Writing a Career Goals and Objectives Statement

If you are new to a career, or switching careers, writing a career goal and objections section in your resume may be desired. If you are already experienced in your field, however, it is not suggested that you take up valuable space with this section. Here are some suggestions for adding this section if you so desire to have it.

Typically, this section would be at the top of your resume, prior to your experience and education, right under your heading information section. Here are some tips for composing this section from scratch.

First, simply jot down a list of the specific things you wish to be part of your general goals and ambitions. This is more of a brainstorming session, so no need to worry about writing complete thoughts yet, just general things like “work in the media field,” or “improve communication skills.”

Next, take a look at the skills and experiences you currently possess that are related to, or may be a starting point for achieving some of those goals. Knowing this will give you a good idea as to whether there is a path you can take based on those skills you possess, to more quickly reach a goal, and which goal might be best to pursue first.

Then, looking at the goals you have written, begin thinking of what steps under those that would be needed to reach the actual goal. For instance, if better communication skills are a goal, what types of activities would help you reach that goal? Learning to speak in public? Maybe look around to enroll in a group like Toastmasters to assist in this area. Or maybe you wish to sharpen your writing communication skills, so begin to study the field, and maybe begin writing for small publications or blogs, to assist in sharpening your skills. Basically, just jot down small objectives that would take you step by step to the main goal.

Then, combine all of this information into a formulated career mission statement. A good example may be something along the line of "To secure a communications position that will give me opportunities to improve my writing and editing skills in new media outlets.” You may have a couple of these you’d like to include (as long as they are relatable to a single job choice). Trim this down to no more than about two sentences, and you should be left with a coherent career mission statement.

Remember; as I have written on before, always tailor your resume to fit the job being sought. So this statement may need to be tweaked for each resume you submit, in order to better conform to the language that bests fits the industry being applied for. You may find yourself going through all of the above steps each time you submit a resume to a different company, in order to better fit the company and their objective.

If you have other tips and suggestions that you would like to share with others on this topic, please comment below for all to see.