The purpose of this article is to explore ways to write a targeted objective statement. We see thousands of objective statements and you know what? They all pretty much sound exactly the same. Most say nothing more than, “My objective is to get a job with a good company who appreciates me.” Really?! This is your moment to shine! Someone is reading your resume and they are likely not going to spend very much time on it unless you give them something worth reading.
It should be brief. You should be able to recite it on cue. Three or four lines are all that is necessary.
It needs to be simple enough to understand. The average person reading your resume is no smarter than you or I. If they have to read your statement more than once to figure out what it is saying to them, then you have failed.
You should use proper grammar. Enough with the run-on sentences already! Again, can you recite it back to me?
Your statement should contain the following five elements:
- Your specific target job title. Consider your market: the time of year, your geographical area, supply and demand. Determine how high (or low) you want (or need) to set the bar. What do you do best – better than anyone else? What is your genius? In other words, what do you do naturally and really well? If you are responding to a particular job posting, then your target job title is whatever the ad posting reads.
- From your prospective employer’s point of view, what is your relevant experience. This need not be very detailed. Think in broad terms. And if your answering a job posting, then write it from that employer’s business needs.
- Critical skills. Again from your employer’s perspective. What does he require?
- Accomplishments. What did you accomplish with all of that experience? If you’re answering a posting, you should specifically address the experience required.
- What are your soft skills? Your personality as it relates to the position.
Doing this exercise will likely take some time. You might even want to revisit it more than once. Go through each of the items listed above and write down everything that comes to mind. You can (and should) filter it later. Here is an example of someone I consulted with recently.
1. Job title: Operations Manager {This person ran his own successful business and as a business owner wore many hats. His target job could be any one of a dozen different things. We chose operations manager because that is where he felt he could really, really deliver value to an employer. And it does not rule him out for jobs such as estimating, sales, or project management.}
2. Experience: Ran his own remodeling and home improvement business for ten years. {Keep in mind that although you probably have all kinds of experience, you want to keep this very relative to the job title and where you are most valuable. The person has experience running commercial projects so he knows he can do it. But he does residential remodeling better!}
3. Skills (technical): Takeoffs, negotiate, sales, project management, dispute resolution. {He also has skills of swinging a hammer, and building walls – but we want to keep the focus on Operations Manager – and we only have about three lines to do it}
4. Accomplishments: Designed and built homes, additions, kitchens, decks, garages, light commercial up-fits and commercial interior office space. Designed the curved ladder hoist system for the roof of the HSBC area during construction. {Make a grand list of your accomplishments. Be sure that they are your accomplishments and not the organization that you worked for. I honestly don’t care that it was a multi-million dollar organization. I want to know what you did with those dollars. The accomplishment (singular) that you put into your statement will say something about you. Is it a summary of the position you are trying to land?}
5. Personality (Soft skills): Engineer, inventor, designer, CAD, with a splash of sales. {Like it or not, personality is a major part of landing most jobs. Personality is what most hiring managers subconsciously look for. So show them the part of you that you want to highlight. In this example, we did not use the cliche “attention to detail”. Instead we said engineer and inventor.}
Engineer, inventor, and CAD designer turned residential and light commercial contractor. Ten years self-employed spent acquiring and using skills of project management, sales, negotiating, dispute resolution, and take-offs prepared me for work as an Operations Manager.
Or how about this?
Engineer, inventor, and CAD designer honed skills of project management, sales, negotiating, dispute resolution, and take-offs as a home improvement & light commercial, contractor over the last ten years. Owning and growing this business was fantastic preparation for a job as an Operations Manager.
Or:
I own a successful contracting business; honing my skills of project management, sales, negotiating, dispute resolution, and take-offs through the last ten years. I’m an Engineer, an inventor, and a CAD designer. I bring all this experience to the table as your next Operations Manager.
Or:
I’m an Engineer, an inventor, and CAD designer turned Contractor. I’ve completed countless remodels, additions, and several new homes while honing my skills of management, sales, dispute resolution, and estimating. I bring all this experience to the table as your next Operations Manager.
The point is – you’re not going to get it right the first time. Or even in the first sitting. Play with it. Come back to it later. Recite it to somebody.