Sample resume objectives. When a harried and possibly panicked job seeker finds one he thinks is good, he feels like the drowning man who just got rescued.

But as Shakespeare said, there's something rotten in Denmark. Or in that sample you thought would save you.

The problem is that sample resume objectives all tend to miss one thing. It's truly shocking to me that they do. But they're usually free, and often they're worth about what you paid.

The thing they miss is that a resume objective isn't about you.

"What?!", you say, "Of course it's about me!"

That's probably what you've been taught. I'm sure it's what some people have told you. Just the words "resume objective" plant a bad seed in your mind.

Those words suggest...no, they SAY...that you should state the objective of your resume. That's poppycock. There's only one purpose of an objective statement on a resume, and that's to state how you can give your new employer profit.

Any resume objective statement that doesn't do that is garbage. That's certainly where your resume will end up. Those kinds of objective statements all translate into "get a job." That brilliantly states the obvious.

Every potential employer knows you want a job. In fact, there's nothing wrong with saying you want the job. But your objective statement isn't where you want to do it. You do it in your cover letter (indirectly), and in the job interview.

Your resume is your commercial for the improved profit you can add to your new employer. It's not about you, or what you want. Nothing, and I mean nothing, sells like the promise of windfall profits.

Sample resume objectives you're likely to find online miss that point entirely. Here's an example:

"A challenging job in an industrial setting performing chemical syntheses and characterizations; the ideal position will offer diverse tasks and the opportunity to work with a team."

Oh boy. Let's see. If I'm a potential employer reading that resume, all I see is that this person wants a job. Maybe I get that he's a chemist. Maybe I infer that he's a good team player. Maybe...I'm bored already. It's too much work to figure out what he'll do for me.

In the bin. Next!

Don't believe for a second that you simply need to copy some resume objective you find online. A better strategy is to steal..ahem...creatively borrow all the good ideas you can and create your own.

(c) Copyright 2005 by Roy Miller