For years, resume writers were told that we must include an objective statement. But the objective statement has recently fallen out fashion, and with good reason (see “The Objective Statement, aka ‘I Want a Job’”).
Now, we are told, our resumes must include an executive summary, because recruiters only look at resumes for 6 seconds and you must GRAB THEIR ATTENTION. The executive summary is where you “brand” yourself and tell the prospective employer about your unique talents and key accomplishments.
Wait, isn’t that what your resume is supposed to do?
» A summary of a summary
How did we end up needing a summary for something that’s already supposed to be a summary? It’s like we’ve given up on the actual resume and have decided to stick another resume on top of it. I’ve seen UX resumes where the executive summary takes up the whole first page. Perhaps we’re hoping that the sexy new summary will devour the traditional resume and all its dry, boring bullet points.
There’s something touchingly naive about articles that decry the old-school objective and encourage us to write summaries instead. It’s as if the objective statement was holding us back somehow and that the executive summary will magically unleash our untapped powers of rhetorical persuasion.
» It all comes back to writing
The issue, of course, is that if you can’t write persuasively about your skills and accomplishments in the actual resume why would slapping a new name on this content make any difference? In fact, it doesn’t. Let’s look at a few typical examples:
I rest my case.
Far from grabbing the hiring manager’s attention, the summary is more likely to send her to sleep. The executive summary has become one more place to bore the hiring manager with your mechanical recitation of skills and responsibilities, or cause her to snigger at your unsophisticated marketing copy.
» Show, don’t tell
Just saying that you’re a “collaborative leader and communicator” isn’t enough. You have to prove it in your resume by giving an example of a project you led that got results because of your collaborative approach.
Why should I take your word that you, “excel in developing clever and compelling solutions”? Anyone can say that. Without a concrete accomplishment demonstrating that skill, it comes across as unsubstantiated hyperbole.
Remember the old writer’s adage, “Show, don’t tell.” The most powerful persuasion comes not from telling the hiring manager you’re awesome, but from showing examples and having them come to that conclusion themselves.
I’m sure some of you are capable of writing a brief, eloquent, compelling summary. But even a good summary won’t overcome an otherwise long-winded, uninteresting resume. Why are we spending so much time trying to write a great summary, when we could be spending that time writing great accomplishment bullets for our job descriptions?