Get Attention with a Balanced Resume Objective
by Peter Vogt
When it comes right down to it, employers considering candidates for a job really only want to know two things:
- What do you offer in the way of education, experience and skills?
- What sort of job are you looking for? Do your career goals match the job that's available?
One of the best ways to answer these questions is with an objective statement at the beginning of your resume. Simply put, an objective concisely tells prospective employers what you want in a job and what you can bring to an organization.
You may have heard that some employers don't want to see an objective on your resume. It's true. But for every hiring manager who says something like this:
"We advise candidates to leave off the objective. It's better to use the objective space to include more information on accomplishments and experience."
There's a hiring manager who says something like this:
As an in-house recruiter, any resume I receive without an objective tells me the candidate:
- Is desperate and willing to take any job offered.
- Has not thought about his career enough to know what he wants.
Both are huge red flags."
Clearly, you're going to be targeting this latter group of employers if you decide to develop an objective for your resume. But even then, your objective has to stand out. So be sure:
It's Brief Ideally, your objective will be just one sentence, and it won't go longer than a couple of lines on your resume. Employers aren't looking for a novel here; they just want a concise statement they can read and understand at a glance.
It's Written in Plain English Compare the following objectives, which both say basically the same thing:
Objective
To obtain a challenging, meaningful entry-level sales position in the food and beverage industry, which will enable me to utilize my hard-earned communication and persuasion skills in the pursuit of organizational objectives.
Objective
An entry-level food and beverage sales position that requires exceptional communication and persuasion skills.
There's no need for you to use one-dollar words in your objective when 10-cent words will do just fine.
It's Specific and Customized If you're going to bother using a resume objective in the first place, make sure you customize it for each resume you send out. While public relations and advertising are similar fields, for example, they're not at all the same. So don't try to use the same resume objective when you're applying for PR and advertising jobs.
It Describes What You're Offering as Well as What You Want The most common mistake people make in their resume objectives, by far, is stating only what they want, and not what they have to offer as well. Compare the following objectives:
Objective
A help desk position that challenges me to learn continuously and gives me the opportunity for professional growth and advancement.
Objective
A help desk position that allows me to contribute my proven troubleshooting and customer service skills.
See how the second objective asks for something -- a help desk position -- and also offers something -- proven troubleshooting and customer service skills? Remember: Employers reading and evaluating your resume look for what you can give them, not what they can give you.
A good resume objective won't necessarily win you job interviews on its own. But a bad objective will send your resume straight into the trashcan. In fact, a bad objective is far worse than no objective at all. So give your resume objective the attention and care it needs. That way, employers will easily understand who you are, what you have to offer and why you're worth interviewing -- and perhaps hiring.
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