaches strategic development with innovative vision, high ethical standards, unsurpassed work ethic, and ability to communicate effectively across management levels and disciplines to build highly effective cross-functional teams.
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