How to Write an Objective Statement for a Resume

The objective statement is the hook that causes the hiring manager to pause as he is flipping through a stack of resumes. It is the attention-getter that lets the human resources director take a closer look at your resume and perhaps put it into the “follow up” pile. At the same time, it is one of the most difficult one or two sentences you will ever be asked to put onto paper. Essentially, you put forth your ambitions, qualifications, and profitability to the company all rolled into one short paragraph. It is difficult initially, but once you learn how to write an objective statement for a resume, you will be ready to do it again and again!

Things You'll Need

• Pad
• Pencil
• Green pencil
• Red pencil

Instructions

1. Take your pad and pencil and write down all of your qualifications relevant to the position for which you are applying. Do not hold back, but instead list each and every skill and talent that you believe to be pertinent. For example, an applicant for a daycare worker position might list “friendly, outgoing, energetic, personable, relate well to children of all ages, love children.”

2. Review the list of qualifications and single out the ones that are most likely to profit your next employer. Underline these qualifications with your green pencil. The childcare worker from the example may identify “outgoing, energetic, personable, relate well to children of all ages” as the premier qualifications that express the applicant’s potential benefit to the employer. That she is friendly and loves children may be considered secondary, since they are implied in the other qualifications and overall are more behaviors rather than skills.

3. Identify the top two qualifications. Underline these qualifications in red. Obviously the most important qualifications in the daycare worker model are the ability to relate well to children of all ages and the fact that the applicant is outgoing. This makes her valuable for any age group the daycare facility is catering to and also bodes well for interactions she will have with the children’s parents and also other staff members.

4. Define your future goal. It is rare that a job applicant will see a position as the culmination of a career and even if you foresee staying in that job for a long time, it is a good idea to think about what it is that you want to do in the future in this field. Returning to the daycare worker example, a great goal might be daycare facility management.

5. Combine your top two qualifications with your future goal. Do so in no more than two sentences. The childcare worker from the illustration is working with “relate well to children of all ages,” “outgoing,” and “daycare facility management.” In an objective statement, this might read like: “Outgoing childcare worker with the proven ability to relate well to children of all ages and well rounded in all aspects of daycare facility operations seeks career position.” The implied statement is the willingness to work her way up the career ladder at the daycare facility while the expressed statement shows that she is someone who can fit right in and will not require a lot of training.

Tips & Warnings

• Save the objective statement for last, since it is a summary of your primary qualifications and also a bit of goal setting. Beginning with the objective locks you in and may actually fail to take into consideration the most important skills and talents you are bringing to the table.

• It is a good idea to have a number of resumes for different occasions. Tailor your objective statement to fit the particular job for which you are applying with each resume.

• Beware the temptation of dictating your work environment to the employer! Hiring managers want to know how you will benefit the company, not which conditions must be fulfilled for you to fit in.

• Stay away from platitudes. Terms like “seeking challenging career opportunity” or “wishing to join goal-oriented team” are devoid of substance. You future employer will not know what challenges you and every team will claim to be goal-oriented.

Resources

• Visit the RockportInstitute.com website and learn how to build a great resume from the ground up.
• Read Ed Matthews’ cut and dried reasons why he won’t hire you and learn how you can get an edge over people like him at the CS.UMSL.Edu website.
• Check out several sample objective statements at Money-Zine.com and see if any of them could be custom tailored to your needs.