Craft the Perfect CV Summary With These Examples

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:

1. If you are applying for entry-level jobs, you may not have much work experience. Adding a summary puts a focus on the roles that you’re looking for and gives you an opportunity to show a passion for your chosen field, despite a lack of experience.
2. If you’re looking for a career change, a summary can help explain to an employer why your CV might not include sector-specific experience. In this instance, it would be useful to focus a CV summary around your transferable skills. You could also opt for a CV or resume objective instead, which is a statement that outlines your career ambitions and goals. 
3. If you work in a specific job sector, such as logistics, sales, or healthcare work, a CV summary is important so that an employer can see that you’re knowledgeable about your field and already have the right expertise and experience to excel in the role.

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

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Study the job description.

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.

Highlight your current occupation.

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.

Reference your past experiences.

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:

• Project manager CV summary

  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%.

• HR CV summary

  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 CV summary

  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.