Resume Objectives are brief statements you use to let prospective employers know the type of position you are seeking. It is vitally important that you are able to demonstrate to the hirer that you have clear career goals and know what it is you want.

Your objective should be short, probably no more than one or two lines and should contain information about the job title, the functions of the job, your field of interest and possibly your preferred work setting.

Be extremely careful that your resume objectives don't sound like you, you, you. All employers are looking to recruit individuals who are going to assist them to achieve their business objectives. You must get over how you would be of benefit to the employer.

Avoid weak objectives like "looking for sales position with opportunities for advancement."; or, "looking for management in a challenging position."

A strong objective would be something like "looking for a position in sales management where my extensive experience can be utilized to increase sales, through the building of high performance sales teams."

When compiling your objective statement use the following questions to assist you:

1. What do I want to do?
2. Where do I want to do it?
3. What level of responsibility do I want?
4. For Whom or With Whom do I want to do it?

If, for example you answered

1. What? Sales
2. Where? Indoors in Financial Services
3. What Level? Management
4. For Whom? Multi-national Company

Your Objective would be: Management of telesales team for Multi-national Financial Services Company.

Once you have defined you objective you will find it easier to state your long and short term career goals. This should ensure that you can create a powerful resume.

More recently, because resume objectives are by definition all about what you want, and not necessarily what the employer is seeking, there has been a trend towards using summary statements instead.

These are a summary of your most relevant skills, experience and abilities placed at the top of your resume. The idea being to encourage the further reading of your resume by making powerful eye catching statements. One major advantage of a summary statement over a resume objective is your ability to place achievements which happened some time ago in a prominent position.

This being the case, it is possible that resume objectives may be of more use to recent graduates or to those who have been out of the workplace for some considerable time.