How to Develop an Effective Resume Career Profile: The Basics

In today's competitive job market, it's important to stand out from the crowd and including a well-written career profile can help you do just that. Your career profile should appear immediately after the objective. This section highlights the most important information included on your resume - work experience and achievements, educational background, and other items that may be relevant to the position. A career profile is only a few lines long but a well-written one can encourage hiring managers to keep reading so they can find out more.

Let's look at a sample career profile:

Chartered accountant with 15 years experience as a chief financial officer for Fortune 500 companies.

Chief financial officer with a solid history of financial record keeping, risk management, accurate economic forecasting, and reducing debt by an average of 15%. Increased shareholder investments by an average of 20% by presenting a long-term financial analysis which increased existing shareholder investments by 15% and attracted 200 new investors.

This resume career profile is effective for several reasons. Regardless of what type of position you are applying for, follow the tips below (which have also been observed by the person who wrote this profile) to ensure your profile is as effective as possible.

Remember your purpose: When you're writing your resume career profile, always keep in mind that its purpose is to explain your value as an employee and outline what you can offer your prospective employer. To achieve this, you should highlight specific achievements that benefited the people you worked for.

Keep it concise: Your profile is just a brief advertisement of your skills and should be limited it to a few lines. Remember, hiring managers can always read the rest of your resume for more details.

Use action statements and be specific: Rely on strong action statements when you are describing how you have benefited companies and give exact financial figures when possible. "Boosted company profits by 3%, or $200,000, during the first quarter" is much better than "company profits were increased."

Perfect grammar is not required: Most times, it's imperative to use proper grammar and complete sentences but you can bend the rules a little when you are preparing a resume career profile. Feel free to use phrases instead. Some effective ones include "boosted sales by $-.--/year (or -%/year)," "reduced refunds by $-.--/year (or -%/year) through improved customer satisfaction," or "reduced employee absenteeism by -%/year, saving the company $-.--/year by introducing and enforcing new policies."

Don't be vague: A resume career profile should always be specific. After you're finished writing, read it over to make sure there are no general statements that might make it appear as though you are padding your resume. For example, don't say you are an effective leader and a good communicator unless you have something concrete to back those statements up. If you increased profits, be sure to include numbers and proof. Hiring managers can instantly spot the difference between catch phrases and real achievements that led to real results.