In this week’s episode…

If your resume makes it past the applicant tracking system, there’s really only one section the employer is going to read themselves. 

While this section only takes up one-third of the page, it’s where recruiters spend 80% of their time. 

What is it? 

Your professional summary. 

If you don’t have a rock-solid summary, your credentials won’t count for anything. 

Why? 

Studies show that employers won’t even read your contact information on the page until they’ve read your professional summary first to see if it’s worth knowing who you are. 

Think about that for a minute.

So, how do you capture your skills and experience in a strong professional summary? 

Start with a headline in bold that says, you guessed it “Professional Summary,” and then add three bullet points after it. 

Each bullet should follow the same format: transferable skills, niche skills, and quantifiable results. 

The very first bullet point is your one-line selling point. 

It should be a compelling statement that captures a recruiter’s attention and showcases your value using key skills, achievements, and goals. 

The transferable skills you use are also sometimes called soft skills. These are qualities that you can use in any job such as leadership skills, communication savvy, and conflict resolution. 

Your niche, technical, or specialty skills speak to what you can do.

Transferable skills namely show how you do it.

Transferable skills come first. The reason for that is when a company hires you, they know they’re hiring a person with unique traits and a distinct personality. 

The transferable skills you identify are the best way for them to find out if you work best alone or in a team, if you have experience behaving like a professional, what environments suit you best, if you can manage a project effectively, if you can prioritize your work well, and so on. 

Choose these transferable skills with purpose. Niche skills, such as ethnography, next-generation sequencing, or flow cytometry, are your specialties. 

You’ll pull these directly from the job description and build your bullets around them.

They’re important because they let employers know that you have X, Y, and Z skills that will allow you to hit the ground running in their organization. 

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** For the full podcast, check out the audio player above.

If you’re ready to start your transition into industry, you can apply to book a free Transition Call with our founder Isaiah Hankel, PhD or one of our Transition Specialists. Apply to book a Transition Call here.

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