The Best Resume Objectives: Complete 2023 Guide

The career objective statement is a key section at the top of your resume that tells the employer what you hope to achieve in the role for which you are applying. It also summarizes your best professional accomplishments and goals.

A good resume objective helps to personalize your resume, create connections between your qualifications and the needs of the open job, and directly appeals to hiring managers by showing you have the skills and enthusiasm they’re looking for.

The career objective accomplishes this by doing the following:

• Explaining what you hope to learn or accomplish if employed by the hiring manager.
• Specifying how a professional relationship with the company helps you gain that knowledge.
• Sharing how you can help the company by gaining this learning opportunity.

Although the resume objective statement is not as common as the resume summary statement, it should be used by certain job candidates, among them recent graduates, those changing careers and job seekers with gaps in their work history because of extended absences. Use our guide to learn how to determine if a career objective statement is suitable for your job search needs, and how to write an interview-winning resume objective.

The most important first impression you can make to the potential employer is to start your resume with a strong introduction of your accomplishments. You can introduce yourself either with a resume career objective or a resume summary statement. Which one is right for you?A career objective can help you tackle potential “red flags” in your resume that shouldn’t go unaddressed. For example, a college graduate with no previous formal experience can seem like a less desirable candidate than someone who already has a couple of years of experience. However, a career objective can frame a negative into a positive since it:

• Acknowledges the “red flag” from the get-go.
• Counters the “red flag” with a wide range of skills.
• Avoids the recruiter assuming the reason for your lack of experience or qualifications.

A summary statement also compiles all your best qualities, skills and experience while focusing on meeting the employer’s professional requirements. However, summary statements are much more tailored to the employer’s needs, whereas an objective focuses on the applicant’s needs or ambitions.

Although we recommend that you write a summary statement rather than a resume objective, there are a few job-seeking instances when an objective statement helps you.

If you haven’t written a resume before or it’s been too long since you updated yours, our Resume Builder is a great tool that guides you through every step of the process and even offers advice on what to write in each section.

You can include a resume objective if you’re a recent graduate, changing careers, relocating, or reentering the workplace. The career objective can help you position your achievements in the proper context for the hiring manager and show your enthusiasm for the position. Our examples below show you how to provide that context and express your interest in the position.

1. Entry-level employee career objective statements

As someone freshly entering the workforce, it’s OK to have little to no formal experience. However, you probably have a plethora of acquired skills and knowledge from internships, volunteer work and education. A resume objective is perfect for you because it allows you to do the following:

• Contextualize your informal experiences for the open job.
• Outline how you hope to grow and develop your professional experience within a role.

Resume objective examples:

Associate engineer

Jr. Graphic Designer

Social Media Coordinator

2. Career-change resume objective statements

Changing your career can look like a red flag without the proper context. This is where the resume objective will help you. Hiring managers might wonder if your previous experience applies to the open job, or if training or onboarding you will be a lengthier process than a similarly skilled candidate with relevant experience.

Here’s why an objective statement helps you more than a summary statement in this instance. You can:

• Explain your interests in the job and your reasons for applying.
• Contextualize your previous experience concerning the open position’s requirements.
• Explain how your seemingly unrelated expertise can fill the needs of the position.

Career objective examples:

UX Designer

Registered Nurse

Food and Beverage Manager

3. Reentering the workforce resume objective statements

Resume writers, career coaches and hiring managers might warn you to avoid listing significant gaps in employment on your resume. Yet, there can be so many reasons to leave the workforce temporarily; raising children, caring for a family member, pursuing a new degree or taking a time-extensive career training program.

A resume objective helps you:

• Explain work gaps and your reason for reentering the workforce.
• Contextualize the skills you developed away from the workforce for this new job.

Resume objective examples:

Project Manager

Retail Sales Associate

Preschool Teacher

Check out our functional resume guide, which can help you craft an effective resume that highlights your skills and qualifications to reenter the workforce.

4. Relocating resume objective statements

Although there’s been a recent rise in remote working, most hiring managers still suffer from an unconscious distance bias and prefer to hire nearby job seekers. A resume objective can help you avoid getting disqualified from consideration by doing the following:

A resume objective helps you:

• Explain why you are relocating.
• Assure the hiring manager that you’re applying to the open job due to a prearranged move and plan to live near this potential place of employment.
• Refocus the conversation and hiring direction on your achievements rather than your current location.

Resume objective examples:

Email Marketing Manager

Accountant

Technical Support

5. High school graduate resume objective statement

If you recently graduated from high school, a resume objective statement can benefit you as much as it would a new entrant to the workforce. Although you may have some after-school work experience, it may seem small compared to your informal experience, volunteer work and school work. A resume objective can help:

• Refocus the resume on your community service, after-school and casual experience like babysitting or school club participation.
• Contextualize the skills you developed in school like research, organization and time management for an open job opportunity’s requirements.

Resume objective examples:

Day Care Assistant

Teacher’s Aide

Customer Service Representative

To learn more about crafting your resume, check out our High School Graduate resume guide.

6. College graduate resume objective statement

If you recently graduated from college, you might have a lot of relevant experience from your classes, internships, requirements and extracurricular activities linked to campus organizations, as well as some formal work experience. A resume objective can help you play up those experiences and align your qualifications with the open job requirements by:

• Drawing attention to internships and practical, work-related coursework.
• Contextualizing skills developed through organizations like your campus newspaper, farming club, student political groups or Greek life.

Resume objective examples:

Medical Research Assistant

Account Manager

Social Worker

If you decide that a resume objective is suitable for your resume, it’s time to dive in. We’ll show you the difference between poorly and well-written resume objectives, and explain where each version succeeded or failed to impress a hiring manager. We’ll also give you some helpful advice on properly writing a clear and interview-winning resume objective.

Let’s look at the steps to create an effective career objective.

Tips to write a resume objective

1. Break down your career objective paragraph into sentences.

First sentence: Introduce yourself and the reason why a resume red flag (career gaps, career change or lack of formal experience) works in both your and the hiring manager’s favor. For example, explain how taking a break between jobs to care for a family member resulted in relevant personal experience or how you recently graduated with appropriate academic experience gained in a lab or research class.

Second sentence: Establish your desired role and your goals within the company. Keep these realistic and tied to actions you can achieve within the company. Sharing career ambitions in your resume objective that span beyond the company’s range, will make it seem like you’re not focused on the open position.

Third sentence: End strong and relate your seemingly unrelated experience to the job requirements by using quantifiable metrics. For example, suppose you organized medical appointments and dietary schedules for an ailing family member. In that case, you can note the percentage of times you arrived at appointments on time, how many alternate routes you planned in case of last-minute delays, or how someone’s health visibly improved once you implemented a new diet for the client. You can find additional advice on incorporating these metrics to your resume objective below.

2. Use job advertisement keywords

Most companies rely on applicant tracking systems (ATS) to screen resumes and help shrink the pool of applicants. ATS can eliminate as many as half of the resumes it filters, so it’s essential to use resume keywords. These keywords are scattered throughout the job advertisement — you can identify these by scanning the ad for repeated duties and responsibilities that are emphasized in bold font or bulleted lists or for any tasks labeled as critical and use them to craft your resume objective.

It’s crucial to use these keywords organically in both your resume objective and throughout your resume. We’ll teach you how to write a tailored resume objective for the following sample cashier job ad, using the keywords we identified in bold print.

Resume objective example:

3. Personalize your objective statement for the job you want.

A resume objective is also your opportunity to share your interests and professional passions. Your resume will summarize your skills, education and experience, but this section is your only chance to write about why you’re applying to this job and let your personality shine through. You can talk about relevant hobbies, why you grew interested in that hobby, and how you can apply those learned skills to the open job.

SEO writer resume objective example:

4. Add quantifiable contributions.

Focus on how you can help the company and bring it to their attention in your career objective. You can best do this by defining how successful your related experience was. For example, suppose you’re interested in a job related to data analysis. In that case, you can detail well-graded projects from your introduction to data or advanced data analytics courses and your process for inspecting, cleaning and modeling the data.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Manager career objective example:

5. Include job-related certifications.

Regardless of your reason for writing a resume objective statement, you probably have plenty of related experience that can benefit both you and a hiring manager. You must highlight those skills in this section, as you don’t want to make the hiring manager dig for it in your resume and risk missing it. Here are some job-related certifications that you can feature in this section:

• Licenses
• Certifications
• Specialized degrees
• Relevant coursework

Cook resume objective example:

6. Express your ties with the company.

Your connection to a company or genuine interest in a company’s ethical, cultural or financial goals can be equally important to landing a job interview as your skills and experience. If you’re interested in contributing to the growth or success of a company based on these reasons, you should mention it in your resume objective. Hiring managers can detect genuine interest and enthusiasm, which can be good for you if the company in question truly believes in its mission.

Architect career objective example:

More resume objectives examples

These career objectives were written for a recent high school graduate applying to their first sales associate position. They have some sales and customer service experience from fundraising events and properly showcase this in their opening statement.

A poor career objective example:

Sales associate

Why is this a poorly written career objective example? The hiring manager doesn’t learn anything new or beneficial about you.

• This job seeker says they’re looking for a new job. The hiring manager can safely assume this since the person is applying for a different position.
• The job seeker says they want to perfect their customer service and money management skills, which the hiring manager can infer based on generic sales associate job descriptions.
• The job seeker doesn’t outline how their existing skills can transfer to the new job. The hiring manager doesn’t see an apparent reason to hire this person.

An excellent resume objective example:

Sales associate with cashier experience

Why is this a well-written resume objective example? The hiring manager learns quite a bit about this job seeker.

• The job seeker recently graduated and is interested in the entry-level position.
• The job seeker has a specific number of years of experience in job-related skills and will need less training than an inexperienced candidate.
• The job seeker recognizes their limitations and expresses eagerness to grow and learn on the job.

Our Resume Builder will help you create professional resume objective statementslike the ones in this guide. All you need to do is type in your desired job title and fill in some personal data regarding your years of experience, and our builder will help you write a customizable resume objective. Always make sure to go in and personalize it even more with exact skills, degrees, experience and qualifications.