The objective that you write in your resume tells the recruiter what you are looking for. Be concise when writing out your objective and let it reflect your intent and suitability to the vacancy. Resume building requires that you spend time reflecting on your career objectives, convert it into appropriate words and write it in a way that makes your suitability to the vacancy obvious at first glance. The main guideline for writing an objective is to honest with yourself and the recruiter.
Career objective
Are you carrying out a resume building exercise to get yourself into a specific job? If the company has specified the role for which there is a vacancy, you can write your objective as “Sales Manager in the FMCG sector”. You may want to highlight your experience, alter the sentence by adding “Sales Manager with 5 years experience in the FMCG sector”. Consider “Sales Manager with a degree in sales management from — and 5 years in the FMCG sector” if you want to highlight your qualifications due to its relevance to the job.
An alternative method in resume building is to focus on the qualities and experience you bring with you. Are you a good team leader or highly target oriented? Focus on your strength and verbalise your objective. You could say, “Sales Manager with a background of consistently high performance and sound team leadership skills”. This highlights your personal attributes that allow you to perform effectively.
Experience objective
Are you a secretary with more than 15 years experience trying to carry out a resume building? You must be adept at managing confidential papers, utilising discretion, excellent language skills, capable of drafting communications independently and a number of other strengths. What are the main strengths you would like to highlight and what types of jobs would you like to apply to? Can you take on the responsibility of an administration executive apart from carrying out the job of a secretary? Put this down on your resume by considering options like “Secretary with 15 years experience and good administrative and communication skills”. This tells the recruiter that you are willing to consider jobs related to the skills you possess though it may not be the same as what you have held in the past.
Personal objective
You want to be able to work for 5 hours a day since you have some personal objectives to fulfil. Resume building is a good way to highlight your intention and let the recruiter know your availability. You could try, “Provide expertise on C/C++ on a part-time basis every day to make time for educating street children” or “to study for a course”. If you like, add in the number of work hours you are willing to put into the job.
Wording the objective
Let your tone be matter-of-fact and clear. Avoid using phrases like “reach the pinnacle of success” since this tells the recruiter that you have chosen to use fluffy phrases rather than apply thought when wording your objective for resume building.