Resume Objective Tips
From Adviceopedia
Resume Objective Tips
Be Specific
Your resume objective should tell the potential employer why the position or company and your qualifications are a good match. A resume objective that looks like it could fit any situation at any organization appears as though you haven't given the match much thought yourself.
Match the Most Important Job Requirements
Determine the most important attributes for the position or for a successful career at the company and tailor your resume objective around those. If the job advertisement doesn't spell it out, look at the organization's website. Does the careers section describe the kind of person they hire? If so, incorporate those ideas, but be sure not to copy their words. If it doesn't, look for biographies of key staff, the kind of language it uses in press releases, or anything else that tells you what the organization most values.
Make It about Their Needs, Not Just Your Wants
This is the most important resume objective tip. Employers first and foremost want to know what you can do for them. If the only thing they can learn from your resume objective is what would make you happy in your professional life, they're not going to be impressed.
Make It Easy to Skim
Most employers give a resume a depressingly (for the applicant) short review when making the first cut of applicants, often less than one minute. Most resume objectives are between twenty and thirty words. You can elaborate in your cover letter.
Make It Easy for a Computer to Scan
Many resumes don't even get rejected by a human being. A computer scans them for relevant keywords, especially if they're looking for very specific job skills (such as a nursing specialty, software programs, and so on). Make sure your objective captures key terminology, especially if you're applying for a position where there are likely to be more than fifty candidates.
For Recent Graduates or New to the Work Force
Your resume objective is your chance to explain how your studies, internships, life experience, and other parts of your background prepared you for this position. A college career center, employment counselor, or people you know in the field can give you resume objective tips for a specific kind of job, as well.
Resume Objective Tips for Career Changes
If your next career development move is a job change, the resume objective can be your chance to show how your skills from one type of position apply to another. For example:
- A position that will enable me to use my 10 years experience with the justice system to further child welfare for an attorney applying for a management job at a youth agency.
- To bring a progressive history of successful negotiation to Company's procurement practice for somebody switching from mediation to purchasing.
If you can find books, articles, or websites about entering a field, that can be a great source of very specific resume objective tips.
Avoid Cliches
Obvious (but not always obvious enough) resume objective tip: Don't be boring or obvious.
Who wouldn't want a challenging position that will let me use my skills and be creative in a personally and professionally rewarding environment with room for advancement? Only somebody who would rather be under-stimulated, underutilized, unsatisfied, underpaid, and in a dead end job. Read through your entire resume, not just the objective, and rewrite anything that you think somebody who's read through fifty resumes in the last hour has seen so often his or her eyes will glaze over.
When NOT to Use a Resume Objective
Important resume objective tip: Use one only when it will help you. Usually, they're most useful for people starting their careers or for those changing careers.
They can be counter-productive if:
- You want to be considered for multiple positions (unless working for that particular company is a goal in and of itself, in which case you make that the objective).
- You don't have enough information to be specific about why it's a good match .
- The rest of your resume will speak for itself. This is often the case in very specialized positions or ones where you can reasonably expect the employer to read through your resume carefully.
Alternatives to Resume Objectives
Career summaries or qualifications summaries are useful for situations where you have a good deal of directly relevant experience. These are longer than a resume objective and can be either sentences or bullet points.
