Building Resume: How to Write Objective and Career Summary

"The single most critical element in your job search is to get
your resume out – as many and as quickly as possible.
Let the process be easy!"

In my earlier posts I discussed competitive resume writing and rules for resume writing. In this article we will be discussing the two basic elements of a resume i.e. Objective and Career Summary.

Whether you should include an objective on your resume or not? This will usually be a difficult decision. The objectives are often quite restrictive with respect to the type of job and field: “The search for a job in Pharmaceutical Sales & Selling.” Or if they say something unclear: “Search for a senior management position at the level where I can drive a business to strengthen revenue and improved profitability”

If you are sure about your career goal (the type of position or industry you are interested in) and have decided not to look at any opportunity other than that, then you can surely put an Objective on your resume. But if you want your resume in a variety of situations, so do not include an Objective, and definitely not one that is imprecise and tells your reader nothing. Most people try to write a general Objective and use the resume in every situation; this will have a bad impact on the reader.

As you would like resume process is to be straightforward, quick and easy. Do not think that you need to change or modify your Objective every time to match the position you seek.  In most situations you would like to use identical resume many times, modifying the cover letter for every specific chance.

If you have not included Objective in your resume than you need to have a strong cover letter that fulfills the need of Objective as well. In this way you get a chance to tailor your Objective to the particular company and their requirements.

Generally speaking Objectives are a nice tool to describe your vision in few words. It is always recommended to write a brief Objective with a few hard hitting sentences. It shows your courage and enthusiasm for work but always be realistic and avoid embellished self praising.

Career Summary

Objective is tool that lets your reader know about the demands and wishes that you have associated with them. On the other hand Career Summary lets your reader know about what you can do for them, how you can contribute to strengthening the organization and why you are different from others. Career Summary is the only indispensible and effective tool to ‘portray you image’. You sketch you picture the way you want someone to think about you by highlighting your strengths and experiences. You bring your reader into the confidence that you “fit” within their organization.

A Career Summary is meant to grant a fast overview of your career history highlighting your skills, credentials and knowledge. Career Summary can be written in a paragraph, as a bulleted list, tabular form or any combination you wish. Your resume shouldn’t be lengthy and imprecise rather it should be a competitive resume.