Your Resume Objective

Statement:What It Is & How

to Write One

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> RESUME OBJECTIVE

A resume objective statement is your chance

to make a first impression with recruiters.
There are three purposes to a resume
objective statement:

It lays out what your professional

objectives are.

Whether you’re experienced in your field

or embarking on an exciting new career.

Most importantly - why you’re the

perfect choice for the position you’re
seeking

If you want your resume to stand out, a well-

written resume objective is essential.

Table of Content

What a Resume Objective

Statement Needs to Have

An objective statement comes at the top of

your resume. It typically states your goals for
employment in one to three sentences. For a
well-written objective to stand out it’s
important to:

Be specific about the skills and

experiences you have that relate to the
job.

Ensure that career goals you’re stating

are feasible within the company you’re
applying to.

Where possible, give equal time to your

personal virtues and to the qualities
that add value to the company.

Each sentence of the statement should be

concise and to-the-point. An effective career
statement is tailored for the position you’re
applying to and can include:

What Career/Position You’re

Pursuing

Example: To apply a solid Accounting

education to an entry-level cost
accountant position with an
organization that values hard work.

What Skills and Experience You

Bring to that Career

Example: Seeking to refine the

analytical, support and training skills
acquired in ten years as a Budget and
Accounting Manager.

Accomplishments that are Relevant

to the Current Job

Example: In four years as a store

manager at Hinky-Dink’s, I cut costs by
23 percent and boosted inventory
accuracy by over 36 percent.

Where You’ve Been in Your Career,

and Where You Aspire to Go

Example: Applying a 10-year track

record in business administration to
the pursuit of interests in education,
which an Instructor position at the UFV
School of Business fits perfectly.

Examples of Great Resume

Objective Statements

It’s not always possible to deploy every

single piece of the above advice into an
objective statement. Try to keep the most
applicable recommendations in view and
carefully review your writing to make sure
that the final product is as effectively written
as possible.

The following examples refer to the kinds of

applicants listed in "Who Benefits Most from
a Resume Objective?"

Workers in a Career Change

"Experienced freelance writer set on

changing career to content marketing.
Spent 10 years writing freelance
journalism and promotional copy for
various organizations and media
outlets. Hope to apply a strong grasp of
informative and exciting copywriting to
strengthen the appeal of
Logic+Emotion’s distinctive marketing
blog."

"Accomplished office manager making

a career shift to human resources.
Eight years of experience supporting a
diverse office team of over 40
professionals and providing
professional communication. Seeking
to apply this combination of
administrative and interpersonal skills
to help ABC Company meet company-
wide human resource goals."

Returning to the Workforce After

a Long Absence

"Proven administrative assistant with a

12-year record of providing excellent
communications, filing, report-writing
and customer service. Returning to
work after a three-year career pause.
Looking to apply and reinvigorate skills
in helping Generica, Inc.’s head office
enjoy the highest possible standards of
efficiency and customer relations."

"Creative marketing and design

professional with eight years’
experience in print and online layout
work. Returning to the workplace after
a 12-month maternity leave. Hope to
apply my proven skills in building
innovative and effective graphic design
and layout to help GraphDesignCo
enhance its profile and acquire new
clients and opportunities."

Entering the Workforce

"Recent double major in English and

Communications from the University of
Municiberg who has completed two
internships in public relations. Used
writing, planning and design skills to
craft effective marketing materials for
clients in multiple sectors. Seeking to
apply these skills to assist with the
planning and execution of marketing
deliverables for Riddell Ltd."

"Self-motivated individual with two

years’ experience in sales and
knowledgeable about business
principles. Refined interpersonal and
sales skills in the course of cold-calling
for real estate leads on behalf of
Re/Max Realty Ltd., with a 15 percent
conversion rate. Seeking an entry-level
position with the AmeriCorps
Insurance sales team."

Those with Gaps in Their Work

History

"Savvy marketing manager with a

specialty in social media who doubled
organic traffic and cut CPM costs by 30
percent during a four-year tenure at
MediaCorp Ltd. Took two years away
from work to care for an elderly
relative, while undertaking professional
training to keep skills current. Seeking
to apply my skills to managing a
growth-oriented content marketing
strategy for UBusiness.com."

Job-Hoppers

"Experienced and in-demand

marketing professional with a 12-year
track record planning and delivering
content for a wide range of companies.
Have supervised successful campaigns
to the consistent acclaim of clients in
the communications, industrial and
energy sectors. Now seeking a long-
term position with potential for growth
and consistency as a marketing
specialist with JimCo, Ltd."

Comparison: Objective vs.

Summary Statements

A summary statement is a more common

resume tool than a resume objective.
They’re closely related with different points
of emphasis:

Career Objective

Primarily focused on your objectives for

employment and clarifies your value to
the company in the course of stating
those objectives.

Advantages:

An objective statement is a useful self-

marketing tool for when you’re
changing careers or starting out in the
job. market, or in any situation where
your goals aren’t easy to determine
from your work history alone.

It provides you with a way to link your

current skill set with what you’re trying
to do.

In targeting a specific position, the

resume objective provides an
opportunity to reference the job
opening.

Overall, by simply stating what you’re

looking for and why you pique the
interest of the hiring manager.

Summary Statement

Primarily on the value you’ll add to the

company and tends not to mention your
personal or career objectives.

Advantages:

A summary statement makes a

condensed but powerful case for your
particular skill set and what it brings to
the company.

It can run a bit longer than a resume

objective, providing a fuller overview of
the skills you bring to the table.

It can run a bit longer than an objective

statement, providing a fuller overview of
the skills you bring to the table.

You can convey higher levels of detail

about your skills and education without
referring directly to what you’re hoping to
gain from the company.

Staffing sites often refer to the summary

statement as the better and bolder option
than the resume objective thanks to the
highlights it provides about your prior
working life.

It serves well for job hunters looking

within their established field.

Who Benefits Most From a

Resume Objective?

It’s not true that every job seeker should use

a resume objective statement. There are
certain types of applicants for whom it
makes the most sense. These are the kinds
of job seekers who can most benefit from
the use of a well-written resume objective:

Workers in a Career Change

Changing careers is one of the most

difficult transitions to make in the job
market. By focusing on your objectives
and the unique ways in which you
present skills can contribute to the new
industry, you can show a hiring
manager why it makes sense to help
you make this transition.

Returning to the Workforce After a

Long Absence

Starting anew after having been out of

the labor force is perhaps one of the
few job market challenges more
difficult than a change of career. Here,
having a clearly-stated objective can
help demonstrate your drive and larger
vision.

Entering the Workforce

If you don’t have much in the way of a

work history to draw upon, an objective
statement can clarify how you’ll be
applying any prior education to specific
career goals. It can overcome or at any
rate lessen the degree to which new
workers can be plausibly, or legally,
shut out from gainful employment.

Gaps in Work History

Gaps in your work history, no matter

the reason, can undercut efforts to find
work. Your resume objective can help
to refocus attention on the future
instead of the past and can illustrate
why getting you back into the
workforce is beneficial for everyone.

Job-Hoppers

Those who are compelled by

circumstances to job-hop and try to
find the best fit for their skills need
some kind of general hook for selling
themselves to each new job
opportunity. A well-crafted objective
statement can help to make the
process of job-hopping far easier and
help make hiring you appealing to
hiring managers.

10 Writing Tips for a Great

Resume Objective Statement

The approach you take to your resume and

resume objective makes all the difference in
making it to the desk of a hiring manager, or
not. You have to strike the right balance
between informative and wordy, focus on
your career objectives while making it clear
what value you can add to the company and
your colleagues, and you have to do it all in
the space of about 50 words. It calls for
careful writing that follows these tips:

1
Short and Direct

Brevity and focus are important keys to

an objective statement that stands out.
A resume typically has about six
seconds to catch a recruiter’s eye, as
they’re typically going through multiple
applicants at a time. The career
statement should be short, strong and
avoid filler words.

2
Personalized for the Job

A generic career statement is a dead

giveaway of a candidate not having put
in an effort to distinguish themselves
from the crowd. A resume objective
should be adapted specifically for the
job role you are seeking, and highlight
the skills and experiences that are
strongly aligned with the job
description.

3
Show, Don’t Tell

Don’t just say you’re the ideal

candidate. Demonstrate it with
concrete examples. If it’s possible and
relevant, quantify achievements when
you mention them. Your relevant
experience managing an office or a
store, for example, should include
measurable accomplishments like the
decrease of waste or an increase in
profits.

4
Clarity of Purpose

Brevity is good, but not at the expense

of logic and flow. Your objective
statement should always make sense
and avoid vague statements and
sentiments, jargon, fluff and filler, and
largely meaningless cliches of the "self-
starter looking for new challenges in a
fast-paced environment" type.

5
Set the Stage

Your resume objective can be thought

of as the "hook" for the rest of your
resume. The skills, experiences and
qualities you highlight here should be
reasonably representative of the
resume’s fuller contents. This
consistency means that when the
recruiter is tempted to read your
resume in more detail, it further
engages their interest.

6
Lead with Your Strengths

Outside of quantifiable achievements,

lead with the personal attributes you
have that you’re most proud of and
that contribute directly to the position
you’re seeking. You can segue from
these into talking about specific
accomplishments.

7
Note Relevant Credentials

If you have important and prestigious

credentials that could have a bearing
on the posted job, it’s a good idea to
include them. Having the right
credentials for the position at hand, or
at least credentials in a related or
applicable sector of the job market,
helps promote goodwill from the
recruiter.

8
Describe How You’ve Made an
Impact

If you have experiences that tie into the

position, describe a way that you made
an impact on a company or a
community, keeping in mind the
"Show, don’t tell" rule mentioned
earlier. As with credentials, relevant
experience is an excellent way of
gaining consideration from the hiring
manager.

9
Describe How You’ll Add Value

While the focus of an objective

statement tends to be on your career
goals, that doesn’t mean you can’t also
address the question of what you bring
to the company and how you’ll help
them to do things better.