Resume Profiles

Writing great resume profiles is an essential part of good resume writing.

Great resumes either have a job objective or a profile. Typically, an employer will only look at your resume for a few seconds before making a decision about your suitability for a job, and a profile is a quick way to show the employer your top marketable skills as well as the type of work you are currently seeking.

If you include a profile on your resume, you do not need to include a job objective section. Your resume professional profile should be a two or three sentence statement which summarizes your most marketable skills, qualifications and accomplishments and indicates the type of work you are currently seeking.

Keep in mind, it is important to summarize the skills and accomplishments that will be most important to an employer who is hiring for the specific position you are seeking. That means if you are looking for more than one type of job, you will have more than one resume and your profile will change depending on the requirements of the job.

A profile shows the employer the type of work you are seeking as well as what you can offer the employer in terms of skills and experience. It can be useful when you don't want to include a specific job title, but rather you want to target a few closely related jobs in a specific field.

Administrative Professional with over five years of experience in the non-profit sector. Able to prioritize and manage conflicting demands. Exceptional technical skills including proficiency with Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

Customer Service Manager with seven years of progressive professional experience. Results oriented with a proven ability to improve customer retention, and increase team productivity.

Bilingual Events Coordinator with exceptional project management skills. Over ten years of experience working with volunteers, diverse teams and community leaders. Strong leadership skills with the ability to build the trust of others with integrity and consistently meet and exceed targeted results.

Resume profiles are a little more complex and take a little more time to write than simple job objectives. A great profile will quickly highlight your most marketable skills as they relate to a specific job, and it will encourage the employer to continue reading on to the next sections of your resume. It's well worth the time to develop effective resume profiles for each type of job that you are seeking.