How to Write a Career Objective on a Resume

Resume writing isn't complete until you write a career objective on your resume. Career objectives state to the world (at least the world to which you're applying for a job) what you want in a career.

Career objectives will be different for the same person as they progress in their work life. Remember that a career objective is simply a mission statement telling the prospective employer what you want, but be sure to phrase it in a way so they'll want you to work for them.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Resume
• Career objective

1. 
    
   Decide what your career objective is.

   Decide what you want and what you have to offer.
   
   Once you have an idea of what you want in the job you are seeking, writing a career objective will be much easier. Before tackling resume writing, sit down and list your qualifications, education, strong points, skills, knowledge of computer programs, and anything else that will make you stand out to a prospective employer.
   
   Just starting out in a career, a person may want a job for the money alone. But this is not a good career objective to list. Instead, state your career objective for an entry-level office position in simple but honest terms:
   
   Recent college graduate seeking entry-level position to use business education and computer skills to benefit your company.

2. Word the career objective to match the job you are applying for.
   
   Use the "help wanted ad" to help write your career objective. If an employer in the financial sector asks in the ad for a self-starter with five years of management experience, write a career objective that states those facts, such as:
   
   Detail-oriented self-starter with seven years of experience managing 20 to 30 employees looking to advance my career in a financial setting.

3. 
    
   What you just might get with a great career objective!

   List your experience, carefully.
   
   If you are a mature worker with many years of experience, keep yourself looking young and fresh to prospective employers by generalizing all of your years of experience (that is, list 28 years of experience as 'more than 20 years of experience'). Instead, list the skills you will bring to the job along with your maturity:
   
   Supervisor with 20+ years of experience in the health care and financial industries seeking a supervisory position to use my organizational and communication skills to our mutual benefit.

Tips & Warnings

• In today's job market, stay on top of what employers want. Learn new computer programs if needed.

[DragonLilly]

on 6/25/2009 Excellent advice. As a "mature" job seeker, I'm learning the importance of keeping my image young and fresh...excellent advice in step 3.

[jamaclassics]

on 4/23/2009 Awesome article. I always have trouble with this and I'm never satisfied with whatever I put for my objective. (I don't really have an objective except for cookies and gardening, so maybe that's the real problem.)This is a very helpful article: 5 stars!

[sonni57]

on 4/11/2009 Good article on how to write a career objective on a resume I'm not good at this.

[andre7514]

on 4/11/2009 I like this format. This is a great way to get started on writing a career objective for a resume. 5 stars

[xtraordinary]

on 4/10/2009 Excellent tips...I never know exactly what to write for my career objective on my resume...and I've been working with it a lot lately! 5 stars~