35.

Include an Objective in Your Résumé...For Now

Should you include an “objective” in your résumé? There is no absolute answer. It's all a matter of what's currently popular. At the moment, however, most employers want an objective, so you should include one.

While you don't have to customize your whole résumé for each job, you can—and probably should—customize your objective to reflect the specific job or assignment you're pursuing.

When I hire, I read (or, more accurately, scan) each résumé from the top down. If I see that the job seeker is going after a position that isn't the one for which I'm hiring, I assume that this person just sent a template résumé, which means he or she a) doesn't really want the job or b) doesn't have enough attention to detail to bother customizing his or her objective for my eyes. In either case, I'm not going to bother following up. If the job seeker doesn't care, why should I?

One advantage of including an objective is that it gives you clarity about exactly what you're looking for. When I coach students and clients, the first question I always ask is, “What do you want to do?” Everything flows from the answer to that question. Sometimes, we may have to slightly adjust the objective based on the person's level of experience. For example, a culinary student might want to be a sous chef, but probably doesn't have enough experience. In that case, we change the objective to “line cook” because that's what the person is qualified for (once the person is in the job, his or her supervisor will be able to see how good a line cook she is, and will eventually promote her to sous chef).

Your objective is also the foundation of your sound bite. (Refer to Tip 28, “Develop Your Sound Bite, or Elevator Pitch.”) To continue with the preceding example, when asked “Who are you?” the culinary student might say, “I'm Bethany, a line cook with five years of kitchen experience and a culinary degree from Le Cordon Bleu, and I hope to be a sous chef one day.”