How to Draft a Career Objective for Your Resume

One of the things that you should include when you are writing your resume is your career objective. All you career objective is, is a simple statement of what your career goals are. It sounds like something that should be easy to write but most of us find that it is the hardest part of drafting a resume. It is hard to break down your goals and dreams into a few words.

The Length of Your Career Objective

Most career experts say that your career objective should be fairly short, no longer than two sentences long. It should be very simple and easy for a potential employer to read.

What It Should Say

Obviously everyone's career objective is going to be unique to them. However, that doesn't mean that there isn't a standard formula you should try to adhere to. The best career objectives are personal, not generic. They should be warm and friendly, you want to think of your career statement as your resumes opening statement, it's an introduction to yourself. When you are drafting your career statement you want to give the person who is reading your resume the sense that you are very committed to your goal. You need to really believe in what you are saying; if you don't believe it, how is a person who has never met you going to take you seriously?

When you are drafting your career objective it is really important that you are very specific. There are two reasons that you need to be specific. The first reason is so that your career objective doesn't sound generic. The second reason is so that the person who is reading your resume knows what you are actually applying for and that you didn't just turn in a form resume.

What You Shouldn't Write

There are a few things that you shouldn't put in your career objectives. You should not say that your objective is to get the job, the person reading your resume already knows that you would like the job or else you wouldn't have turned in your resume. You also shouldn't write that your ultimate goal is to run the company, prospective employers like to hire forward thinkers but they seldom hire people to fill their shoes.

After you have finished writing your career objective have another person read what you wrote. Have them pretend that they have never met you and ask what impression they would make based solely on your career objective.