5 Tips to Get You Started on an Objective Statement

Objective writing can be a tricky business from start to finish.  What do you say in them?  How do you know what to include?

1. DON’T be too general.  Sometimes people make the mistake of being too general in their statements — it’s easy to put down “Career oriented professional seeks full-time employment”, but what does that really say about you?  Use your objective statement to set yourself aside from other applicants.  Include specifics whenever possible (but don’t get TOO lengthy!) especially when applying for a particular position.

2. DON’T regurgitate what’s already in your cover letter.  Your cover letter should whet the appetite of your prospective employer and give them reason to keep reading, while your objective statement should be a quick blurb about you and what you seek to get out of your job search.  Again, keep it short and sweet and tailor it to a specific position if at all possible.

3.  DO have someone else read it.  Firstly, that friend, family member, etc. can help ensure your resume is typo and spelling-error free.  But secondly, they can also tell you if your objective statement is an appropriate reflection of you.  Knowing you and what kind of past work experience you’ve had and what you’re looking for, they’ll be in a position to judge if you’re giving yourself the credit you deserve.

4. DO be honest.  Honesty is always the best policy.  Not much work experience to back up your decision to apply for a particular job?  Use that.  Add in that you’re looking to gain experience and grow with the position.  Some opportunities require that previous experience, but others may be more flexible.  The silver lining is that you’ll be challenged and invested in your new position, as opposed to someone that’s been doing it for years and find it to be old hat.

5. DO brainstorm.  Still having trouble pinning down the perfect objective statement for your resume?  Try a brainstorming session.  Write down all of your skills and experience on one side, and your career goals on the other.  Connect the ones that make the most sense to give you some bare bones to start with–you’ll get keywords to use and hopefully some perspective on your career objective!

Divine DOs and Disastrous DON’Ts of Resumes

A well-written, neat resume is an absolute MUST in this competitive job market.  Putting all of your years of hard work onto a piece of paper can be a frustrating process, but it can also be extremely rewarding.  It shows employers that you’re serious, and provides more information about why you’re unique and a good investment to them than a basic application does.

Conversely, a poorly written and ill-designed resume sends all the wrong messages.  It indicates to the employer that you didn’t even take the effort to properly construct and proofread a basic document, and gives them little reason to make an effort to better know YOU.

Here are a few key bloopers to avoid:

• Speling and Grammar Error’s.

We all make typos.  We all write hurriedly sometimes.  However, when creating a resume or cover letter…Be.  Extremely.  Careful.  I cannot emphasize this enough.  When the first sentence in your objective reads like a seven year old wrote it, no matter what kind of amazing educational background or work experience you have, it’s irksome.   If you don’t feel confident in your own skills, ask someone else to read over your work before submitting.

• Formatting.

Resumes written in Times New Roman or Arial size 12 font can be boring, and while creativity is nice to see, be mindful of the employer’s eyes.  If it’s dizzying for even you to read, they might not fully appreciate the funky fonts and psychedelic background.  Use your best judgment and try not to go overboard.  Fonts like Garamond, Calibri, or Tahoma make your text stand out more but are still easy to read.  Appropriate use of caps, bold, italics and underlining can also be an effective way to make a good impression.

• It’s a resume.  Not a research paper.  Therefore it should not be ten pages long.

While you want to highlight all of our attributes to grab a potential employer’s attention, too much info, is, sometimes just too much.  It’s great that you made the honor roll all through elementary school, but if means adding a fourth page, you might want to nix that part.  Alternatively, you don’t want to cram everything in with ¼” margins and size 8.5 font.  If you genuinely need it, use a second page.

• CupcakeKitty9500@youremail.com.

Whatever email address you used in middle school is probably not appropriate for job seeking.  Yes, your email address might be cute or funny to you, but in this day and age when so much of job seeking and recruiting is done online, a kooky email address isn’t a plus.  It can be a turn-off.   Creating a professional sounding handle is free with many providers like Gmail and Yahoo and can make a tremendous difference.

What are your divine DOs or disastrous DON’Ts for resumes?  Share your tips for getting noticed by employers–the good, the bad, and the ugly!