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Resume 101: Writing Your Objective Statement

Like our first Resume 101, we’ll cover a section of your resume in this post.

The objective statement of your resume is at the top, just under your contact information, so it’s the first thing most people will read. It consists of three elements:

  1. A career area or “headline”
  2. Your three major strengths
  3. A statement of what you can do for an employer

One. The career area looks something like one of these:

  • Project management
  • Special event coordination
  • Process accounting supervision
  • Plant maintenance
  • Systems planning

Two. Your three major strengths can be things like:

  • Communications
  • Efficiency
  • Empathy
  • Problem solving

Three. Write what you can do for an employer, such as:

  • Save time
  • Create new products
  • Motivate others
  • Maintain production levels
  • Expand sales
  • Develop new customers

Your objective statement allows you make it clear that you will contribute positively to the bottom line.

Here are a few examples of complete objective statements:

Contribute to a printing company’s increased profitability through effective use of human resources.

Contribute to a more rapid and profitable turnaround of varied manufacturing projects through efficient use of existing staff and equipment.

Contribute to increased recovery of assets and reduced losses through the use of proven accounting techniques and methods.

Putting it all together.

Now, combine all three parts into your career objective which is a single, clear statement of what you intend to do in the workplace. Here are a few examples, but make sure that what you write is yours alone!

Objective: Cost estimator, where proven strengths in the areas of perception, problem solving and planning will significantly contribute to a transportation company’s increased profitability through more accurate pricing.

Objective: Construction project management, where proven strengths in the areas of organization, leadership and communication will contribute to a construction company’s increased profitability through effective coordination of people and materials.

Objective: Financial management, where proven strengths in the areas of system design, project planning and cost recovery will improve asset recovery and reduce losses through the use of proven accounting techniques and methods.

We’re here for you. If you have any questions about your resume or other career related issues, Ask The Counselor!

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Resume 101: How To Make Your Resume Even Better Than It Is

Thinking about brushing up your resume? Read this first.

All accomplishment-based resumes should contain:

  1. Contact information
  2. Objective Statement
  3. Specific skills
  4. Measurable achievements and accomplishments
  5. Employment history
  6. Educational background

Communicating well-defined and transferrable accomplishments is where you have the chance to set yourself apart. Writing down your professional accomplishments becomes the answer to, ‘Tell me a few good things you’ve done that would make me want to hire you.’

Each of your professional accomplishments should consist of four parts:

  1. A description of the event
  2. What made it important
  3. What you did to make it happen
  4. The measurable results

Examples:
Created a volunteer group to organize a viable thrift store operation. Scheduled a team of volunteers to better organize donation intake, sorting, pricing, and staging of merchandise for resale. This initiative ensured consistent workflow among 15 trained volunteers and contributed $6,000.00 quarterly to support a variety of beneficial community projects.

Recommended process and updated procedures for quarterly review of a document control database. Discovered omissions and corrected serious duplication errors in original database, thru improving the accuracy and efficiency of the database. As a result, the company improved its customer service reporting capability by 100%.

Remember:
Avoid vague or windy statements such as “resulted in a large savings of time and money,” or “led to increased sales.” If you can claim that sales increased, you must estimate the amount of the increase and make sure it is reasonably accurate and could bear investigation. Sometimes there is simply no way to put a figure on your results. But you can still demonstrate the value of your work to the employer:

Example:
Served as the Treasurer for the local school’s Parent-Teacher Advisory Board. Established a formal accounting system for expenditure records and created a new process for tracking petty cash and receipts. This effort improved the integrity and efficiency of the bookkeeping function and led to 100% accuracy in reconciliation of funds.

Be sure to include as many specific action verbs, such as the ones listed below, in your statements. This will make your writing more descriptive and efficient.

Action verbs:

achieved                       analyzed                      built
conducted                     created                       designated
established                   finalized                     increased
motivated                     negotiated                 obtained
resolved                        tested                         trained
wrote

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Itching to look for another job?

Are you wondering why you aren’t enjoying your job as much as you did? You’re doing mostly the same tasks you were doing two years ago when your company merged with the largest competitor, and there is no indication that there will be more downsizing. A lot of your colleagues are still at the company, and you are working with the same teams that you worked with previously. So, why the new job itch?

It’s possible that the culture has changed. The company ideas and ideals are not exactly the same. The goal of serving customers may not be addressed as often as before, and no one that you interact with seems to be as excited about new products at they used to be. In other words, you and your job no longer seem to be a perfect fit.

Gallup’s latest research shows that only 31% of employees are engaged at work (51% are disengaged and 17.5% actively disengaged). Those employees who are disengaged can negatively impact the environment, simply because they don’t have many positive things to say about their jobs or the company. Others take it a step further – they spend a great deal of their workday quickly getting through their required tasks so that they can spend as much time as possible planning for a career move.

Unless you definitely want to change jobs, it could be helpful for you to set up a meeting with your boss to discuss how the two of you could work together to make your position more rewarding to you and more beneficial to the company. These communication meetings should be continued and become a regular part of your schedule.

If you have a specific question about your career, Ask The Counselor.

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Three Elements That Make a Rewarding Career

Many people would say that the number one contributor to their career satisfaction is the size of their paychecks. While money definitely talks, it only says so much. Payday anticipation can make us happy for only so long if it is offset by the day-to-day realities of a bad career choice. People also list short commutes and a lighter work load as items high on the list of things that contribute to workplace happiness.

But money, drive time and a smaller to-do list aren’t the top three elements that Malcolm Gladwell cites in his book, Outliers: The Story of Success. They are:

  1. Autonomy – Workers have the freedom and independence to shape how they work. The tasks may be defined for them, but the steps they take toward completing are mostly their own.
  2. Complexity – The jobs must be complicated and challenging enough to keep workers engaged and interested.
  3. Connection Between Effort & Reward – Workers can expect to eventually see the fruits of their labor. This is not necessarily a monetary gain, since rewards in the form of recognition are also meaningful.

Are you satisfied at work?

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Founded in 1976, Career Management International, Inc. is a certified Woman Owned Small Business. CMI is a leader in the fields of outplacement, career development, and special purpose training. CMI is headquartered in Houston, with offices throughout the United States and affiliates worldwide.

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