Rita Ashley, Career Coach. Field tested advice for executives.

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By admin, February 15, 2009 4:40 pm

Your resume Objective is the promise* you make to future employers

If you are a six figure income job seeker, every word you use to describe your background is a marketing opportunity.  The resume Objective section is required to entice the hiring authority to read your employment history.  It sets the hook and tells readers what to expect and why reading on is a good use of their time.

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Greg Demming, VP Sales with a comprehensive resume says, “As a reader of thousands…no, let me rephrase. As a skimmer of thousands of resumes, and a reader of hundreds I would suggest you find a coach to seek out help. Not one of those factories that promise to rewrite and distribute your resume. The resume has to spark curiousity, interest and a desire to find out more. The Objective is just the start.”

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Use your Objective to form the basis of your resume; prove your Objective in each bullet.  If the entry doesn’t work to prove your promise, it doesn’t belong on the resume.

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To write an excellent resume Objective you must first know the job description or at least the top priorities for the position.  Aim your Objective at satisfying the most important need.

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Most resume Objectives are generic and therefore a waste of space.  The hiring authority is always looking for someone who stands out from the crowd so reading a statement with no supporting data isn’t especially effective.  Below are sample resume objective examples:

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Poor:

Objective:  Director of Marketing position where I can continue to grow and provide excellent leadership.

Better:

Objective:  Provide marketing leadership to bring new wireless products and services to an expanding audience.

Best:

Objective:  Expand and enhance wireless product line offerings and target markets through customer polling, research, franchise efforts and web site enhancement.

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The ‘best’ resume Objective above answers the question, “What can you do for me?”  It encourages the reader to discover how you have succeeded in enhancing product lines, polling customers and web site enhancement.  You have told them what to look for based on their needs and they will read on.

*Special thanks to Shivonne Byrne, Director of Brand & Content; Microsoft, my go-to person on branding, for characterizing brand as promise.  I stole the concept for the elevator pitch and resume Objective because they express your brand.

For more field tested advice to create your best resume, purchase:  Job Search Debugged, second edition.

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By admin, October 23, 2008 7:00 am

Landing a six figure job is different from finding a job as an individual contributor. There is more competition and the unwritten rules for pursuing them are different. If you are an executive or technology professional looking for $100,000 jobs, you must be very clear on the job you want through a resume objective.

Your objective must be spot on to what a prospective employer needs. Your resume objective tells the employer the job you want in no uncertain terms, in fact, it tells them exactly what they can expect if they hire you. “To create and implement software development strategies and processes that result in products that add to the bottom line and increase shareholder value.”

Examples: “To continue my career as a regional sales manager” tells the employer what job you want, but not what you will do or how you will do it. Instead, these objectives make clear what you will do, how and the results. They compel the reader to learn more.

“Provide sales leadership and experience to build or revitalize a sales organization through the use of proven sales processes, coaching and mentoring: Build a robust pipeline of prospects.”

“An executive level sales position that will leverage my experience building and leading sales teams to grow revenue from $6 million to $60 million in three years.”

Many resume services encourage six figure income executives to omit the objective in favor of the summary. When you omit the objective, you omit a marketing opportunity that tells the reader why they are reading your resume.

Thus, a resume with a summary of technical accomplishments requires the reader to ask, “But what does he do?” If the objective includes: “Lead highly effective teams to create mainstream products from innovative technologies for customer facing applications,” the reader has a frame of reference for the summary.

And, “Build and lead development teams to reduce costs and complexity of technology solutions while delivering increased service levels and customer satisfaction,” peaks the reader’s curiosity to read more.

Experiment with several versions of your objective to highlight different aspects of your success. Select which one is appropriate for each job opportunity. $100,000+ jobs go to those who ask for them, specifically.

For additional support with your resume objective, resume reconstruction or resolution to other job search issues, read Job Search Debugged or contact Rita Ashley to discuss your job search challenges and how Coaching will help get you hired, faster.

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