Your Headline is your focus, your interest grabber, your hook, your attention generator. If you really only have 15 to 30 seconds to get a recruiting agent’s attention (since you may have dozens or even hundreds of more resumes to come), why wouldn’t you want the best possible two lines of text to get their attention?

What is a Headline?

Your resume headline consists of one or two well-written sentences, using powerful adjectives and action verbs to surprise and shock your reader. Another helpful tip to employ, often used by copywriters to encourage their reader to keep reading: Don’t end your last sentence with a period.

The Incumbent incorporates two things: 1) your career goal and 2) some of your key accomplishments, things written specifically for the position you’re seeking. Using this formula provides two important pieces of information up front:

• What are you looking for
• what you can potentially offer them

A title is not used for the title, as for other parts of your resume, i.e. summary of qualifications, work history or education.

It’s written directly below the Heading (name and contact information), two spaces below, then drop two more spaces before your next Heading.

Different from a target

Ten years ago, we wrote Objectives, which simply summarized the position that the job seeker was looking for. In essence, it focused solely on the job applicant and what they had accomplished, not what they could offer a potential employer; namely

“Executive chef in charge of dining rooms and corporate events”

“I am looking for a position as a Heavy Equipment Operator for a company based in California”

“I prefer a part-time position in account management where I can use my education and skills.”

And to be completely honest, many templates still encourage only one Goal. And there’s nothing wrong with that, if that’s the route you decide to take.

However, today many professional resume writers focus more often on writing a headline, a quick summary geared toward what the employer is looking for, not what the employee wants. Their goal is to quickly provide Hirers with information about a candidate, to determine if they meet their criteria and what they can offer if they were employed. Anything you can do to make a recruiting agent’s life easier works in your favor, right?

An important tip: write a custom Headline for each position you apply for.

Keep your headline concise and clear, a short but powerful summary, something like a catchy slogan or advertisement. It should be italicized, bold, with a font size 10-12. Eliminate verbiage by cutting out articles, such as “a,” “an,” or “the.” This principle is true throughout your resume.

4 steps to create a powerful headline

#1 – Start with some powerful adjectives to describe yourself. Be honest, but it’s okay to sing your own praises here.

Talented – Award Winning – Successful – Dedicated – Experienced – Professional

#two – Add the role or description of the position(s) you have held (and are currently seeking).

Real estate sales – IT management – Senior communications manager –

master gardener – sales representative – marketing professional

#3 – describe your level of experience or years of experience

Professional – assistant – a decade of experience – more than twenty years –

extensive experience in – performed in

#4 – lastly, add some of your key achievements

…with a proven track record of customer satisfaction

…with a strong track record of (list your main achievements)

Hopefully, you’ll end up with something like this:

Award-winning and successful Senior Communications Manager with a strong track record of building customer loyalty and managing retail operations

Before you sit down to write your resume headline, do your research. Boost your confidence and improve the chances that your resume will be fully read with a good strong headline. It may be the most valuable piece of real estate on your resume.