Pro Advice: Resume Objective Examples and Their Purpose

Writing a resume can be intimidating — you want to make sure that you share all of your relevant professional and educational experiences in a way that engages and impresses potential employers. You're constantly thinking about key, actionable words you should include in your resume, and how to organize it in a way that makes chronological sense while prioritizing your most valuable experiences. You're trying to squeeze all of your experiences onto one page, and you're thinking about how to start that page with an eye-catching opener — perhaps, a job objective.

You always want to write a job objective that compels employers to read on to those experiences of yours. So what exactly is a resume objective and what are some examples of good ones?

What Is a Resume Objective?

Who Should Include and Objective on Their Resume (and Why)?

1. When you're applying for your first job out of school
2. When you've been out of the working world for some time and need to explain your gap
3. When you're majorly changing careers
4. When you're applying for an internship

What Is a Good Objective for a Resume?

So what is the best career objective for a resume? A well-done objective for a resume is one that let's the prospective employer know exactly what kind of career you're looking for and exactly how you're a perfect fit for that type of career. And it does all that in one or two sentences at the maximum.

For example, if you're a graduate applying for your first job, your resume objective might read like this:

• Objective: To utilize my psychology degree in way that allows me to explore my interest in helping marginalized groups. I’m focused on a position as a social worker.

If you've been out of work for a while and want your employer to know why the dates in your experiences seem to leave a large gap, your resume objective might read like this:

• Objective: To re-enter the workforce in the editorial field after developing this interest while starting a successful parenting blog raising my firstborn.

If you're changing careers in a major way, your resume objective might read like this:

• Objective: To utilize the skills I developed in my coding camp with a full stack development role at a technology company.

And if you're a student applying for an internship, your resume objective might read like this:

• Objective: To obtain an internship at a full-service law firm where my political science background will be a valuable fit.

How Do You Write an Objective for a Resume?

Writing an objective for a resume isn't necessarily easy because it needs to be short, sweet and to the point. Again, your objective should only be about one to two sentences in length, so you should be able to say everything you want to get across in just a few words.

There are three key elements to your resume objective:

1. Your intentions
2. The career you want
3. The relevant skills you have

Your intentions should be the first element mentioned in your objective. Your intention might be to utilize your skills from coding camp or tapping into your political science education.

The career you want should be the type of position or company for which you want to work (and this should be tailored for each job application). The career you want might be one as a full stack developer or working for a full-service law firm, for example.

The relevant skills you have suggests that you're cut out for the career you want and can, therefore, fulfill your intentions. You might refer to starting a successful parenting blog, indicating blogging and editorial skills, for example.

Just remember that, beyond the three key elements, your resume objective should be tailored to each and every job for which you apply. If you're applying for a job in the computer sciences, you don't want your resume objective explaining that you're looking for an editorial job — and vice versa.

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