Your Objective is No Objective

When you submit your resume for a particular position, isn’t the objective inherent in the submission itself; to land an interview and ultimately get a job?  Typically, objectives have been insubstantial statements such as, “To become a part of a growing organization where I can flourish both professionally and personally while being considered a valuable member of the team”.   By leaving out the objective, would we then be in jeopardy of having a company believe our goal is to becoming a member of a crumbling organization where each day is a struggle just to keep from tossing my boss out the window?  Of course not.

If you think the job market is already congested you are right.  In fact, we are in the most competitive job market in our lifetimes and must do what we can to stand a little taller, shine a little brighter, and speak a little louder.  One step in that direction is to replace the ‘Objective’ section on your resume with a ‘Headline’.

The position for which you are applying will determine the type of headline you use.  For example, if you are applying for a financial analyst position that requires knowledge of Sarbanes-Oxley, cost analysis, and SAP, you would create a headline that says, “Financial Analyst – Sarbanes-Oxley, SAP, and Cost Analysis”.  It almost seems kind of dopey doesn’t it?  But this is what the first line of defense in an organization needs to see.  The exact same experience might be buried within another applicant’s resume and that person might even have better skills than you do, but if their resume isn’t noticed they will be passed over.

The resume’s departure from well-written grammatical specimen to a living piece of marketing collateral continues to accelerate as we travel further into a world where global communication is more immediate and our attention spans proportionately diminish.  Replacing your objective with a headline is a good start in catering your resume to the new communication between applicant and corporation.