Welcome to the ResumePower Blog! Kim Isaacs and Karen Hofferber offer real world, proven advice on
resume writing, cover letters, career change, and job search strategies.
Resume Writing Tip: Draw Readers in with a Winning Headline
Newspapers, blogs, sales letters, and other marketing documents use headlines to draw readers in and make them want to continue reading.
Using the same concept as headlines for sales copy (Michel Fortin’s blog post on the subject is a must-read), adding one to your resume can give you an edge over other candidates.
If you’re boring employers to tears with a ho-hum “Objective” section that focuses on you and your needs, try using a headline instead and see if that makes a difference in your resume’s response rate. I bet it does!
The goal of a headline is to capture the reader’s attention, so it should contain your value proposition. Don’t even try to create one unless you can succinctly express why the employer should hire you. Once that is clear in your mind, you can create a headline that gets noticed and makes the hiring manager want to read the rest of your resume.
Have you replaced your “Objective” section with a headline? If so, I would love to hear how it’s been working for you. Feel free to post a comment below or send me an email .
To your success,
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Dear Ms. Isaacs:
Thanks for your post on the topic of using headlines in resumes.
I’ve been teaching college for 30 years and mentoring students and graduates about resume-writing for nearly all of those years.
But in the last 5 years I’ve noticed a trend toward employers responding much more positively to the use of headline-like summary statements rather than objective statements in resumes. Today very few employers object to summary statements and most prefer them — as long as the summary is supported in the content of the resume. A good summary, like a headline, saves time as long as it is honest as well as direct.
My co-author and I stressed the importance of persuasive summary statements in our recent book on how to write college resumes and cover letters. I wish more resume-writing professionals would pick up on this trend!
Best wishes,
Quentin J. Schultze, Ph.D.
http://www.resumes4collegestudents.com
Co-author of “How to Write Powerful College Student Resumes & Cover Letters”