Resume Writing

Deciding which approach to take

Consider the following as you decide which approach to take on your own resume.

Should you include or omit a career objective?

Fewer and fewer job seekers are including a career objective on their resumes. The trend to omit the career objective stems from recent research that shows you have a better chance to be interviewed if you write your resume to help an employer fill her open position (which is what she wants), not to tell the employer what you want. However, many job seekers still include it along with a professional summary, especially if they are new to the workforce. Note that whether or not employers expect to see a career objective on your resume is partly dependent on your field. In some fields, like education, job applicants are still expected to include an objective.

Should you use a summary or profile?

The summary and profile statement do essentially the same thing. A summary statement simply restates the key points of your resume, usually in a short paragraph or a few bullet points. A professional profile also highlights the key points from your resume, but it usually focuses more on your accomplishments and accolades.

What should this section do?

Regardless of which you choose to include on your resume, this section should:

• Be focused on helping an employer meet his or her goals (this means you will want to write a slightly different objective or summary statement for each job you are trying to get)
• Start with the most important idea about yourself that you want to tell a hiring manager
• Be brief but concise (a few bullet points of your best skills and achievements, or a sentence or two that really tells a potential employer what you have to offer if he keeps reading)
• Position you as the best model of whatever position, role, or industry you are trying to enter; this means you should research the position before you write your resume for it
• Include keywords—that is, words that every person in the field or position you are trying to get will know; CareerBuilder suggests using some general keywords, too, but these are less critical in a summary statement than in the body of your resume