How to Write a Professional Summary for Your CV (With Examples)

What it is and where it goes

The National Careers Service calls it the introduction: "a few short lines that sum up who you are and what you hope to do", placed "just under your name and contact details". Prospects lists the other names you will see (opening statement, personal profile, personal summary, executive summary) and puts the maximum length of a CV personal profile at 150 words.

I would aim well under that: three or four sentences, 50 to 100 words. Each sentence has one job. The first says what you are. The middle gives the evidence. The last says what you want next, or what you bring to this employer.

Prospects says a personal statement can be written in the first or third person as long as you do not switch. My preference is neither: drop the pronouns and start with the job title. "Payroll administrator with six years…" reads as a CV. "I am a payroll administrator who…" reads as the opening of a letter.

Summary or objective: one rule

A summary tells the reader what you have done. An objective tells them what you are aiming for and why you are a credible candidate for it. The choice turns on one question: does your recent work history already show you doing the kind of job you are applying for?

• Yes, without a break: write a summary.
• Yes, with a short break (a few months after redundancy, a short illness, time between contracts): still a summary. Lead with your profession, not the gap.
• Yes, but after a long break (years out for caring, parental leave or illness): write an objective. Name the break once, in a few words, and move straight on to what you are returning with.
• No, this is your first job, a graduate scheme, an apprenticeship or an internship: write an objective.
• No, you are changing field (teacher to learning and development, Army officer to supply chain): write an objective. A sideways move inside your own profession, such as a litigation solicitor going in-house, is not a change of field. Write a summary.

Where does short end and long begin? I draw the line where the gap stops looking like a job search. Leaving in March and applying in September is a job search, and the dates say so without help. Once a gap runs past a year or so, a reader starts wondering about it before they reach your cover letter, and an objective lets you answer the question at the top of the page in your own words.

Whichever you write, do not apologise in it. The National Careers Service's guidance on gaps is to be open and honest and to state why you took time off in your CV, application form or cover letter. Its own redundancy example is one factual line: "Made redundant between July 2023 and February 2024. The company merged the role of sales and accounts manager to reduce costs." A line like that belongs in the work history, next to the dates it explains, not in the summary. There is more on wording in the guides to explaining an employment gap on your CV and finding a job after being laid off.

Writing a summary: a worked example

On numbers: use ones a reader can check against the rest of your CV, such as headcount, a budget in pounds, a number of sites or days saved. A percentage with no baseline ("improved efficiency by X%") is the kind of figure I would cut, because nobody reading it knows what it is a percentage of.

Here is the formula applied to an invented candidate. Priya is a payroll administrator at a care home group, applying for a Senior Payroll Officer job at a housing association. The advert asks for experience running payroll for more than 1,000 staff, RTI submissions to HMRC, pension auto-enrolment, a CIPP qualification or progress towards one, and readiness to supervise two payroll assistants.

What she has now

Nothing in it answers the advert. There is no scale, no system and no qualification, and "a new challenge" could be any job. It also switches into the first person halfway through.

The rewrite

• Sentence one matches the scale in the advert (more than 1,000 staff) with a number that appears again in her work history. She uses her real title, not the one she is applying for.
• Sentence two repeats the advert's own terms, RTI and auto-enrolment, once each.
• Sentence three is the evidence: a problem, what she did, and a before-and-after an interviewer can ask her about.
• Sentence four answers the two remaining lines of the advert, the qualification and supervision, and names the target role.

For her next application, a payroll bureau say, the evidence stays and the first and last sentences change. That is all tailoring a summary needs; the rest of the CV is covered in how to tailor your CV to a job description.

Writing an objective: a worked example

Another invented candidate: Dan was an HR adviser for eight years, then spent four years caring for a parent. He is applying for HR adviser jobs.

What he has now

The break takes up both sentences, "although" apologises for it, and there is no job title, employer size or qualification anywhere.

The rewrite

The break is named once, in seven words, straight after the job title. Everything after it is about the work. The dated qualification shows the knowledge is current without saying "kept my skills up to date", and the last sentence names a job a recruiter can shortlist him for.

Summary examples by career stage

All of these people and numbers are invented. Swap in your own title, setting and one or two results you can talk about in an interview.

Two years in

Mid-career

Senior

A sideways move in the same profession

Five months after redundancy

The redundancy is not in the summary. It is a short break, so the dates in the work history and one line in the cover letter carry it, as in the rule above.

Summary examples by industry

Software

NHS nursing

Audit and accountancy

Sales and bids

Schools

Retail

Objective examples

For the situations in the rule above where an objective is the right call. Again, everyone here is invented.

School leaver applying for an apprenticeship

Graduate

Prospects' advice for graduates is to lead on education and the career path you want. If you cannot fill two sentences with something as specific as a placement or a dissertation topic, leave the section off and let the education section open the CV.

Internship

Changing field

A change of field affects the whole CV, not just the top of it; the guide to a career change resume covers the rest.

Leaving the armed forces

Returning to nursing after a long break

What to cut before you send it

• Adjectives with no evidence behind them. Hard-working, passionate, results-driven, dynamic. Prospects gives "I work well independently and as part of a team" as the example of a statement that tells an employer nothing.
• A goal with no role in it. "A challenging position in a forward-thinking organisation" names no job and could sit on any CV.
• Claims the rest of the CV does not back up. If the summary says you led a system migration, the work history should say where and when.
• Personal details. Prospects lists age and marital status among the things a personal statement should not include.
• A heading that competes with your name. Prospects notes that personal statements are generally shown as a single paragraph without a title. If you want a heading, "Profile" is enough.

If the rest of your CV needs the same treatment, start with how to write a resume, and check the layout against the ATS-friendly CV format guide.

One thing not to reuse: this paragraph as your LinkedIn About section. That one is written in the first person, runs longer and is read by people who do not have your CV in front of them. The LinkedIn headline and summary examples show how it differs.

Sources

• National Careers Service: CV sections
• National Careers Service: How to explain gaps in your work history
• Prospects: Writing a personal statement for your CV