Aside from a cover letter, your resume objective is the first thing a prospective employer sees. Its also one of the things people struggle with the most when creating resumes because theres no clear-cut way to do it. Its highly individual and also dependent on the industry.
When writing a resume objective, you want to make your intent clear about where youre going in your career and what you hope to accomplish. That means you need to sit down and determine what your goals are as a professional, and align those goals with your prospective company.
For example, if youre a young journalist looking eagerly looking to get your feet wet, chances are, youll be sending your resume out to a television station in a small market. Small markets in small cities frequently attract young journalists who are hungry to start their careers, even if it means earning pennies for their efforts. A sample resume objective for a journalist would read something like this:
Eager reporter with dynamic, multimedia skill-set and strong desire to write compelling news stories looking to help a small-market television station grow.
In this resume objective example, the words eager and dynamic multimedia skill-set show this is a person who can handle writing, editing, producing, videography, and on-camera reporting, which are traits that small-market news stations with smaller budgets look for. Its clear the reporter is looking to grow, and in turn, wants to help this television station grow.
By aligning your goals with a companys goals, youre creating a vision for your prospective employer of, heres what I can do for you, and heres what we can achieve together. You shift the focus from being an eager job candidate to the future, where youre out in the field gathering stories and reporting breaking news.
Also notice the words eager, dynamic, and multimedia stand out in that sentence. Those job resume key words were chosen very carefully to not only align you, the prospective journalist, with the goals of news station, but also to shape you, personality-wise, for the type of work reporting entails.
Ask yourself, What does my line of work entail? What type of personality traits does my field look for? What are the types of job skills employers look for? In your case, Mr. or Ms. Aspiring Journalist, your youth and inexperience is masked with the word eager (always turn a negative into a positive!) and dynamic is used to convey your ability to juggle multiple tasks at once. Then an industry-term is used that best describes your capabilities with multimedia.
Now lets create your own resume objective.
First, make a bulleted skills list for a resume. Start out with traits that describe you as a person. You can write as many as you want, but keep in mind that youll need to narrow this list down to one or two of the best.
Now in a separate column, list your professional skills and capabilities, but only your true strengths. If youre editing skills need some work, then dont promote yourself as being a Final-Cut guru. Instead, emphasize your writing and storytelling ability, or your ability to connect with an audience.
Now narrow both of your lists down to one or two traits in each column. See if theres some correlation there between both columns. You may find that your multi-tasking abilities directly relate to your ability to single-handedly produce an entire newscast. This may take a few tries, and again, you want to select words that will align you with the company you wish to work for.
Once youve chosen your descriptive keywords from both columns, try writing an objective. Keep it one sentence, but dont stuff it with so many words that the person reading your resume objective is out of breath. Keep it simple, make it effective, just like the rest of your resume.
It may take you a few tries to craft your resume objective into something that reads well and sums up your professional and personal capabilities, but its worth it when you can present something uniquely you that will entice employers. You want to sell yourself here thats really the key. Sell yourself by making a memorable introduction so your prospective employer will want to read on, rather than pass on you.
When writing a resume objective, you want to make your intent clear about where youre going in your career and what you hope to accomplish. That means you need to sit down and determine what your goals are as a professional, and align those goals with your prospective company.
For example, if youre a young journalist looking eagerly looking to get your feet wet, chances are, youll be sending your resume out to a television station in a small market. Small markets in small cities frequently attract young journalists who are hungry to start their careers, even if it means earning pennies for their efforts. A sample resume objective for a journalist would read something like this:
Eager reporter with dynamic, multimedia skill-set and strong desire to write compelling news stories looking to help a small-market television station grow.
In this resume objective example, the words eager and dynamic multimedia skill-set show this is a person who can handle writing, editing, producing, videography, and on-camera reporting, which are traits that small-market news stations with smaller budgets look for. Its clear the reporter is looking to grow, and in turn, wants to help this television station grow.
By aligning your goals with a companys goals, youre creating a vision for your prospective employer of, heres what I can do for you, and heres what we can achieve together. You shift the focus from being an eager job candidate to the future, where youre out in the field gathering stories and reporting breaking news.
Also notice the words eager, dynamic, and multimedia stand out in that sentence. Those job resume key words were chosen very carefully to not only align you, the prospective journalist, with the goals of news station, but also to shape you, personality-wise, for the type of work reporting entails.
Ask yourself, What does my line of work entail? What type of personality traits does my field look for? What are the types of job skills employers look for? In your case, Mr. or Ms. Aspiring Journalist, your youth and inexperience is masked with the word eager (always turn a negative into a positive!) and dynamic is used to convey your ability to juggle multiple tasks at once. Then an industry-term is used that best describes your capabilities with multimedia.
Now lets create your own resume objective.
First, make a bulleted skills list for a resume. Start out with traits that describe you as a person. You can write as many as you want, but keep in mind that youll need to narrow this list down to one or two of the best.
Now in a separate column, list your professional skills and capabilities, but only your true strengths. If youre editing skills need some work, then dont promote yourself as being a Final-Cut guru. Instead, emphasize your writing and storytelling ability, or your ability to connect with an audience.
Now narrow both of your lists down to one or two traits in each column. See if theres some correlation there between both columns. You may find that your multi-tasking abilities directly relate to your ability to single-handedly produce an entire newscast. This may take a few tries, and again, you want to select words that will align you with the company you wish to work for.
Once youve chosen your descriptive keywords from both columns, try writing an objective. Keep it one sentence, but dont stuff it with so many words that the person reading your resume objective is out of breath. Keep it simple, make it effective, just like the rest of your resume.
It may take you a few tries to craft your resume objective into something that reads well and sums up your professional and personal capabilities, but its worth it when you can present something uniquely you that will entice employers. You want to sell yourself here thats really the key. Sell yourself by making a memorable introduction so your prospective employer will want to read on, rather than pass on you.
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