Objectives for Your Resume (Redux)
August 16, 2007 — recruiterOne of the most common search terms I see for this blog is “objectives for your resume”. I’m talking at least a third of them per day. Which bothers me, because it tells me people are spending way too much time on a useless exercise.
You don’t ever need an objective - I’ve said this before, but since it’s buried, I’m going to say it again: your objective is to get a job. If you write an objective, one of two things will happen: it will be way too specific, and you won’t be considered for any other roles at an organization, or it will be way too generic and completely ignored. If you can’t help yourself, and have to put something at the top of your resume, put a simple skills summary (here’s an example):
Summary of qualifications ·  Over ten years of marketing, management and sales experience ·  Sales training and promotion in business to business sales ·  Proven ability to manage key account relationships · Experienced manager with the ability to motivate employees to surpass company goals · Results-oriented leader with strong organization, communication, team-building, and problem-solving skills · Tradeshow experience including lead generation and distribution  · Vendor and customer relationship management
Don’t tell me that you’re looking for an interesting, engaging, empowering company that listens to its employees - I assume that, since everyone else is, too. Just tell me what you’ve done that’s made you unique, and worth paying attention to. It’s up to you to determine if the job & company meet your objective.
August 23, 2007 at 12:36 pm
How about an Objective that addresses the employer’s needs instead of the applicant’s skills (which are on the resume)?
For example:
“To help ABC Software gain more loyal customers and increase profits by providing exceptional service and becoming your best sales representative.”
Nice blog, BTW!
August 23, 2007 at 12:51 pm
Thanks Bonnie - appreciate it.
Not a bad point, either - if you’re looking for a specific role within a specific organization, customixe the objective. Just be aware that they may have a role that would be good fit that your objective might inadvertently rule you out of.
Remember: companies are like people. If you say: “To apply my demonstrated skills at ZoomInfo, one of the most exciting companies I have ever encountered.” Well, that’s like making sure to compliment your first date on his/ her eyes, shoes, whatever.
June 5, 2008 at 11:54 am
sorry I’m a little late to the party but I felt compelled to comment. For credibility purposes I should let you know I am also a recruiter. Everytime I see an objective such as those you mention above, I’m turned off. I feel like my company was just cut and pasted into a generic objective.
If you truly have targeted a specific company or want to say something about why you want to work there, it should be done in a cover letter or in the body of the email you are sending. Also, it should not be generic. If you show me that you have taken the time to read my website and research my company, I’m going to take that into consideration when reading your resume.
Along those lines, I would highly recommend submitting your resume through the company’s website as opposed to a standard job board submission. It shows me that you were actually at my website and at a minimum took the extra step to go there and at best it shows you may have been tracking openings at my company and finally something came up you were interested in. Either way, you are getting more consideration than the average resume submitted.
June 5, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Hey Bspell - excellent counter point, and one I’m happy to concede. Frankly, I still think your objective is to get a job, and it’s best to avoid the darned thing.