Your resume should have an objective. Make your future employers feel that you’re putting your focus on getting the job and not just waiting for anything random to come your way. Your resume should have a well written objective, so don’t make any mistakes of leaving this one out.

2. OBJECTIVE: A professional position with
opportunities for advancement that will allow me to use
the full range of my qualifications.

3. Wow! Could you
imagine a resume
objective that could be
any less specific? But,
as a professional
resume writer, I can
tell you that such a
nebulous, non-specific
resume objective is
more common than it
is not. This is one of
the most frequent
mistakes that I see
people make on their
resume.

4. Let me ask you: If you don’t know what you
want and where you are going, what makes
you think a busy employer will take the time
to figure it out for you?
“Very frankly, they won’t
and they shouldn’t!”
While I hear it every day, I still cringe when I
pick up the phone and prospective clients
tell me that “They just want to find a job –
any job.”

5. Using this hit-or-miss, anything-will-do strategy,
even if by some stroke of luck you land a position,
the job you land would very likely be one that you
would be miserable in! You may have the ability to
do the job, but it wouldn’t be in line with your
interests, your values, and your passions.
When individuals come to me and are not able to
express a focus, I tell them very frankly that until they
are able to articulate a career target, hiring a
professional resume writer will be a waste of their time
and money.
If I am unable to assist them in narrowing down a
focus, I will refer them to a career counselor and
suggest that they spend some time defining a focus
and setting career goals before we work together on
the resume. And yet, so many people TRY to write a
resume without a clear focus. Are YOU guilty of this?

6. If so, what I would like to request is that you pull it
out and take a look at it with a fresh eye – try to
look at it objectively as someone receiving it for the
first time might look at it. Is your career focus
immediately clear? Within seconds – because that
is REALLY all you have – will the recipient come
away with an understanding of your job target –of
the level and type of position you are seeking – and
of exactly where you would fit in their organization
and add value? Be honest with yourself?
DO YOU HAVE A RESUME?
This is really important! If you have trouble being
objective, it may help to ask a friend or
acquaintance for their impressions after a 10 second
scan.

7. Assuming that you
do need to refine
the focus of your
resume – as most
people do – you
may be wondering
just how to do that.

8. Is a resume objective statement the best
way to focus your resume? In the past you
were probably taught that objective
statements were an essential part of the
resume. Happily, this is no longer true.
Today, profile or summary sections are
used to set the tone and focus for most
resumes. Why? Well, think about it:
objectives tell the reader what you
WANTfrom them. Profiles or
summary sections tell the reader what
you OFFERthem. This is a subtle but
really important difference.

9. Your resume needs to be employer-centered and focused on how you will meet the
employer’s needs, solve their problems, and add value to their organizations. Your resume
must be focused, but the more modern way of doing this than an objective statement, is
to create a headline statement that is incorporated as part of your summary or profile.
Are you having trouble envisioning
what a headline statement is? Or,
even what a resume profile or
summary is? There are dozens and
dozens of examples for you to
review in the resume
samples section of the Distinctive
Documents website.

10. THE BEST JOB TARGET, OF COURSE, IS THE WELL-DEFINED ONE.
At the very least, you should be able to
articulate and succinctly state the job
function that you want to perform and
the professional level you are targeting.
But even these two criteria are quite
broad.
To be really effective you should pair
those criteria with one or more criteria.
For example, other criteria might
include the industry you plan to target,
the company size or type you are
interested in, or maybe the type of
product or service developed or sold by
the company.

11. You’ll be using all of this information to create a really strong and focused headline statement and
summary profile. But don’t stop there. Your resume is a marketing document! It is not an
autobiography. Your resume is, at its very core, an advertisement of the specific benefits you have
to offer in relation to a specific type of position.
and should support your job target. If irrelevant
or extraneous data that does not support and
promote your job target is left in your resume,
you will dilute your focus and will almost
certainly confuse the reader. Don’t let that
happen and don’t make the mistake of thinking
you need to include everything about yourself
in your resume. Once you know your focus,
carefully review the body of your resume and
eliminate or reframe everything that doesn’t
serve your job target.
EVERY WORD AND ELEMENT IN YOUR
RESUME SHOULD SERVE A PURPOSE

12. And, here is another
really key tip: REMEMBER THAT YOU ARE WRITING
TO THE FUTURE IN YOUR RESUME,
NOT ABOUT THE PAST.
Your resume content should be
guided by who you want to be and
how you want to be perceived. You
need to know your goals and write
from those perspectives. If you are
involved in a career transition, you
need to be absolutely honest and
truthful while re-evaluating,
re-weighting, and reframing past
experience to bring the transferable
qualifications to the forefront.

13. A well-defined target will guide you in
your entire job search – in how you
prioritize your skills and past experience
as a focus for your resume and other job
search documents, the people that you
contact and network with, and the
companies that you research and
ultimately apply to.

14. So, go ahead. Take
some time right now –
today – to make certain
that your resume is
clearly, accurately, and
immediately conveying
your focus and your job
target to the reader.
This simple step will
dramatically enhance
your resume and the
results it generates.
And, as always, don’t
hesitate to ask
for professional resume
writing help if you need
it.

15. LONG DISTANCE JOB SEARCH TIP #7:
Michelle Dumas runs of one of the longest-standing and most
respected professional résumé writing firms on the internet,
Distinctive Career Services, LLC (dba Distinctive Documents).
Since 1996, Michelle has empowered thousands of professionals
with résumés that get results and win jobs fast. Get insider
résumé writing tips that you won't find anywhere else at her
website. Go now to www.distinctiveweb.com
The Internet’s Résumé & Career Marketing
Specialists…Since 1996
www.distinctiveweb.com
resumes@distinctiveweb.com
(800) 644-9694
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