The objective question
The objective question
Should you use an objective on your résumé? A clear, definitive answer continues to elude job seekers, mostly because it simply depends on who you ask.
“I have heard other HR people say they don’t like résumés without objectives, but it’s never been a big deal to me,” said Patsy Wiggins, president and chief operating officer of the HR Group, a Greensboro company that provides human resources services. “Because, you know, that’s fluff.”
On the other hand: “I think if you can include the skills that reflect the requirements of the job, then you should definitely include an objective,” said Susan Ball, New Choices program director at the Women’s Resource Center in Greensboro.
A local career counselor acknowledges the confusion and contradictory answers swirling around the question.
“So much of my mind has changed as far as what is going to be in the best interest of the candidate,” said Gale Murphy, career developer/consultant with Goodwill Industries of Central North Carolina. “I know that it is totally confusing for the individual, especially if they use a lot of different agencies. A lot of people we work with may use the public library, they may use the JobLink Career Center. They may be getting different feedback from everyone they talk to.”
What is this troublesome little résumé element that spawns so many conflicting opinions? An objective is a simple statement of purpose, a declaration of where a job applicant wants to take his or her career. It appears at the top of one’s résumé. A couple of examples:
• “Seeking a research-related position in a marketing or advertising firm where my knowledge and internship experience in market research can be applied.” (http://csc.dept.uncg.edu/students/resume)
• “To manage people, interface with customers and work with highly technical software or hardware applications.” (www.powerful-sample-resume-formats.com/resume-objective-examples.html)
But does including an objective give a job seeker an edge, or does it simply clutter up the résumé? Will hiring managers think less of a candidate as a prospect for omitting an objective, or would they skip over it anyway?
Again, there’s no cut-and-dried answer.
“I think you need an objective to let the employer know what kind of work you’re interested in,” said Doris Jessup, coordinator of job and career services at the Greensboro Public Library. “To me it’s kind of like the title of the book. If you know where you’re headed, then the résumé should reflect that. Some people say use a summary of skills, some people use ‘relevant experience.’\u200A”
Murphy goes with that latter advice, recommending job seekers use a skills summary instead of an objective.
“We have somewhat steered away from the objectives and have gone toward a summary, primarily because a summary gives an employer the opportunity to know what that experience level is without having to go through the entire résumé,” she said.
The owner of a Greensboro company that specializes in creating and revising résumés strongly favors summaries over objectives.
“An objective is old school, and a skills summary or career summary is pretty much the way to go now,” said Bill Holub, owner of eResumePros.com.
In terms of format for a summary, he recommends an introductory sentence followed by six bullet points divided into two columns. It’s important to have a summary that will grab the attention of a reader who only has time to devote 30 seconds to each résumé in a big stack, he said.
“An objective tells an employer what I want from you, where a summary of any kind tells an employer what I offer you,” Holub said. “Another way of putting it is, ‘This is what I bring to the table.’ ”
One local human resources veteran thinks an objective is useful only in certain circumstances, such as a career change.
“I think an objective is only necessary when your experience does not reflect the career path that you want to have,” said Kim Bair, formerly a manager of human resources and recruitment for a tax debt-resolution firm in Greensboro.
Although there’s no definitive answer to the objective question, experts agree that one should not include one when handing out résumés to a variety of potential employers, as at a job fair, because it’s difficult to develop a one-size-fits-all objective that would appeal to each company.
Whether or not you include an objective, Miller said, the real key is to make sure you back up your résumé with a solid personal presentation.
“Ultimately it’s the individual that has to make the decision of what’s going to be in their best interest,” Murphy said. “You can put all the information in the world on your résumé, but if you can’t speak it once you get in the door with an employer, it’s all been for naught anyway.”
Contact Eddie Huffman at 373-7335 or eddie.huffman@news-record.com.
