Writing Resumes - Resume Objectives Give Your Resume Focus

When writing resumes, consider a resume objective. Resume objectives can give your resume focus, so it stands out in the stack.

What are resume objectives?

Appearing near the top of your resume, these statements tell an employer why they received your resume, what position or area of work you desire, and your qualifications.

Should you use an objective statement on your resume?

There is an age-old argument of whether one should be included on a resume.

On the positive, resume objectives help give your resume a focus and a target.

On the negative: narrow resume objectives can be used by employers to eliminate a candidate, and often objectives are over-used, generic, and state the obvious.

Setting these valid arguments aside, the real question to ask is:

Should your resume have a focus in order to increase your odds of landing a job interview and getting the position?

The answer is emphatically, YES!

Imagine being a hiring manager with a stack of 100 resumes to go through for a position - with none of them with objective statements on them or having no real focus. How would you choose the right candidate?

If your resume has a clear focus using a resume objective statement, yours will stand out.

Or imagine the worst case that your resume is one of the few in that stack that has no clear focus? Your resume would likely be tossed immediately, even if you were the most qualified candidate.

Your best bet is to write an objective statement for each general type of position you are seeking, and write it more as a qualification brief, summary or profile that is specific to that position.