Resume Help - Objective and Summary Format

For today's résumé critique, we are going to look at the first few sections of the résumé for a sales executive who also has management experience. We will call him Jerome.

In its present state, Jerome's résumé does not nearly reflect the caliber of his expertise. He has put together his document himself by following a recipe he most likely found on the internet. While Jerome tried to include key aspects (title line, summary, and core competencies), his résumé falls short in terms of visual appeal, compelling content, and appropriate word usage.

His title line has a little bit too much information and should be streamlined depending upon the specific role he is pursuing. Otherwise, he runs the risk of confusing the recruiter or hiring manager. It is somewhat unclear what Jerome's main interest is. Is he focused on operations, channel sales or marketing management?

Also, Jerome has made the classic mistake of using an objective. The objective section is not adding any true value to the résumé. It is in the first person (which is a no-no for résumés) and positions Jerome as a less experienced professional, which is not what he wants given his current skill level.

Kudos to Jerome for including a summary section on his document. However, much of Jerome's wording in the summary section needs to be revised. For those of you who have ever watched the show Cold Case, the term 'Doer' is not the best word choice unless you intend to spend some time at Riker's Island. While Jerome is possibly a very good sales manager, he probably should not be writing his own résumé.  Many people make this mistake thinking they will save money; but the truth is that it costs them dearly.

The bulleted list of core competencies (rich in keywords) is also a good section to include on his résumé, however, Jerome should clean this up and make it easily readable. He jumps around a lot in terms of verb tense, as well.

With some TLC, this résumé could be outstanding and make a strong impact to achieve results. Visit us every Monday for our Résumé Critique segment on the Careers Done Write blog.  Next week, we will be featuring the résumé of a recent college graduate.  

If you would like your résumé critiqued, please email Debra@careersdonewrite.com