Why most summaries get skipped
A resume summary usually gets a few seconds, not a read. A recruiter scanning fifty resumes for one role is looking for one thing first: does this person do the job we're hiring for. A summary that reads like a biography - years of experience, a list of soft skills, a sentence about being a team player - doesn't answer that, so it gets skimmed past.
The summary is the one part of the resume you fully control the framing of. Everything else is a record of what happened. The summary is where you say, in your own words, why this specific role fits you.
What it needs to signal instead
A summary that gets read does three things fast: names the role or function you're aiming at, states your strongest relevant proof point, and matches the language of the posting where it's honest to do so. That's it. Not a full career story.
Proof points beat adjectives. "Results-driven professional" tells a recruiter nothing they can act on. A specific outcome, even a modest one, tells them what you actually did.
Before and after
Before: "Motivated professional with 5 years of experience seeking a challenging role in a dynamic company where I can utilize my skills." This could describe almost anyone, for almost any job.
After: "Product manager who has shipped three B2B features from spec to launch, most recently cutting onboarding time by working directly with support to find where users got stuck." It's specific, it's checkable, and it points at exactly the kind of role it's aimed at.
Write the summary last, after the rest of the resume is done. It's easier to pull out your strongest line once you can see the whole page.