Resume Objective Examples

The best resume objective examples I’ve seen have always been short, clear, to the point and focused on the role and company while communicating the applicants’ relevant skills and how they can benefit the role.

A well written, targeted resume that stands out from the rest in the pile will be the one with a custom written objective aimed at the specific position within the specific company.

Resume Objective Examples - Do Your Research

In the case of entry level computer jobs you will have an advantage over some of the more generic entry level jobs. Because IT jobs (even entry level) require knowledge and ability in certain technologies you can list them in your objectives.

If however you want to stand out from the rest of the pile you need to do more than just have the relevant skills in your objective. Lets say for example you’ve seen a helpdesk position on somewhere like Indeed Jobs (type “helpdesk” into the search box along with the area you are looking in).

Now find a typical entry level helpdesk position and look at the requirements. How much focus is weighted on the technical knowledge and how much is emphasis is there on the other skills needed to ’get the job done’?

In the search I just did the entry level helpdesk roles very specifically state that the candidates they want must:

The above list is just a few of the typical keywords that pop up in a lot of entry level helpdesk/call centre roles. Any good resume objective examples for this type of role will emphasise those types of words combined with the actual technologies the specific roles require, the candidates career objectives and the type of role sought.

As discussed in the outline of a resume, a good resume that stands out from the others is the one that is specifically targeted to the roles being applied for. Yes it takes more work than just sending out 1 generic resume to 400 different job advertisements, but differentiating from your competition is only accomplished by going the extra mile, and here’s the good news (shhh! Don’t tell anyone else it’s a secret!):

When you search through job listings and cherry pick the ones that really strike a chord with you - The keywords in the ad can go into your targeted objective for that role!

Resume Objective Examples – Keep it Short, Time is Money

When someone who is paid to read resumes and filter out suitable applicants get’s a pile to look through they typically give each resume a quick 10-30 second scan for suitability, relevant skills and keywords before deciding whether to give it a more thorough read through.

For this reason your objective has to be short, punchy and to the point. You want to make it as easy as possible for whoever is scanning your resume to make a positive decision about yours and put it in the ‘to read’ pile. Some people will tell you that it is not even necessary to write full sentences, this is your call but I personally never compromise good grammar and punctuation just for the sake of squeezing more info in there.

My take on this is to write very descriptive, dynamic sentences that provide all the info I think the potential employer is looking for whilst maintaining good English. I highlight certain keywords in bold to assist the scanning eye in identifying that I have the relevant skill sets and more. Remember you are selling yourself on your ‘excellent communication skills – both written and oral’. An example of one of my objective statements would look like this:

“Highly skilled MCP and CCNA qualified support specialist with 7 years experience seeks challenging support role within cutting edge communications organisation. Looking to build upon extensive networking knowledge and excellent communication skills to advance into more of a project oriented position.”

OK the above example is still a bit generalised but the potential is there to pick keywords and swap them around to target individual positions and companies. For instance “communications organisation” is a bit general, that should definitely be substituted. As you can see the bolded words just make it easier for the scanning eye to see that I have exactly what they are looking for. I’ve also peppered it with some very positive descriptive words such as “excellent, highly skilled, cutting edge, extensive and challenging”, don’t go overboard with this bit, keep it as real and relevant as it needs to be.

Resume Objective Examples – For First Timers

“So what about us first jobbers who don’t have 7 years experience?!” I hear you cry. – I was just getting to that so cry no more :) Your task is to present your relevant skills including anything you have done in the past that may not have be remotely related to computing but will have utilised things like;- people skills, decision making, teamwork, communication and more. If you haven’t already read the section on getting experience for computer jobs now would be a good time to:

Entry level roles ask for skills such as ‘the ability to think on your feet’, ‘quick to learn’, ‘eager to progress’, ‘work well in a team’ (popular one!), ‘understand business processes’ and ‘recognise business needs’. These are all the kind of things that you need to emphasise. Read and understand these definitions of Service Level Agreements from Wikidpedia and Helpdesksurvival.com to get a considerable advantage over your competition.

Being able to put “Good understanding of Helpdesk SLAs” in your objective will give you an edge. Combine that with any previous customer facing experience you have, an understanding that ‘time is money and therefore non productive system downtime costs the company money’ and you should be in quite a good position. This is more of an interview tip but the overall mindset should help you shape your objective and resume.

Resume Objective Examples – An Example For First Timers

So lets say you’ve searched through a job site, found a few jobs that excite you, you understand some basic business concepts (Time is Money, teamwork, good communication, quick to learn etc.) and SLAs. Some template resume objective examples might look like this (notice none of them state ‘entry level’ or indicate that the applicant is looking for that ‘first job’):

Resume Objective Examples – Conclusion

The above Resume objective examples are still very broad and are just to give you an indication of the kind of templates you could start out with when doing a job search. Your best objectives will be very targeted to specific jobs and will include ‘go the extra mile bonuses’ and ‘nice to haves’ that your competition will not think about such as knowledge of Helpdesk SLAs, relevant certifications and previous customer focus experience.

Your competition will be sending out generic untargeted resumes with resume objective examples they’ve looked up and used but do not really ‘speak’ to the person who will read the resume.