Objective- How important is it?

‘Objective’ is the first, the most important section of your resume. It is the make or break line which can either get you selected or rejected. If the recruiter thinks that your objectives are aligned with those of the company’s, you are in. Otherwise, you may get rejected.

A person chooses a career path with some objectives that he/ she wishes to achieve in the near or distant future. The continual want of meeting these objectives is what provides the driving force to a person in his life. These objectives can be quantifiable or qualitative. The ‘objective’ section in your resume will define your aim and reason to work there-in short, it will define you. It is important to write about your objectives clearly along with your own personal objectives in life, like where do you see yourself in the next 5 years. It will give the recruiter a better idea about you.

It comes in the very start of the resume, as the first section, after your name and address. It is important because it states what your expectations form the company are, what position you want to achieve. It also tells something about your confidence level.

An ‘objective’ stems out of your capabilities and skills. It is for this reason that a recruiter can measure up your abilities from just reading your objective. A well-written objective will , in one go, answer the recruiter’s 100 million dollar question- “Why should I hire you?” through this section, you tell him why he should hire you and if he likes what he reads, he might as well will.

The most ideal way to write an objective would be to take into consideration the recruiter’s point to of view also and then clubbing it with your own expectations and thus writing an aligned objective.

In case of a career change resume, you should state that clearly here and also give a rationale behind your move to join this new industry. You need to relate this new field with your expertise that can be used here. In accordance to this, you write an optimized objective to put a stop on the recruiter’s apprehensions.

The key of an objective statement would be to mention the desired job post followed by your skills to support those responsibilities, followed by how you believe that you are an ideal candidate for this post.

Some of the quick reminders are as follows:

·        Use ‘We’- Together we will achieve the target rather than Iwill achieve the target

·        Specific information- State information related to the industry type only. There is no need to provide the details about your music training in a resume for Automobile Engineer

·        Objective statement should be two lines at max. more than that would become a clutter and make the reader think that you, yourself are undecided about it

·        Always state the job title for which you are applying

So, consider ‘objectives’ as a very important part of your resume and follow the above guidelines to write an effective objective statement.