Before starting to write your own resume you should consider the essentials for making it functional at its maximum effectiveness. You may be saying to yourself: "I don't need any ABC's. I've written resumes before. I'd like to get right on with it and start copying the format that works." That could be a mistake! First, because each job-seeker's goals are different; each one's career is unique. And often this means that the standard resume must be altered to accommodate career differences. Blindly copying a format could prove to be a big error in these cases. For some people the company they worked for is more important than the position they held; for others, the position is far more important than the company. The "standard" format might be misleading without understanding the underlying principles behind it. In addition, the last thing you want your resume to do is to look as if it were turned out by a one-flight-up resume writing outfit. If you just copy a format that fifty thousand people have also used, and don't adapt it to your own needs, it may very well seem as if it had been turned out by a resume mill. You can flex the format to suit your own personal taste and make the resume truly your own creation. Let's look then at the three key elements your resume must have to make you a "standout" candidate.
A great many resumes in my files have no job objective at all. Sure it's easier to leave one out. But a job objective is a good bet for three reasons.
- It gives you an opportunity to go after something better than you now have - to define the kind of job you really want. You may be ready, for example, to take on a controller's position after three years as an assistant controller. Without a job objective specifically stating this, your reader might easily assume you "took a flyer" by sending your resume in response to an ad for a controller. With it, the reader would know that you felt you were ready to move up, and that's the reason why you are looking.
- It gives you an opportunity in less than one sentence to summarize some special advantage that you offer any employer - the special "competitive edge" that makes you someone your prospective boss should pay particular attention to.
- Perhaps most important, a job objective forces you to focus your resume. Everything you include in your resume following your job objective should be designed to help you achieve your goal. So a good job objective forces you to emphasize those aspects of your career that best support your candidacy for the particular position you've chosen, and to downplay experience that is irrelevant to this goal. Why write in depth about some position you've held that does not relate to your stated job objective - only to find you haven't sufficient space adequately to cover your experience that does?
- What specific position do you want? (That includes the title you might expect in such a position. Avoid vague terms like "A position in which I can use my skills as ..." etc.)
- Where do you want to do it? (The type and size of company)
- What special reason might the prospective employer have for wanting you to fill this job (in broad-brush terms, and in half a dozen words)?
Controller in a medium-size manufacturing company in a situation to which systems plus accounting experience would be valuable.
All three elements are included in this one sentence! The writer tells you precisely what he is going after. He gives you a special reason why he might be of real value to his prospective boss: both systems and accounting experience.
But, you say: "There are several different titles I might go after. All in the same field. What if I'm unsure as to which title to go after?" In a situation like this, put down the most senior title you know you can reasonably expect to secure. You can still use your resume to apply for other jobs that are not quite as good. In the case of the controller, for example, he could also have applied for a position as chief auditor, or chief cost accountant with the same resume. He would have been considered a "heavyweight" candidate, but unless he had too many years of experience he wouldn't have been eliminated for trying for the better title.
Why should you use the best realistic title that you can go after? Because you'll organize your resume in order to support it, and so have a better chance of getting that title than had you organized your resume for other less senior titles! Don't misunderstand. It's foolish to use a title that is not attainable for someone with your experience. That will only disillusion you and lengthen your job search. But if the title is reasonably attainable and the best one you can go after in terms of your career, it's the one that will help you write your strongest possible resume.
Another question you might raise is this: "What if I'm not sure which type of company I'd like to work for?" There's nothing that says you can't leave out that element of your job objective. It's easier not to include it. On the other hand, the focus of your job search may be blurred if you don't make this type of decision. It takes self-discipline to decide what it is that you really want to do next, and what job and type of company are most likely to help you in your total career. Certainly, it's hard to narrow the choices down by focusing on specific positions and types of companies. But if you don't do this for yourself, other different jobs will come along. And the temptation is always there to take one even though it could hurt your career and put you back in the job market sooner.
A third question may be on your mind: "What if I'm not sure what makes me specially qualified for the particular job I am going after? Can I leave this off?" There is nothing that says that you must include the half-sentence that reveals why you might be a particularly valuable candidate for the specific position you seek. But taking the trouble to go through your career and to boil down the essential plus you have to offer can help you to set the entire tone and direction of your campaign. If you can't summarize your special worth, nobody will know of it unless they figure it out from the balance of your resume. They might not spot it. Why take a chance?
Lots of people ask if they could leave out their job objective because they might be suited to several different positions and would be equally satisfied with any. Why not just leave off the whole thing in this case? Nothing says they can't do this. But they lose two important advantages when they do. First, when a prospective employer looks at a resume and discovers immediately that the candidate's job objective is the same as the position he's seeking to fill, he is bound to feel a rapport with the job-seeker. ("He's looking for what I'm offering.") Why give up this advantage when the cost of printing resumes is so cheap! Use one resume to go after one type of job; a second for the alternative. Beyond that, if you try to write one resume to go after two different objectives, you are likely to end up with a resume that is less targeted against either of your alternative goals. Remember, one key to a successful resume is to emphasize only that experience that makes you a strong candidate for the one position you want. If you use one resume for two different positions, obviously it has to blur the impression you're trying to create.
