WHY IS A CAREER OBJECTIVE SO RUBBISH?
Beginning your resume with a Career Objective used to be the norm. No one knows what started this trend, however in recent years this section has become less and less favored. As I recently explained in an article published by Business Insider, your resume needs to be as concise as possible, successfully conveying a powerful message without repeating information or including irrelevant detail. Resume space is valuable, and should be sparingly used only to present information that markets your unique skills and experience. Does a career objective do this?
Having reviewed literally thousands of resumes each year, I can tell you that nearly all career objectives say the exact same thing: that the applicant wants an opportunity to work within a company where they can utilize their skills in order to help company X attain their goals. Such a statement is completely redundant. By the simple fact you’re applying for the job, it’s already blatantly obvious that you intend to use your skills to benefit the company and help them achieve their goals. I mean, isn’t that the primary basis of an employee-employer relationship in the first place? Any hiring manager with half a week working experience can see this for exactly what it is: fluffy pointless “resume-speak”. So what can you put instead of a Career Objective to make better use of this space?
WINNING COMBINATION: PROFESSIONAL PROFILE & KEY SKILLS SECTION
PROFESSIONAL PROFILE
An alternative formatting option is to begin your resume with a Professional Profile section. This is an high impact summarary paragraph, introducing yourself as a professional and underlining key accomplishments along with 2-3 of your key skills.
In light of research indicating that most hiring managers spend less than 30 seconds reading a resume, it’s important you convey your most important information early in your resume. In fact, Professional Association of Resume Writers (PARW) guidelines dictate that the first one-third of your resume needs to be the most impactful and contain the majority of someone’s skills and accomplishments.
Why is a Professional Profile more effective than a Career Objective? Well, assuming a hiring manager – like everyone else – reads a page from the top left to the bottom right, your Professional Profile will be the first thing they read. In light of research indicating that most hiring managers spend less than 30 seconds reading a resume, it’s important you convey your most important information early in your resume. In fact, Professional Association of Resume Writers (PARW) guidelines dictate that the first one-third of your resume needs to be the most impactful and contain the majority of someone’s skills and accomplishments. In short, If the hiring manager only chooses to read one paragraph of your resume, a Professional Profile is the best way to pitch yourself and (hopefully) engage the reader so that they review your resume in full.
A secondary benefit of replacing your Career Objective with a Professional Profile section is that it allows you to apply a professional headline to your resume, for example:
David A Ginola | Sales & Accounts Manager
It could be the case that you’ve only held one job as a sales and accounts manager, however by giving yourself a professional headline, you are selling your expertise and knowledge, ensuring that you’re taken seriously as a candidate.
KEY SKILLS or CORE COMPETENCIES
A list of 6-12 Key Skills or Core Competencies is the perfect section to follow a Professional Profile. These are meant to highlight any key skills you have that are essential to performing the job you are applying for. This is an efficient and highly effective method of showing you have the knowledge and ability to perform the job being advertised, and are therefore worth granting an interview. What do I mean by this? Here’s an example: for someone working in retail management, necessary key skills could include:
- Team Leadership
- Strategic Marketing
- Data Analysis
- Budgeting & Cost Control
- Training and Staff Development
CONCLUSION
By removing the Career Objective from your resume, and replacing it with a Professional Profile and a Key Skills section, you will transform the first one-third of your resume into a high impact marketing tool that will no doubt inspire the reader to pick up the phone and give you a call! So, while you wait to hear back from the hiring manager to confirm an interview date, why not share this article via the social tabs at the bottom of this page? Also, don’t forget to check out our Facebook page and click theLike button. Happy job hunting! 🙂
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