How To Ace The 'About Me' Section In Your Resume

Your resume helps to provide a quick overview of your professional profile. A well-written resume helps to lay a good impression on the hiring manager even before he/she invites you for the job interview. It can make the profile of even an average candidate stand out. One of the important sections in the resume is the 'About me' in resume. If written well, this section helps you to stand out as a candidate and increases your chances of getting the interview call. Let's see what the 'About me' section in your resume must include, and how you can use this section in your favor. 

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What is the 'About me' section in a resume?

'About me' in resume is where you describe your personality, which includes your strengths, skills, expertise, professional accomplishments, etc. Since it is not a personal profile but a professional one, it must necessarily include the following: 

• Your professional title: This must be clearly defined to allow the reader to understand your relevant work experience, professional background details, and the type of responsibility you would like to undertake. 
• Skills and accomplishments: You must highlight your relevant skills as per the job position you are applying for. Including professional accomplishments will help you add extra weight to your resume. 
• Career objectives: The section 'About me' in resume must also include your short-term and long-term career goals that you have set for yourself. This gives the hiring manager an idea of where you see yourself in the future and also gives a glimpse into your career journey. 

What is the importance of the 'About me' in resume?

'About me' section provides a summary of the entire resume. It briefly provides the most crucial information that the hiring manager wants to know about a job seeker.  This section becomes even more helpful when the HR manager doesn't have enough time at hand to go through the entire resume. Hence, a quick review of the 'About me' in resume will help him/her understand the profile of the candidate, their relevant experience, etc. 

Keywords are the keys to getting your resume noticed!

You know that you are an ideal candidate for a particular job profile. But how do you spell it out? An average resume may go unnoticed, placing all your hard work and experience on the back foot.

As 'About me' in resume helps to lay the first impression of the candidate's resume profile, it is highly recommended to use keywords related to the job description in this section. This will help to grab the attention of the hiring manager taking you a step closer to the interview call. 

How to write an 'About me' in resume?

The following steps will help you to write an effective 'About me' in CV

1. Identity: This is the first step for writing about yourself in a resume. You must be able to clearly identify and put forth your professional title. Based on your previous role, you should clearly define your job title and the relevant professional experience you've had. I

If you are a fresher, terms such as 'entry level professional' can be used in this section. Confused about the professional title to be used? A quick research on the internet can do the trick. Checking out the job titles of your target employers is a smart move! Plus browsing through sites such as LinkedIn can help you state your job title based on your previous role much more clearly.

2. Describe: This is where you describe yourself, highlighting your professional background, and strengths and projecting yourself as the best potential candidate for the job being offered. Your soft skills, technical skills, professional experience, professional accomplishments - all play a good role to paint a strong image of you as a qualified candidate.

3. Outline: The hiring manager wants to understand how you view your career path. Hence, outlining the short- and long-term career goals with respect to the position you are applying for is very important.

'About me' section resume examples

It is important to note that 'About me' in resume for freshers differs substantially from that of an experienced professional. While an experienced person can highlight his/her expertise, experience etc. a fresher can only bank on making the resume as compelling as possible. 

Amp up with these words when you write about yourself in resume: Flexible, Astute, Motivated, Pro-active, Reliable, Energetic, Innovative, Self-starter. 

Here are a few 'About me' resume examples for a wide range of professions, to provide you with a rough idea of how you can use your skills, professional achievements, qualities, etc. in this section: 

Teacher

Teaching school students at Xyz High School for more than 15 years. Owing to my student-friendly teaching methodology, I have received a number of positive feedback over all these years. I have attended various workshops to upgrade my teaching and student management skills and frame an effective teaching approach for students. To continue my positive contribution towards nurturing students and learning more along with them, I am presently seeking the position of Vice Principal at your institution.

Customer Service executive

Qualified customer service rep with a positive attitude and friendly approach. I have extensive experience in customer engagement, customer transactions and catering to customer inquiries with the help of my creative problem-solving skills, multi-tasking, and strong interpersonal skills. I have also received a number of peer recognition awards and positive customer reviews for handling customer complaints during my 5 years long career in excellent customer service. I have helped improve the average repeat customer scores in almost all the firms I have worked with. Presently I am seeking the post of customer care team supervisor to continue my career growth in management.

College student

As a science graduate from Abc University, I seeking an entry-level position as a Project Assistant at your firm. I have 1 year of internship experience at Xyz Bio Labs where I fine-tuned my skills. My strong background in science, keen interest in Microbiology, excellent lab work skills and attention to detail have fetched me many awards at various college-level and national-level competitions. 

Business Executive

Well-organized business executive with more than 10 years of experience in planning marketing strategies and creating new businesses. Due to due to my educational background in management, in-depth problem-solving, analysis and team-handling skills, I contributed to my previous company's revenue growth by approximately 25%. I also received the 'Manager Of The Year Award during my previous job role. To continue my career growth, I am seeking the position of Executive Director at your firm.

Content writer

Have written articles about food and lifestyle. Along with my interest in writing, I have been awarded for my photography at various international competitions. Owing to my writing and research skills and my interest in travel, I am seeking the position of Travel Writer at Abc firm. 

Data Science (Fresher)

An engineering graduate in Computer Science, I have done five internships in data science at various organizations. Because of my internship experience, I am skilled in data cleansing and transformation, statistical data analysis, Python programming and Business Development. I am seeking the position of Junior Data Scientist at your firm. 

SEO expert

Have 4 years of experience as an SEO specialist. Over these years I have become skilled in HTML, CSS, PHP, blogging, SEO plugins, social media marketing and digital marketing. As an SEO expert, I stay current on market trends and upgrade my skills with the help of online courses from time to time. With my knowledge and experience, I have been able to boost my client's websites, enabling them to gain a high ranking. 

Chef

Professional Chef with 10 years of extensive experience in continental cuisine. Have managed dining services of up to 100 tables. My team spirit and positive attitude help me in managing and motivating staff to perform well. I am a certified executive chef and owing to my specialty and positive customer reviews have been listed in the Top 20 Continental Chefs by Xyz magazine. 

Project Manager

A PMP-certified project manager with 4+ years of experience. In my previous roles, I have mastered all the stages of the project life cycle from inception to monitoring to closing and delivering projects that meet time and budget limits. At your firm, I seek greater responsibility as a Senior Project Manager to take my career forward. 

Tips for writing the best 'About me' in resume

• Be brief and clear: Your 'About me' section must be clear and effective. It must form a positive image of you in the first read itself. You must use clear statements about your key strengths, experience, and accomplishments. Mentioning your weaknesses must be avoided in this section.   

• Be honest and humble:  The 'About Me' in resume is not only a mirror of your professional profile but helps to get a peek into your personality as well. Hence, along with being crisp and clear, you must be honest and humble in this section. Since this is the first section that the hiring manager reads in your CV, there are chances that you might encounter many questions based on this section during your job interview. Hence, not being truthful in the 'About me' section might create a problem for you during the interview questions. Also, while you must highlight your skills, you should refrain from boasting about yourself in this section. 

• Proofread: This is one step that you must not forget at any cost. Errors right at the start of your resume might be jarring for the hiring manager to read. Also once written, you must read aloud this section to see if it sounds well and look out for any grammatical errors or incomprehensible statements you might have made in this section.

• Make it relevant with the job description: The motive of the 'About me' in resume is to catch the reader's attention and make you stand out as a potential candidate. Hence, reading the job description well and mentioning all the key skills in this section could be really useful. You can find the keywords in the job description and use the same in some way or the other in this section to make it more effective.

• Catch up with the market trend: As the market evolves, job hiring trends also change. Hence, you must keep yourself updated with the changing market conditions. So whether it is upskilling yourself or keeping a tab on the job titles, experience, or other requirements of the industry, the key is to be aware and ensure that the current role offers better opportunities than your previous experience.   

Bottom Line

'About me' section is all about writing a short and engaging pitch about yourself for resume. While experienced professionals have a lot to mention in their CVs due to their experience level, it may be slightly difficult for freshers to understand what they must mention in their resumes. Hence, for a college student or entry-level candidates, one way to go about it is to use of terms that describe their personality traits or soft skills and which could be helpful in the assigned work as well.

Using terms like passionate, quick learner, good communication skills, sociable, motivated, efficient, punctual, patient can be helpful. For example: If as a fresher, you are applying for a sales job, mentioning traits like excellent inter-personal skills, passion for traveling, motivated and positive approach will help to describe you as a personality suitable for the job. Similarly, if you are applying for the post of a teacher as your first job, traits like being enthusiastic, experimental, open to new ideas, having good rapport with children, etc. are some terms that could be used. 

Lastly, taking a little help from the sample resume section provided above can help you form a good idea of how your 'About me' in CV must be shaped. Keeping it short and clear and enlisting your experience, skills, and expertise well will help you frame an effective resume that stands out from the rest and projects you as an attractive candidate. 

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