Whether you call it a Personal Summary, Personal Statement or simply a Summary, it’s absolutely essential to get this section of your Cabin Crew resume right. It’s a well-documented fact that recruiters only spend six seconds initially scanning a resume – And the section they’ll focus on in this time is your Personal Summary.
Your aim is to provide a succinct summary of why you are the ideal member of Cabin Crew for your chosen airline. It needs to be punchy and attention grabbing. This is not the time to be modest.
Although short in length, your Personal Summary will take some time to write and perfect. Use the tips below to create a Personal Summary that you can be proud of.
Kill the Objective Statement
I’ve written before about why you shouldn’t include an Objective Statement on your resume. A few years ago, these were a standard feature – nowadays, it’s best just to leave it off your resume. There are some occasions where it might come in handy but generally speaking, you should just focus your efforts on a winning Personal Summary.
For more information, check out this post: Old Fashioned: Why You Should Cut the Objective Statement from Your Resume
The Right Length
How long should your Personal Summary be? Remember, the recruiter isn’t going to spend much time reading your resume. With that in mind, the perfect length for your Personal Summary is something in the region of 5-7 lines. Generally speaking, the Personal Summary should only be one paragraph long.
Anything longer and you risk putting off the recruiter before they’ve even read a single word. Think of it as a series of bullet points but in one paragraph.
What Style to Use
Although it’s called a Personal Summary you should nonetheless write this section in the past tense and third person. Remove the propositions ‘I’, ‘Me’. ‘My’. For example:
I have 5 years experience, Received awards for my dedication, etc.
Use short sentences that get to the point.
What to Write About
Your Personal Summary should prove you have the skills, qualities and competencies that will make you an ideal member of Cabin Crew. In just a few sentences, you’ll be delivering a really powerful message to the recruiter that you’re the candidate they are looking for.
To do this you’ll need to create a bespoke Personal Summary that is tailored for the role of Cabin Crew – and for the specific airline you are applying for.
Research the skills, qualities and competencies that the recruiter is looking for. Find out what is particularly important to the airline. This is what you’ll focus on in your Personal Summary. You probably won’t be able to cover every point in the space you have available, so it might be necessary choose the 5-6 most important skills.
If you’re having trouble deciding what qualities to focus on, check out this post: The Best Qualities to Highlight in Your Cabin Crew Application Resume
Use Specific Examples
It’s really tempting to simply list the qualities that the recruiter is looking for:
An excellent communicator, works well in teams, go above and beyond to exceed expectations, etc.
Unfortunately, this won’t convince the recruiter. You have to prove you possess these skills. Write about a specific example where you have used this quality or skill. Use the PARM technique to identify suitable examples:
P.A.R.M
Problem: Identify a problem where you have had to use a skill like teamwork, customer service, resilience, problem-solving, etc. What was the situation? What was your objective? Why did you need to take action?
Actions: What specific actions did you take to resolve the problem?
Results: What was the end result? It’s better to use examples with good results and where possible, mention learning opportunities and improvements that have come from the actions you took.
Measurable: Do you have specific figures you can mention? The number of customers served, the amount of money saved or earned? Where possible, quantify your results with a metric (be honest!).
Use Keywords
Identify relevant keywords from the research you did earlier and work these into your examples. This is especially important for online applications where your resume will be pre-screened by a computer.
Using suitable keywords can also be really useful for grabbing the attention of the recruiter drawing them into reading further.
Don’t go overboard using keywords – they should be relevant and make sense in the context of your example. An inappropriately used keyword can do your resume more harm than good.
