Whether an objective statement is placed on a resume, CV or a cover letter to a prospective employer, it needs to capture a great deal of information about your professional goals and aspirations in as few words as possible. Defining one can therefore be a challenge. With the right strategy, a well-defined objective statement can reap positive results.
Instructions
Notes on Goals, Strengths, Position and Organization
- 1
Jot down some thoughts about your career goals and aspirations, such as the kind of profession you'd like to enter -- retail, instructional design, education, technical and so forth.
2Write down three to five strengths and qualifications you have that you can offer a future employer, and be as specific as possible. Include any use of or training in specific software programs, or experience in developing certain products. For example, instead of saying, "Worked with workflow tracking software," say, "Used Microsoft Visio to track and monitor workflow process." Keep a running list and add to it over the course of one or two days.
3Write down the type of position you're seeking, such as SEO engineer, fashion buyer or technical writer. Be as specific as possible.
4Think about and write down the type of organization you'd like to work in. For example, a national or international corporation or a small startup company.
Working the Notes into the Statement
- 5
Once you've written down your goals, strengths, type of job you're seeking and organization you'd like to work in, take the most important words and phrases from each statement to define your objective statement. For example, if your responses were as follows:
Goals: To work full time in the insurance industry as an account executive
Strengths: Hard worker, ambitious, can think on my feet, can multitask, trained in and good at contract negotiations
Type of position: sales, account executive
Type of organization: national
Your objective statement might include these keywords: insurance industry, trained in, contract negotiations, account executive, national.
6
Take the keywords and phrases and work them into a full objective statement. Begin the statement with the object of the sentence such as "A position in," or begin with a verb and then the object, as in "Seeking a position as..."
7Check your statements against examples. The Internet is a good resource for sample objective statements. Here are two examples using the keywords in the former step:
Seeking work in the insurance industry to utilize high-level negotiations training in a position as national account executive.
A national position in the insurance industry as account executive to utilize negotiations training and capitalize on contracts success.
