I need a summary at the top of my resume, and everything I write sounds generic.

Do you need a summary at all?

Career offices don't agree on this, so it helps to know why. Duke's career center says to use a summary when you're explaining a career shift, connecting experiences that look unrelated or showing a mix of skills, and to skip it if you're an undergraduate, applying for a very technical position or have worked in the same field for a while. The University of Arizona's career office, on the other hand, publishes sample summaries written for students, including a sophomore.

A decision rule that fits both: read only the top third of your resume, the way a recruiter skimming it would. If your name, your most recent job title and the first bullet already tell a stranger what you do and what you want next, skip the summary. If they don't, because you're changing fields, your jobs point in different directions or you're coming back after a gap, write one.

If you do write one, don't head it “Objective”. Duke suggests headings such as Professional Summary or Summary of Qualifications, since your objective, getting the job, goes without saying.

The formula, and three examples to adapt

Strong summaries carry the same four things: a job title, how long you've done the work, one or two results with numbers, and the job you want next. Duke and Arizona both suggest starting with the title rather than “I”, and both keep it to two or three sentences.

The three examples below are made up. Take the shape, not the facts.

Customer service, 51 words: “Customer support specialist with 4 years in e-commerce, the last 18 months as senior agent handling about 60 chats and emails a day. Rewrote the team's refund macros, lifting satisfaction scores from 82% to 91%, and trained 11 new hires. Looking to lead a support team at a growing online retailer.”

Career changer, 50 words: “Primary school teacher moving into instructional design after 7 years of planning lessons for mixed-ability classes of 30. Built a phonics course in Google Slides now used by four teachers across the school. Completed a 12-week Articulate Storyline certificate in 2026. Seeking a junior instructional designer role in corporate training.”

Several different jobs, 53 words: “Hospitality worker with 5 years across two restaurants and a hotel front desk, used to running the floor on 120-cover nights and handling bookings, complaints and cash-ups alone. Cut late check-in queues at the hotel by setting up pre-arrival emails. Seeking an office coordinator role where scheduling and handling the public carry over.”

None of them uses “I”, none lists soft skills, and each ends with a job title the reader can match to the opening they're trying to fill.

What to cut, with a before and after

Before: “Highly motivated, results-driven professional with excellent communication skills and a proven track record of success, seeking a challenging role where I can grow.”

That sentence fits every applicant, which is why it tells the reader nothing. Cut:

Adjectives anyone can claim: motivated, results-driven, dynamic, detail-oriented. Lines about what you hope to gain, such as “a role where I can grow”. Duke's career center calls these self-focused. I, me and my. Both career offices advise against the first person here. Anything the first bullet point already says. A list of soft skills. Show one through a result instead.

After: “Customer support specialist with 4 years in e-commerce. Rewrote the team's refund macros, lifting satisfaction scores from 82% to 91%. Looking to lead a support team.” Shorter, and every phrase is something an interviewer could ask you about.

What the Career format writes, and how to fit it to your resume

Resume summary is the Career format's default type. From your notes it writes 3-4 sentences, 60-90 words, in this order: job title, years of experience, area of expertise, your strongest one or two results and the role you're after, with no first-person pronouns. That runs a little longer than the two or three sentences Duke and Arizona suggest, so if you want the shorter version, delete the weakest sentence or tap Shorter.

It works only from what you give it. A missing figure comes back as a placeholder such as [X%], never an invented one, and unproven clichés like “team player” are ruled out. Paste the posting into the Job posting field and its key skills are worked in naturally, which helps with applicant tracking systems, without copying the ad. A light red pen pass then cuts stock phrases.

The same format writes the rest of your resume's wording too. The Resume bullet points type gives each job a heading and 3-6 bullets, each one sentence that starts with a past-tense action verb and ends on a result. Layout and design stay in your own document.