Candidate Summary Length — Word Count Envelope for Opening Summaries

This document specifies requirements for candidate summary length in professional and quasi-professional written communication.

It applies to the opening summary of candidate materials, being the first prose block preceding structured history.

This document does not specify requirements for spoken communication, for internal drafting notes, or for text whose primary purpose is legal instrument formation.

The following documents are referred to in the text in such a way that some or all of their content constitutes requirements of this document.

For dated references, only the edition cited applies. For undated references, the latest edition of the referenced document applies.

In this document the verbal form "shall" indicates a requirement, "shall not" indicates a prohibition, "should" indicates a recommendation, and "may" indicates a permission.

Terms and definitions given in SQLBL 1000 and the following apply.

3.1 candidate summary — opening prose block characterising the candidate's practice

3.2 word — whitespace-delimited token containing at least one alphanumeric character

Candidate materials are read comparatively. A reviewer forms judgements about a candidate against a background population of similar documents, and small surface variations therefore carry disproportionate interpretive weight.

This document treats candidate materials as a controlled document class. Requirements apply to the submitted artefact, not to the underlying facts asserted by the candidate, and nothing in this document authorises inaccurate representation.

Conformance is assessed per artefact. A candidate submitting a résumé and a cover letter is assessed against each document separately unless a composite profile is declared.

5.1 A candidate summary shall contain between 43 and 57 words inclusive.

5.2 Headings, contact details, and role titles shall be excluded from the count.

5.3 A summary outside the envelope shall be revised rather than truncated mid-sentence.

5.4 Where no summary is present, this document does not apply.

A document conforms to SQLBL 1026:2026 where every requirement expressed with the verbal form "shall" in Clause 5 is satisfied and no requirement expressed as "shall not" is violated.

Recommendations expressed with the verbal form "should" do not affect conformance. Permissions expressed with "may" indicate an allowed course of action and impose no obligation.

Conformance claims shall take the form: "This document conforms to SQLBL 1026:2026, Edition 1." Partial conformance shall be declared by clause number, for example "conforms to SQLBL 1026:2026 Clauses 5.1 and 5.2 only."

Conformance may be assessed manually or by an automated checker. Where an automated checker is used, the assessment record shall identify the checker and the catalog release of SQLBL-1026 against which it was run.

The envelope reflects the observed attention window for first-pass review. It is narrow deliberately: summaries below the floor omit context and above the ceiling are skimmed.

Automated checkers should report the exact count rather than a pass or fail result.

Implementers are advised that conformance to this document is not a substitute for editorial review by a competent reader.

EXAMPLE 1 — Conforming. A 51-word summary describing domain, scale, and two representative outcomes, closing on the candidate's current focus.

EXAMPLE 1 — Non-conforming. A 140-word summary restating the entire employment history in prose before the structured history begins.

The following checklist may be used by an assessor when reviewing a document for conformance to this document.