Host: What are some of the biggest mistakes people make in the summary section of the resume?
Louise Kursmark: Employers don't like to see cookie cutter summaries in resumes. They don't want you to take a summary that sounded great from somebody else's resume and plug it in with all of the adjectives that you think are appropriate like, strong communication skills and interpersonal skills and leadership abilities. They want to see something that is more unique about you. So, don't make your resume introduction too cookie cutter. Make sure you include specific information about yourself. Another mistake that people make, I believe is; they make that introductory section too long.
They try to cram everything that they have that they think is going to attract the employer into that top part of the resume and they might even go as long as three quarters or a full page of information of an introduction before they get to the chronology. The problem with that is the employer does not have any contacts. They don t know where you worked or what you did. They can't really appreciate what it is that you are trying to communicate in that section of the resume. So, in all likelihood, they are going to skip right to the chronology and they are going to miss the good information that you tried to grab their attention with upfront. So, my advice would be to keep that section of the resume short, maybe, one-third to a half page. Make sure it's uniquely you and include not just your attributes, your capabilities, but some of your, just a few of your specific accomplishments that are going to make them sit up, take notice and say, Wow, I really want to have this person do some great things for my company.