Just like the theory that your resume can only be one page, the use of an objective statement is one of those leftover “resume rules” floating around from years ago. An objective statement is a one or two sentence statement at the top of your resume that summarizes the type of position you are looking for.It might sound like this: “A hard working sales professional with proven closing and negotiation skills seeking to apply my abilities to a challenging new opportunity.” Yuck. That statement is littered with clichéd resume language and makes the job seeker sound amateurish. That’s the problem with these types of statements. Most of them are inherently cheesy and downright unnecessary. If I can’t tell from glancing at the body of your resume what type of position you are looking for, then there’s something wrong with the resume.This is not to say that all objective statements are terrible and no one should ever use them. There are generally two types of job seekers that may benefit from one of these statements: recent grads who don’t have a lot of work experience and those who are switching career paths. These types of job seekers, understandably, may need to clarify exactly what their intentions are. For the college grad, you may have a degree in Business Administration but you’ve been working as a server at Red Lobster while in school, so you don’t have the matching work experience yet. For the career switcher, the same thing applies. You may have 10 years of experience as an administrative assistant, but now you are going into nursing.If you are feeling the urge to have an objective statement, another option to consider is writing a professional summary instead. A professional summary also presents a summation of your experience and skills, but in a much more useful way. Space is at a premium on resumes and you don’t want to repeat any information or offer any obvious insights that the reader could have gathered from other parts of it.I would also recommend having a bulleted list of your core competencies, or “areas of expertise” at the top. Along with a short professional summary, this is a much better use of the precious space at the top of your resume. We all know that the top is the part that gets read the most, so use your space carefully.Need help crafting your professional summary? Reach out to me for an individual session and we’ll make one that works for your situation and doesn’t make the reader cringe. As always, you can find me at www.worksmartcounseling.com
Just like the theory that your resume can only be one page, the use of an objective statement is one of those leftover “resume rules” floating around from years ago. An objective statement is a one or two sentence statement at the top of your resume that summarizes the type of position you are looking for.It might sound like this: “A hard working sales professional with proven closing and negotiation skills seeking to apply my abilities to a challenging new opportunity.” Yuck. That statement is littered with clichéd resume language and makes the job seeker sound amateurish. That’s the problem with these types of statements. Most of them are inherently cheesy and downright unnecessary. If I can’t tell from glancing at the body of your resume what type of position you are looking for, then there’s something wrong with the resume.This is not to say that all objective statements are terrible and no one should ever use them. There are generally two types of job seekers that may benefit from one of these statements: recent grads who don’t have a lot of work experience and those who are switching career paths. These types of job seekers, understandably, may need to clarify exactly what their intentions are. For the college grad, you may have a degree in Business Administration but you’ve been working as a server at Red Lobster while in school, so you don’t have the matching work experience yet. For the career switcher, the same thing applies. You may have 10 years of experience as an administrative assistant, but now you are going into nursing.If you are feeling the urge to have an objective statement, another option to consider is writing a professional summary instead. A professional summary also presents a summation of your experience and skills, but in a much more useful way. Space is at a premium on resumes and you don’t want to repeat any information or offer any obvious insights that the reader could have gathered from other parts of it.I would also recommend having a bulleted list of your core competencies, or “areas of expertise” at the top. Along with a short professional summary, this is a much better use of the precious space at the top of your resume. We all know that the top is the part that gets read the most, so use your space carefully.Need help crafting your professional summary? Reach out to me for an individual session and we’ll make one that works for your situation and doesn’t make the reader cringe. As always, you can find me at www.worksmartcounseling.com