Building a Great Résumé ♦ Ready Reference
Writing
Career Objectives
E5
College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources ♦ Career Services
Oklahoma State University ♦ 136 Ag Hall ♦ Stillwater, OK 74078-6017
405.744.5395 ♦ FAX: 405.744.5339
http://www.casnr.com ♦ careerservices@casnr.com
Revised 8/04
Whether to include a career objective on a résumé is an often-asked question among job seekers,
and opinions on the issue vary among employers and even within organizations. Human resource
professionals prefer applicants to include career objectives on their résumés. Including an objective
assists the human resources department in routing the large quantity of résumés received to the
proper places within an organization and indicates where the résumé should be filed for future
review if current positions are not available in the area specified by the objective. Hiring managers,
however, are usually indifferent because they are better able to assess the qualifications included
within your résumé and how those qualifications would best benefit their organization.
The final decision on whether to include a career objective is yours. Before making that final
judgement, however, you should develop a complete understanding of a career objective's function
and of the different formats for career objectives.
The Purpose of a Career Objective
Including a career objective on your résumé
can serve three functions:
1. Provide you with a reference point in
constructing your résumé so that you
select only the most important and
relevant information about yourself
to include in the résumé,
2. Indicate a connection between the
type of position you are seeking and
the type of position an employer is
offering, and
3. Assure a prospective employer that
you have career goals and direction.
Every résumé you submit for consideration
of employment should be targeted to that
specific position and employer, including
the career objective. Even if you have
several different career options in m