Should I include a career objective in my resume?

1. I find objectives limiting and they are of little interest of value to the company.

2. Make the cover letter the body of the email and then put your resume also in the body of the email. Then include copies of both as attachments.

@Marina, should I attach the copies of the cover and the resume separately, or together as a single document?

I would attach them separately, but it is up to you, really.

Objectives are over-rated and a thing of the past. Of course you want a job, why else would you be applying? Also, go ahead and include your references with the resume. HR people are busy, give them what they need to do their job without having to contact you again.

No—they are a thing of the past, as was mentioned. The person getting your resume KNOWS your objective: to get their job.

I’ve had a year out of work and sadly I know only too well that what one person sees as a good CV (resume) another sees as a “bad” one. I have found a few things that seem to work (bear in mind I’m in the UK!)..

Keep it to the point. Make at least 3 passes through cutting out the waffle, make all your sentences hit the spot in as few words as possible.

Focus on what you did and what you achieved.

Cut the jargon and acronyms.

Take guidance from website search optimisation – get keywords in there – many agencies search CVs for keywords to get an initial list.

I have a starting “profile” of a few paragraphs which summarise what I am. I change this for each application to target the job. The career history is fairly generic. If you want to give more detail for the specific job then put it in a covering letter. Some people like you to give examples of meeting the same challenges.

If you are posting your CV on a website think about identity theft! Don’t include an address, use a mobile number (even one you don’t mind changing later) use an email address you don’t mind getting spammed.

Hope this helps

All the best with the job hunting!

A job objective can tell a potential employer about where you want to head. Like are you a worker bee, or do you want to move up quickly? Are you looking to round out your resume or is this a position you want to stick to and move up from? Do you want to be here for a while, or is this just a quick stop? Do you want to join management?

All these things can give an employer an idea about whether you fit with their image of the person who will fill the job. The only thing a job objective can do is give a potential employer a reason to rule you out. Unless they are looking for agressiveness or toadying behavior.

However, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. You don’t really want to work for someone who is not on board with your career. Maybe in these days where people are desperate for any job, you should dispense with an objective.

Some people game with the objective—writing it to make it seem like this job is the absolute perfect one for you.

Instead of an objective, I use a professional summary. This is the one paragraph look at my career in the past. An executive summary of sorts. I suppose I could add a one line vision of the future, too.