Editor, Publisher

In my past duties as a recruitment manager, I regularly saw resumes that were constructed with meaningless objective statements positioned proudly at the top of them.  I routinely observed first-time resume writers making the unfortunate mistake of including objective statements that were either too general or ones that had been incorrectly whipped together.  The broad statements added no useful content to help me in determining an applicant's "real" career objective and the ill-used statements often spurred me into thinking less of the candidates.  These applicants would've faired much better leaving the statements out of their resumes.

Broad Objective Statements

Bad or Ill-Used Objective Statements

In no way, is the objective statement essential in developing resumes and because of this fact and also because so many first-time resume writers have problems using them correctly, I frequently encourage jobseekers not to include them in their resumes.  It's definitely better to have "no" objective statement at all than to have one that draws clear emphasis to the jobseeker's improper use of the statement.

Tailor Objective Statements for Positions

Plus, if you decide to routinely include objective statements in your resumes, you'll need to regularly update this information to make sure it relates to the position you're applying for.  For example, an objective statement that might've been used to land a secretarial position and reads like the following one would not be appropriate in applying for a position as a veterinarian's assistant.

So if you had already used the above highlighted objective statement or something similar to it when applying for secretarial jobs, then naturally you would have to change it again when applying for positions like museum tour guide, teacher's assistant, store manager or sales consultant. 

Reasons for Adding Objective Statements

The best reason to use an objective statement is if and when you're not planning on attaching a cover letter with your resume.  In this instance, an objective statement would be wise.  It'll help the hiring director know right away which position you're applying for, and also, if your resume gets misplaced in the wrong job pile, meaning that if it ends up in a stack with applicants applying for jobs different than the position you're applying for, then the hiring director can easily catch this mistake by scanning your objective statement. 

Another reason behind adding objective statements to resumes is to help eliminate undesirable white space at the top of documents.  Many jobseekers with few work experiences to highlight on their resumes readily add objective statements to help slyly fill unwanted blank space, and if you're one of these guys who's been guilty of this, then let me tell you now that you would be better off opting for one of the following space-eating techniques instead. 

Things to Add in Lieu of Objective Statements

If you have few work experiences to list on your resume and need help selling what you know in your heart you can do for employers, then consider listing duties you might've performed while volunteering at a non-profit organization in your community or while serving on a committee or organization at college.  Don't overlook anything.  If you helped to plan activities for senior citizens or oversaw their nutritional/dietary regimen at a nursing home, then smoothly describe these details with power verbs.  If you were responsible for recording notes at your school committee's meetings or responsible for soliciting new members, then work this information into your resume. This information may definitely help to highlight a useful skill required for the position you're interested in, and as I'm sure you've also guessed, this will help to eat up that undesirable blank space we've been talking about. 

Another space-eating tactic worth trying is adding bullets to your document.  Bullets help to vertically stretch the text already on your page so that any under-developed Work Experience sections will look fuller.  Also, bullets help to isolate information better, and often times without them information on the resume can look crowded or jumbled.  So, if your goal is to make your job descriptions easier to read by busy recruitment directors, then you should really think about adding bullets to your resume. 

Job Descriptions Enhance Understanding of Positions

Now, if you're still set on adding an objective statement to your resume despite what I've just said and you're normally careless in creating them, then you should plan to get your hands on a job description for the position you're interested in.  The company provided job description will usually describe the duties of the position, what type or if any degrees or certificates are required, special computer skills, special training, special languages, etc. 

And trust me when I say, having a clearer understanding of the position will help you immensely in writing a better objective statement and in pulling together a better overall resume, because it will.  This enhanced understanding will help you to produce objective statements that are a lot more useful to hiring managers, and aid you in effectively tying in past job duties that closely relate to the duties of the position you're now pursuing, which ultimately, I believe creates the notion of an applicant that is ideally suited or at least very closely matched for the position.