How to Write a 2023 Resume Summary: 27 Examples and Complete Guide

A well-written resume summary can quickly persuade a hiring manager to spend more than six seconds on your resume. Learn how to write a great summary statement with this free writing guide, examples and templates.

March 13, 2023  |  Conor Mcmahon  |  
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According to a hiring poll, most recruiters scan a resume in under six seconds. If you can’t demonstrate highly impressive skills or accomplishments within those six seconds, they might discard your resume before a hiring manager can even consider you. The most effective way to impress a recruiter and appeal to a hiring manager is to write an effective introduction at the very top of your resume.

An effective resume summary introduces that valuable information at the start of your page, increasing your likelihood of getting an interview. We’ll explain how to write a meaningful and persuasive opening, and back our advice with resume summary examples and templates to help you pass that six-second skim.

What is a Resume Summary?

A resume summary, also known as a resume profile or summary statement, is a brief introduction that sits under your contact information. This opening summary statement acts like an informal marketing pitch — you advertise one or two skills, back them up with proof of your accomplishments, and explain how you can recreate these achievements for the betterment of the hiring company.

Let’s dissect this example to learn some of the techniques you can use to write your professional resume summary.

Profile Summary Example for a Sales Associate:

“Charismatic retail sales associate with over four years of experience. Customer service and greeting techniques helped minimize theft and increase daily sales by 12%. My flexible availability helps store managers create well-staffed schedules.”

  • Use job-related skills to help impress hiring managers. This job seeker pitches their customer service and theft prevention skills to appeal to store managers.

  • Use quantifiable metrics like data, percentages and notable changes to help the hiring manager understand your cost-effective skills. This job seeker pointed out how their customer service skills left a positive impact on daily sales.

  • Explain how your skills and contributions can positively improve the hiring manager’s daily duties. This job seeker points out how their flexibility makes it easier for the store manager to plan and assign shifts.

Before we dive into the details of how to write a professional summary, let’s talk about the two approaches you can take to pitch yourself as the best candidate for the job. Resume headlines can pitch your qualifications in one of two ways: the career objective and the summary statement.

The resume objective is the original introduction — this brief statement outlines which skills and experience you hope to get out of your employment. However, we don’t recommend this approach unless you're new to the workforce or rejoining it after an extended absence, changing careers or relocating. You can learn more about effective resume objective writing strategies here.

Most managers are interested in which skills you can bring to help streamline a workplace, so you should consider writing a resume summary, which is also known as a resume profile or summary statement. This introduction identifies one or two employment pain points under the job description and demonstrates how you successfully deployed those skills at previous jobs and how you aim to repeat these professional accomplishments at a new job opening.

When Should I Use a Resume Summary?

We recommend writing a summary statement for most job applications. However, we’ll break down some of the common reasons to apply for a new job and show you strategic resume summary examples so you can confidently write your own. Common reasons to write a new, tailored resume include:

  • Promotion
  • Internship to full time
  • Recent graduates
  • Apprenticeship to full time
  • High school graduate
  • Changing companies

There are a few times when we suggest writing a resume objective instead:

  • Entry-level employees
  • Career changers
  • Reentering the workforce
  • Relocating
  • High school graduate without work experience
  • College graduates
  • Frequent work gaps
  • Freelancers and job-hoppers
  • Short-term contractors

If you fall under these categories, please hop over to our objective statement writing guide instead. This page will offer free examples, templates and tools to help you impress a hiring manager.

You can streamline this process and write your entire resume with our template-rich Resume Builder. Now let's look at these potential job opportunities and help you write a powerful summary statement that influences hiring managers to keep reading your resume.

Promotion

A well-written resume summary focuses on your accomplishments and how you can replicate them at a new job or workplace. What better way to apply for a promotion or senior position than to showcase evidence of your skills at the very start of your resume headline? You can tailor your opening statement to focus on a clearly requested item. Use the examples alongside our resume writing guide to get your application started.

Junior to associate engineer

“Skilled engineer with three years of combined internship and full-time experience. Formerly oversaw the drafting plans for community land use and environmental impact study preparation. Collaborated with senior city engineers to calculate and suggest zoning requirements and oversee public project completion. Eager to apply these skills to developing community spaces for tight-knit towns.”

Junior graphic designer to graphic design

“Skilled graphic designer with over six years of experience in online spaces. Worked with both in-house teams and agencies to help design one-off pages and overall projects. Familiar with crafting new brand design guidelines, defining visual brand voice, crafting UX-friendly page templates, and delivering responsive page designs for website and mobile applications.”

Sales associate to team lead

“Expert sales associate with over four years of retail experience. Regularly scheduled for closing shifts and responsible for closing out the registers. Skilled in onboarding new hires and teaching proper customer service, folding techniques and fitting room procedures. Responsible for creating the first draft of weekly schedules. Eager to carry these skills over as a shift lead with a larger team.”

Internship to full time

An internship is a valuable opportunity to learn and develop real-world skills and knowledge related to your education. A well-written resume summary will focus less on the limited internship length and more on the transferable skills and career-related accomplishments you fulfilled in your internships. You can find free downloadable intern resume templates here, and use these resume summary examples to see how focusing on career-specific knowledge helps boost your application.

Accounting intern to bookkeeper

“Recent accountant graduate with one-year of internship experience for a Forbes 500 company. Monitored expense reports and receipts for discrepancies, organized the internal filing system, tracked all payments related to tax preparation, and oversaw client statements, payments and refund requests under senior supervision.”

Research intern to cell therapy research associate

“Former biotech intern and recent graduate with a master’s in biochemistry. Specialized in maintaining research samples related to T-cell receptors and allogeneic therapies related to the proposed treatment of solid tumors. Eager to apply immunotherapy and cell biology knowledge to the development of new cancer treatments.”

Marketing intern to social media strategist

“Six-month marketing intern interested in applying to the newly created social media strategist position. Oversaw the creation and daily publication schedule of new brand social media channels, in addition to previous responsibilities related to planning and executing email campaigns. Researched hashtags and viral content to craft a channel that reaches, attracts and engages our target audience. This led to organically growing channels to 25,000 followers within three months and increasing site traffic by 17%.

If you’re still struggling with how to introduce your internship training and accomplishments, our Resume Builder can suggest professionally written text templates based on your limited years of experience and career goals.

Recent graduates

A recent college or trade school graduate dedicates years to developing specific skills and knowledge. A well-written summary statement highlights those skills and references real-world applications relevant to your education and the open job opportunity. These text examples show how you can downplay your relative lack of professional experience in favor of your academic accomplishments. Use these resume summary examples and a free resume template for entry-level roles to write your resume in no time.

Bachelor’s in Business Management

“Recent graduate that specialized in business analytics. Combined classwork and multiple related internships to develop a core understanding of coding and generate complex models to analyze user research. Familiar with SAS Business Analytics and Splunk. Can create detailed process maps to oversee work production from start to finish.”

Master’s in Literature

“Recent literary graduate with an emphasis on creative writing. Previous experience includes two years as editor-in-chief of the university literary magazine, and three editorial internships with Simon and Schuster, Tor Books and Firebird. Eager to apply editorial knowledge and skills in the publishing industry.”

Master’s in Education

“Recent education graduate with a bachelor’s in chemistry and over two years of experience as a teacher’s assistant. Academic emphasis was as a middle and high school aide in the STEM field. Applying to an open biology/chemistry position where I can apply my previous practical and academic experience to help encourage understanding and excitement related to the hard sciences.”

Apprenticeship to full time

An apprenticeship is similar to an internship: you’re learning employable skills in a hands-on environment and developing safe muscle memory. These resume summary examples can help you learn how to focus on the employable knowledge you developed when you’re ready to apply to full-time positions after the end of your apprenticeship.

Plumbing and AC repair apprenticeship

“Part-time apprentice with over two years of experience working with senior plumbers and repairmen to understand common pipe and air conditioning issues. Trained in both residential and industrial air conditioning installation, maintenance and repair, as well as residential plumbing repair.”

Electrical trainee

“Motivated electrical trainee at Wired Design’s one-year apprenticeship program. Highly knowledgeable in local and state electrical codes, construction safety requirements and maintenance repair. Works well with crews of two to 10 members. Can perform multifamily and commercial wire installation.”

Embalming apprentice

“Certified mortuary and funeral service provider with a six-month embalming apprenticeship at a local funeral home. Handled an average of two clients a day and partnered with the family members of the deceased to observe any and all religious or spiritual requests within legal scope. Official copies of state license and National Board Examination scores are available upon request.”

High school graduate

As a high school graduate, you’re not likely to have a lot of formal working experience that you can highlight in your resume summary. We strongly recommend that you use an objective statement to highlight your transferable skills and desire to accomplish more in your first job. However, if you held an after-school job, you can reference these transferable skills to find your first part- or full-time job outside of school hours.

Babysitter

“Skilled babysitter with over four years of experience looking after one-child and three-children households. Certified in infant and child first aid. Focused on developmental play and academic tutoring with a specialty in math, science and history. Close attention to detail, strong communication skills and experience working with children aged three to nine.” Find additional babysitter resume advice and templates here.

Office aide

“Recent high school graduate with two semesters of experience as a daytime office aide. Partnered with school secretaries and high school counselors to facilitate transfer of confidential student information across campus. Also worked with counselors to organize events such as job fairs, school rallies, academic assemblies and fundraising events.”

After-school volunteer

“Recent graduate, former band lead and frequent after-school volunteer. Worked with band teacher to organize quarterly fundraisers to support new uniforms, travel, competition fees and end-of-the-year field trips. Also volunteered with the city to organize local events that included band participation. Developed strong bookkeeping, event planning and organizational skills.”

Streamline Your Resume Summary With a Clever Builder

Limiting your core accomplishments to three sentences with the sole aim of impressing hiring managers enough to seriously consider your entire resume is daunting. That’s why we developed a streamlined tool to help you get started. Our Resume Builder scans online job postings and fellow job seekers’ content to suggest templates and prewritten introductions based on your previous experience. You can tailor these suggestions to each job opening to help you pass the six-second recruiter scan we previously mentioned.

How to Write a Resume Summary

The best way to write a resume summary is to:

  • Focus on a few skills.
  • Back those skills up with evidence.
  • Mirror the requirements of the job posting.
  • Directly tie your skills to the needs of the job.

To demonstrate these best writing practices, we’ll show you an example of a poor introduction and explain how it failed to capture a hiring manager’s attention. We’ll follow this up with an example of a good resume summary statement filled with persuasive information. To do this, we’ll create a sample job seeker looking for a full-time sales associate position.

Poor summary statement example:

sales associate resume example
“Sales associate with two years of experience. Knowledgeable about customer service, strong sales techniques and attention to detail.”

Although this job seeker points out three skills that are crucial to a floor sales associate, we can’t really see how effective they are at their job. They say they have customer service and sales skills, but they don’t offer us any information related to their claims. A hiring manager can’t gauge how well they might work in the store without calling them in, and isn’t likely to spare that time if they see stronger applicants.

Good resume summary example:

sales associate resume example entry level
“Retail sales associate with over two years of experience. Developed strong customer service skills that contributed to multiple glowing Yelp reviews and three employee of the month awards. Strong sales skills contributed to effectively upselling two to three add-ons on average transactions, contributing to a 15% profit uptick during down seasons.”

This job seeker shares the same amount of experience and skills on their resume summary, but they add information related to their accomplishments. We know that they offer positive customer service because they were awarded with unsolicited compliments on a review site and store-specific awards related to their skill. They were also able to calculate how much a store earned thanks to their strong upselling skills. This awareness of their accomplishments means they are able to describe what profits they can bring to a new employer, making them a more desirable employee.

Now that we talked about the best writing practices for writing your resume introduction, let’s give you one more poor and strong resume summary example to see if you can spot the difference in professional details.

Poor resume summary example:

grocery clerk resume example
“Experienced grocery clerk seeking a new position with your regional chain. Able to start immediately.”

Good resume summary example:

grocery clerk resume example mid career
“Experienced grocery clerk with over four years of experience in the deli counter and bakery. Fully certified in safe food handling practices. Skilled and rapid cashier able to service an average to large transaction within four minutes. Excited to carry over these skills to a family-owned grocery with an emphasize on free-range and organic farming practices ”

Browse Job-specific Resume Summary Examples

We covered special career promotions and circumstances before, but let’s look at job-specific examples for the most common and competitive job openings on the market.

Summary statement for students

“Current marketing student seeking an internship for the 2023 spring semester. Academic courses include marketing research and analysis, brand development, consumer research and development of business proposals.”

Manager resume summary

“Experienced assistant store manager with three years of leadership experience and over seven years of sales experience. Partnered with store manager to craft weekly schedules, train new hires, plan for holiday sales, and regularly close out registers and calculate daily sales goals.”

Team member professional summary

“Veteran team worker with over six years of experience in fast food environments. Fully certified in food safety and well-known for collaborative nature within a team of four.”

Resume summary for an executive

“Experienced C-suite executive with 15+ years streamlining corporate structures, overseeing business operations and leading teams to report an impressive 32% profit increase within six months of new procedures.”

Project manager summary statement

“Proven project manager with seven years of experience overseeing projects in tech and engineering. Certified Program Management Professional (PgMP) and PMI Professional in Business Analysis (PMI-PBA). Eager to bring attention to detail, communication and organizational skills to a new team.”

Cashier professional summary example

“Skilled cashier and sales associate with three years of experience. Friendly demeanor and casual approach to customer, capable of encouraging add-ons to smaller purchases, increasing units per transaction (UPT). Persuasive communicator with the highest rate of conversion to customer loyalty program. Average three new sign-ups per six-hour shift.”

Summary statement example for a general manager

“Effective general manager with eight years of experience in grocery settings. Highly skilled in strategically planning weekly end caps, training new hires across registers, floor service, and safe food handling in the bakery and butcher departments.”

Receptionist resume summary

“Highly organized and communicative receptionist with warm customer service skills. Knowledgeable across multiple scheduling programs including Calendly, Acuity Scheduling and CalendarHero. Close attention to detail helped to send effective reminders to business partners.”

Supervisor professional summary example

“Senior supervisor with over five years of effective leadership experience. Familiar with private and industrial construction sites and have worked with teams varying in size from five to 75 crew members. Close attention to detail and strong collaborative skills helped streamline days and minimize delays, keeping construction costs close to original budget.”

Resume Summary FAQ

How do you start a summary statement?

Start your summary statement with:

  • Your current or former job title
  • Your years of experienceYour years of experience
  • One relevant skill or accomplishment related to an open job advertisement

What is a good summary statement for a resume?

A good resume summary is two or three short sentences that quickly explains your experience, skills and accomplishments. An effective summary statement persuades hiring managers to carefully analyze your resume for additional qualifications and achievements.

How do I write my summary?

Use this simple text template to help you write a good summary statement for a resume:

“[Adjective] [Job Title] with [Years of Experience] in [Advertised skill]. Effective use of [Skill] and [Skill] led to [Career Accomplishment.]”

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Conor Mcmahon

Conor Mcmahon

Conor is a writer for Hloom.com. He has over three years of professional writing experience as well as experience in professional development training. Conor has written on career development topics ranging from resume and cover letter best practices to employer/employee communication, and more. He received his degree in Music Industry at Northeastern University and plays guitar in his free time.

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