How To Write a Resume Profile in Five Steps

What Is a Resume Profile?

Definition and purpose of a resume profile

The profile, also known as the summary of qualifications, is an integral component of your resume. It allows you to lead with a powerful introduction that provides a compelling snapshot of your career and industry expertise. This immediately sets the tone for your resume, enticing the hiring manager to take a closer look at your content. Your profile should be carefully crafted with particular job opportunities in mind, demonstrating how your qualifications and experience align with the organization’s needs.

Differences between a resume profile and a resume objective

A resume objective differs from a profile in several ways. While a summary is centered around your qualifications, skills, and relevant experience, an objective highlights your long-term career aspirations. Most industry experts consider resume objectives outdated, as they emphasize your personal goals instead of the value you can bring to potential employers.

Importance of a resume profile

The resume profile plays an important role in establishing your credibility and experience as an industry professional. It lets the reader immediately glean valuable insights into your career achievements. In this first opportunity to impress hiring managers and recruiters, showcase unique aspects of your background that can help differentiate you from other candidates. For example, if you’re pursuing a role as a senior software developer, you might highlight how you designed and launched a successful mobile application that garnered over 3 million users.

When to use a resume profile

Although you should always include an engaging summary at the top of your document, there are some situations where the profile is even more critical. If you’re changing careers, your introduction lets you quickly convey how the skills and knowledge you’ve garnered in your previous roles have prepared you to succeed in a new industry.

A strong profile can also be valuable if your experience is diverse and nuanced. For instance, if you’re pursuing a role as a health care director, your summary can help illustrate how you’ve applied your financial acumen and clinical expertise to drive positive patient outcomes while maintaining the financial health of your organization.

Step 1: Understand Your Audience and Purpose

Identifying the job requirements

The first step in crafting your resume profile is to identify the needs of your target audience by analyzing the job description. Look for keywords mentioned more than once, or towards the top of the posting, and tactically integrate these terms into your paragraph. Consider featuring your years of experience and three key skills from the job posting in the opening sentence of your summary. This immediately shows the hiring manager that you have the skill sets and industry knowledge to help their organization excel.

Knowing your career goals

Although your profile shouldn’t directly outline your professional goals, understanding your long-term career objectives is important for refining your brand messaging. For example, if you’re looking to advance from a single contributor role to a leadership position, your summary should reflect your ability to collaborate cross-functionally and manage team members. If you’re transitioning from a logistics coordinator into a project manager, emphasize how you leveraged project management methodologies such as Agile to execute process improvement initiatives.

Researching the company culture

Another way to further tailor your profile is to study the company’s culture. By understanding an organization’s values, you can create an impactful content strategy that reaches your core audience. Say for example that you’re targeting a role with a nonprofit that prides itself on diversity and inclusion. Highlighting how you’ve supported both community outreach efforts and internal diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives shows that you share in the company’s mission.

Step 2: Choose the Right Structure for Your Profile

Although it’s impossible to paint a complete picture of your career in a single paragraph with only three or four sentences, the best summaries are always concise and hyper-focused. Too much information can overwhelm the reader and distort the overall messaging of your profile. Rather than trying to capture all of your qualifications, use this opportunity to feature truly impactful insights to enhance your appeal as a candidate.

Step 3: Start With a Strong Opening Statement

In today’s competitive job market, first impressions are everything. The most lucrative roles draw the strongest candidates, so leading with an opening statement that sets your application apart is essential. Before writing your content, ask yourself what defines you as an industry professional. Do you pride yourself on your cutting-edge machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) knowledge? Are you a proven leader who can build effective organizations from the ground up? By avoiding cliches and describing your unique story, you’ll greatly increase your odds of landing the interview.

Step 4: Highlight Your Key Skills and Experience

To set the stage for your resume, highlight three to four key skills that align with the job description in your profile. This shows the hiring manager that your experience is an ideal match for the company’s needs. For example, if you’re applying for a position in user experience (UX) design, your profile might read something like this:

A senior UX designer with over 10 years of experience creating seamless digital experiences across web and mobile platforms. A proven track record of enhancing user engagement through data-driven decision-making and user-centered design principles. Adept at collaborating cross-functionally with developers, product teams, and stakeholders.

Step 5: End With a Powerful Achievement

Round out your paragraph with one of your most impressive career accomplishments. Identify a key achievement that illustrates your ability to generate real value for the organization you’re targeting. If possible, feature an impressive number, metrics, or monetary figure to establish a sense of scope for the reader. For example, if you managed over 50 projects with budgets totaling over $2 million, showcasing these details sends a clear message to the hiring manager that you can execute at the highest level.

Examples of Resume Profiles for Different Roles

Example for entry-level job seekers

At the entry-level, highlight relevant skills in your profile that match the needs of potential employers. Even without years of professional experience, you can still make a strong case for why you’re a qualified candidate if you employ the right messaging. Notice how in the examples below, the applicants have built meaningful summaries despite their limited work histories:

Example for Mid-Level Professionals

Once you’ve garnered appropriate industry experience, you can build a profile that captures your key areas of expertise while showcasing relevant accomplishments that align with the job posting. If you’re transitioning into a managerial role, emphasize your leadership capabilities. You can do this even if you haven’t personally managed direct reports. For instance, you might feature your experience providing mentorship and coaching to junior team members or collaborating cross-functionally with other departments.

Example for senior-level and executive roles

As a senior-level professional or executive, you need an engaging summary that captures your  experience overseeing large teams and developing company-wide strategies. Paint a compelling picture of how you’ve liaised with C-level executives to define the long-term strategic vision of your organizations. Emphasize eye-catching accomplishments demonstrating how you’ve applied your industry knowledge to drive meaningful change management initiatives.

Example for career changers

Your resume profile can be an invaluable tool for shaping your narrative and brand messaging during a career change. Rather than explaining to the reader that you’re looking to transition into a new field, it’s best to highlight transferable skills to show hiring managers you can succeed in your target industry. For instance, if you want to transition from a sales career into product marketing, you might emphasize how your previous background in selling products will allow you to create impactful go-to-market strategies.

Additional Resources

• How To Write a Convincing Resume Profile
• How To Write a Resume Summary
• Resume Objective Examples

Andrew Stoner

Executive Resume Writer and Career Coach

Andrew Stoner is an executive career coach and resume writer with 17 years of experience as a hiring manager and operations leader at two Fortune 500 Financial Services companies, and as the career services director at two major university business schools.