resume advice Archives - Palladian Career Resources

Writing Effective Resume Objectives with 45 Examples

A strong objective statement can make your resume stand out in a crowded field. Hiring managers often sift through hundreds of resumes, so your objective must grab attention quickly and convey your career goals clearly. This article explores 45 modern, polished examples of objective statements to help you craft one tailored to your needs.

Why Use an Objective Statement?

A well-crafted objective tells a hiring manager what you’re looking for and why you’re a great fit. It is particularly valuable if you’re transitioning to a new field, returning to work after a break, or applying for a specific role. A precise, compelling objective statement ensures your resume resonates with employers, even during a quick scan.

Three Keys to a Winning Objective Statement

Keep It Brief: Hiring managers don’t have time to read a novel. Aim for 1-2 concise sentences.
Highlight Value: Show “What’s In It For Them.” Explain how your skills and experiences can meet the company’s needs.
Be Specific: Clearly state your career goals and the role you’re targeting. Avoid vague generalizations.

45 Examples of Modern Objective Statements

To secure a marketing role where I can leverage 5+ years of digital campaign experience to drive audience engagement and ROI.
Seeking a data analyst position to apply advanced statistical skills and Python expertise to optimize business decisions.
Aspiring to join a dynamic software development team, utilizing proficiency in Java and cloud computing to deliver scalable solutions.
To obtain a leadership role in supply chain management, optimizing logistics and reducing costs through Lean Six Sigma strategies.
Looking for a challenging HR coordinator position to implement innovative talent acquisition and retention strategies.
To contribute as a registered nurse in a patient-focused facility, delivering compassionate care and operational efficiency.
Seeking a creative designer role where I can transform ideas into impactful visual communication using Adobe Creative Suite.
To lead strategic marketing efforts as a marketing director, driving growth and brand recognition through data-driven initiatives.
Aspiring to contribute to the success of a nonprofit organization by applying fundraising and event planning expertise.
Seeking an entry-level position in cybersecurity to protect digital assets using skills in network security and ethical hacking.
To utilize my CPA certification in an accounting manager role, optimizing financial processes and ensuring regulatory compliance.
Looking for a teaching position to inspire middle school students through innovative, hands-on STEM education techniques.
To secure a project management role where I can deliver complex IT solutions on time and within budget.
Seeking to leverage 10 years of retail management experience in a regional operations manager role to enhance store performance.
To bring a decade of UX design experience to a senior designer role, creating intuitive, user-centered digital experiences.
Aspiring to transition into the renewable energy sector, using my engineering background to design sustainable solutions.
Looking to apply my strong communication skills and sales acumen in a business development executive position.
To join a startup as a product manager, utilizing agile methodologies to bring innovative solutions to market quickly.
Seeking a customer service role in a fast-paced environment, building strong client relationships and ensuring satisfaction.
To contribute as a legal assistant in a law firm, managing case files and ensuring compliance with legal procedures.
Aspiring to a financial analyst position, leveraging Excel modeling and market research skills to inform strategic decisions.
To secure a senior developer role where I can mentor junior staff and lead cross-functional teams on enterprise projects.
Seeking a part-time administrative assistant role to provide efficient office management and scheduling expertise.
To leverage my social media expertise in a content strategist role, driving brand awareness and engagement.
Looking for a logistics coordinator position to streamline supply chain operations and improve delivery timelines.
To bring my culinary expertise to a chef role, creating innovative menus that elevate dining experiences.
Aspiring to join a dynamic engineering team to design and implement cutting-edge IoT solutions.
Seeking a human resources generalist role to support employee relations, training programs, and HR compliance.
To obtain a remote customer success manager position, enhancing client satisfaction through proactive engagement.
Looking for an executive assistant role to support C-suite leadership through effective scheduling and communication.
Aspiring to a senior sales role, exceeding targets and growing revenue by cultivating strong client relationships.
To join a healthcare facility as a medical billing specialist, ensuring accuracy and efficiency in claims processing.
Seeking a journalism position to deliver compelling stories that engage audiences and uphold editorial integrity.
To transition into a UX research role, applying my psychology background to improve user experience design.
Aspiring to a warehouse supervisor position, driving operational excellence and team productivity.
To contribute as an event coordinator, planning and executing memorable corporate and social gatherings.
Looking for an IT support role to resolve technical issues efficiently and ensure optimal system performance.
To secure a procurement specialist role, optimizing vendor relationships and cost-saving strategies.
Seeking an entry-level software engineering role to apply academic knowledge and build innovative applications.
Aspiring to become a sales trainer, empowering teams with knowledge and strategies to achieve peak performance.
To contribute as a research scientist, applying expertise in molecular biology to advance pharmaceutical innovation.
Seeking a digital marketing analyst position to measure campaign success and improve ROI through insightful data analysis.
To leverage my public relations expertise in a communications director role, shaping impactful narratives.
Aspiring to join a forward-thinking company as a diversity and inclusion consultant, fostering equitable workplaces.
Looking for a graphic designer position to create visually stunning materials that align with brand identity.

Conclusion

Crafting an effective resume objective requires clarity, precision, and relevance. Tailor your statement to each job application, and always keep the employer’s perspective in mind. An impactful objective can set you apart from the competition and propel your career forward.

Separating Accomplishments from Responsibilities

I’ve written a lot about the importance of accomplishments on a resume. Accomplishments show what you did, while responsibilities show what you’re supposed to do. Because accomplishments are so important to make a good impression, you should separate them from the list of responsibilities. The resume I read this morning did the opposite of this.

The resume had a chronological structure, with four sections: Objective, Work Experience, Education and Certifications. The structure works pretty well. I would have added a fifth section, Technical Skills, because the job seeker is in a very technical engineering role in the telecom industry. This isn’t the big problem, though. The work experience section does little to show whether the job seeker has been successful.

In the work experience section, each listing followed the same format:

Job Title, Employment Dates
Company Name, City and State
Responsibilities:
<A bulleted list of responsibilities and accomplishments>

By titling the text under each job as Responsibilities, the job seeker creates an expectation that there won’t be any accomplishments listed. It is unnecessary to say specifically “Responsibilities,” because anyone reading the resume is going to expect some description of the role.

I turns out the job seeker did list some accomplishments. There weren’t many, but each job had at least one. In each case, it was the last bullet listed under each job. This ensures someone reading the resume will find the accomplishments as one of the last items read.

An easy way to fix this would be to summarize the responsibilities in a paragraph and put the accomplishments in a bulleted list. This will draw the reader’s attention to the accomplishments ahead of the responsibilities and make a much stronger first impression.

Are You Successful?

It continues to amaze me how common it is for job seekers to fail to include any mention of a successful contribution to an employer in their resume. This morning, I was struggling to come with a topic for today’s article. After writing more than 360 articles over the last year and a half, I often need something to get me started. I turned to my old standby… my Inbox. I receive a lot of resumes, and readying a few always produced an idea for an article.

Today’s search was just as fruitful as past searches. I didn’t have to read many resumes to find one to inspire me. It was the first I opened. This is typical. When I look at resumes, I don’t think I’ve ever had to open more than three or four to find a disaster to profile. Now, to be fair, the some of the resumes I look at for my blog are from the really active job seekers. I subscribe to some resume distribution services that send resumes to thousands of recruiters. I really don’t know if these services are effective for the job seekers, but they help me ensure I always have a lot of bad resumes in my inbox. For a job seeker to reach the point where they are broadcasting their resume in an email to as many people as possible, they would have been overlooked for a lot of jobs in the past. A big reason these people haven’t landed a job is they have a terrible a resume. So, the majority of resumes I receive this way are absolutely terrible.

So, let’s look at today’s resume. It comes from a Marking Manager for firm selling agricultural equipment. The person has been out of work for a year. Prior to that, she worked for eight years for one company. The resume has five sections:

Synopsis
Summary of Qualifications
Work Experience
Continuing Education
References

The resume didn’t contain a single accomplishment – absolutely nothing showing the job seeker was successful at any point in her career. Looking at the language used in the resume, the entire resume is focused on responsibilities. Below are the first few words from each bullet in the work experience section:

Assisted…
Prepared…
Developed and coordinated…
Planned…
Managed…
Direct supervision of…
Coordinated…
Managed…

Most of these start with verbs, which is good, but the verbs are not very strong. You can use these verbs in a resume and make a strong impact, but you need to include another verb in the bullet. For example, “managed an advertising campaign for a new line of machinery, leading to initial sales 40% above budget.” This would be a good accomplishment because of the second half of the bullet. Unfortunately, the resume only included statements similar to the first half of the example.

Another big mistake on this resume relates to the education of the job seeker. She has a continuing education section with some good educational events, but nothing about her formal education. She has an Associate’s degree, but it isn’t listed on the resume (it was in the cover letter). A lot of hiring managers skip the cover letter. Additionally, when a hiring manager distributes a resume to several other managers to review, the cover letter may not be distributed with the resume. For key information like a degree, you need to put this on the resume.

To improve this resume, it would only take a little work to make a huge difference. The Summary of Qualifications section has five bullets. Two relate to soft skills (organizational skills and teamwork), two are marketing related (creativity with graphic design and tradeshow experience) and the last lists technical skills (Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, etc.). Under each bullet, the job seeker should add one line describing an accomplishment or noteworthy experience. For the soft skills and marketing experiences, an accomplishment would be best. For the technical skills, listing an accomplishment would work, but the job seeker could also summarize the continuing education she has completed.

Adding five lines in this way would help tremendously. Throw in the Associate’s degree in an Education section and the resume should be reasonably effective.

One last note… The last section of the resume, a list of references with names and phone numbers, should be eliminated. There is no need to put references on a resume (especially in an email blast to the whole world). Companies know they can ask for references throughout the hiring process. Listing a person’s contact information is actually an invitation to cold call them. The three people listed are likely to be people who are respected by the job seeker, so a recruiter may toss the resume, but keep the names of the references. Who do you think is more marketable… the job seeker who sent the resume or the Director of Marketing who is still at the company and is listed as a reference? By listing the references, all the job seeker did was distract the attention of the reader from her background.

Send Me Your Questions: I’m always looking for ideas to write about. Do you have a job search question you want answered? Send it to me and there’s a good chance I’ll write an article on it. Just send your questions to me at [email protected].

How Many Jobs Should You List

Experienced professionals often struggle with deciding how many of their jobs to list and how much detail to provide for each. This can be a tough decision. On a two page resume, you won’t have enough room to write in detail about everything.

You should provide at least the last ten years in detail. Hiring managers will be much more interested in your recent experience, so you want to prioritize this. You can summarize your experience further back if you don’t go into detail. For example, you could include a line like:

Progressed from entry level production supervision to materials management, including roles as production controller and logistics manager.

This line would take the reader from the start of your career up to the place on the resume where the detail starts, a materials management position. In this example, the progression is fairly typically, starting in production and shifting over to materials through a serious of positions. Most materials professionals will recognize this career path and won’t need additional information.

If you have been with a single company for more than 10 years, you should show the entire progression with them. Stability with a single company is a very positive sign on a resume. It shows the person was successful through the progression of promotions. List the full progression, since it demonstrates a strong pattern of success. For positions a long time ago, you can summarize the experience by listing the jobs, for example:

Logistics Manager December 1992 to July 2000
Production Controller August 1988 to December 1992
Shipping Supervisor March 1985 to August 1988
Production Supervisor June 1980 to March 1985

This shows the progression without any detail, just the titles and dates. From this point forward, the resume would show the detail of the materials management experience. You could even consolidate the summary further:

Held production supervision, production control and logistics management positions from June 1980 to July 2000.

This is a short summary providing enough information for a hiring manager to understand how you got to the materials role.

Job seekers who return to school in the middle of their careers have a different challenge. Getting a degree can transform a career, allowing a person to switch paths completely. In this case, the experience prior to completing the degree may be irrelevant. For example, consider a person who worked in hourly production roles and completed an IT degree. The person upon graduation takes a job as a network administrator and moves along an IT career path from that point forward. In this case, there’s little benefit to the experience prior to completing the degree, and it can probably be omitted, especially if it is more than ten years ago.

For older workers, there is a lot of concern about age discrimination. Listing every job back to start of a career will help ensure hiring managers know exactly how old you are. There’s no reason to highlight this. List the last 15 to 20 years, giving significant detail to the last 10.

The main reason you want to omit or summarize your experience from more than 10 years ago is it allows you to focus on the last 10 years in much greater detail. Your recent accomplishments are your biggest selling points, and you want to focus on them.

Information as a Strategic Asset

I had the opportunity to listen to a couple consultants from IBM at the APICS Conference in Toronto. They discussed ways to capture information and make it easier for decision makers to use. The overriding theme of the presentation was transforming a mass of data into an organized, easily accessible store of information. Meeting this challenge can offer job seekers a means of differentiating themselves from their competition.

The guys from IBM quoted two statistics that really stood out. First, they referenced a survey of CEOs where 60% said they need to get better at leveraging information. This is a challenge in every organization, regardless of company size, industry or market position. We live in a world with so much information; it can be difficult or impossible to get a handle on what is really going on.

The second stat related to ability of workers to find the information they need to make decisions. The stat was from a study of workers’ time and found 70% of time is spent searching for information. This means in a company, out of every three people, two of them are looking for information at any point in time. Only one in three is actually acting on the information they find.

These stats point out a major concern in organizations. Capturing data quickly and efficiently, and incorporate that data into decision making are critical capabilities to allow a company to change faster. Speed and flexibility were a major theme of a number of the presentations at the conference. Companies can’t afford to wait a long time to see trends develop and mature. They need to adapt quickly – faster than their competition.

As a job seeker, how is this relevant to your search? Simple, managing and leveraging data is a critical concern for companies, and if you can show how you improved the effectiveness of an employer in this area in the past, you can set yourself apart.

Some people will look at this and assume the change has to be major – implementing a major data management system affecting every aspect of the company. Major technology upgrades are important, but few of us are involved in buying a new ERP system. Despite this, there are a lot of other ways you probably affected information utilization.

Look at the ways you changed the information you required from your team. Did you make any changes to the reporting you required? How did this streamline the process for your team? How did this allow you to make faster and better decisions?

Look at the ways you changed the information you provided others in the organization. How did you improve the speed you were able to distribute information? How did you improve the quality of the information you provided? What did you do to make this information more accessible so others could make better and faster decisions?

These questions point to improvements you may have made in your organizations. Examples of these improvements can show the value you will provide if hired. They are accomplishments that can set you apart from your competition. To present these with the most impact, you should show the end result of the improvement. It’s not enough to just say you improve the efficiency of information gathering activities. How did gathering that data faster allow the organization to do something it couldn’t do before? This improvement could allow for better customer service, better forecasts, improved quality and reduced scrap, faster product development, or a host of other improvements.

Ultimately, you want to show how your efforts made a company more competitive and profitable. The incremental activities towards this goal can be impressive and help you land a job over other candidates with the same or greater experience. The key is showing your contributions and successes. Data management and reporting is critical competency affecting the overall success of a company. Providing examples of your success in this area will help demonstrate your potential.

Are You Engaged in Your Career

I’m in Toronto at the annual APICS International Conference and was able to attend a session with bestselling author Jason Jennings. Jason’s presentation was excellent and included a number of insightful ideas about leadership. One statistic jumped out to me when I heard it.

The statistic Jason quoted was that in studies, 73% of workers say they just show up to work. They have no emotional attachment to their jobs.

This is an incredible stat. Out of every four workers, three aren’t engaged. They are doing their job but don’t have a true passion for their work. This doesn’t make these employees failures or valueless. They are making a contribution to their companies, but they are unconcerned about delivering superior results.

If you are seeking a job, you can expect a hiring managers to want candidates who have done more than just meet the minimum requirements. They want people who will exceed expectations and go above and beyond the norm.

Accomplishments

When we studied resumes a year ago, we found 57% of resumes either failed to include any accomplishments or listed only one or two. The resume is the primary sales pitch that will land you an interview. Despite this, nearly 60% of job seekers are saying they have accomplished very little in their careers that is noteworthy.

Most resumes list a ton of responsibilities. They show what the job seeker should have done. Listing responsibilities does not show what you did.

Roughly 40% of the resumes we studied showed 3 or more accomplishments. Only 10% had 5 or more. For a hiring manager looking for someone truly engaged in their career, with a passion for their job and a commitment to exceed expectations no matter what, who do you think will get hired? Do you think it will be the 60% that have few or no accomplishments on their resume? Or do you think the job seeker who shows a pattern of success throughout their career will garner more attention?

The answer is obvious. Hiring managers want people who are successful and that will do more than just show up.

What You Can Do

On your resume, you need to show what you did, not what you were responsible for doing. List accomplishments throughout your resume. These can major accomplishments, recognized throughout the company, or they can be smaller accomplishments only recognized within your department. The key is showing what you did beyond what is typical.

When you interview, be prepared to talk about your commitment to succeed with specific examples of what you have achieved. In our economy, there are a lot of talented people on the job market. The people who rise to the top will be the ones who best market their ability to deliver results.

In your career, you can be one of the 73% of people who show up, or you can be someone who is engaged and committed to their job far beyond normal. If you choose the later, not only will your career be more successful, but your job search will be more successful as well.

Resume Without Job Titles

Most jobs have well established titles and easy to understand responsibilities. Some, though, are unique. What do you do if you work in a role that has little or no equivalent at other companies? Do you list your job title, change the title to something more commonly used, or skip it entirely? The resume I read today struggled with this dilemma.

Most jobs have well established titles and easy to understand responsibilities. Some, though, are unique. What do you do if you work in a role that has little or no equivalence to jobs at other companies? Do you list your job title, change the title to something more commonly used, or skip it entirely? The resume I read today struggled with this dilemma.

The resume was from a manager who had worked as a strategic planning analyst and then as an operations manager. Those are my titles – the closest I can come up with for the positions after reading the resume closely. The job seeker decided to take a short cut. He didn’t list any job titles, just the functional areas of his jobs, operations and strategic planning.

Omitting the job titles was a mistake. It makes it very difficult to understand the background of a person quickly without some indicator of the type of role. The only way to understand the positions is to read the job descriptions closely. The job seeker was thorough. He described every aspect of his employment, from core responsibilities to minor details.

The thoroughness of the job seeker’s job description had an effect opposite to what he intended. By listing anything and everything he did, it’s very difficult to understand what role he had. The job seeker left out any description of the scope of his responsibilities or some statement as to what was typical. This puts the minor aspects of his role, tasks he might work on only a few times a year, on equal footing with the core of his job. It’s impossible to know what this guy really did.

Every job will eventually touch on every aspect of a company. If you have been somewhere for ten years or more, you can talk about any functional area in your resume. For example, a staff accountant might work closely with someone in marketing or sales on a specific project for a few days. This can be good experience and may show the versatility of your skills. What you don’t want to do is include this as some vague description. For example, “supported marketing with development of new product pricing.” This description may be completely accurate, but would not be representative of a lengthy career if you only did this for a few days.

The resume I received listed so many functions and never described what the core responsibility was. It’s a guess as to whether this individual was really an operations manager and strategic planning analyst. I could be completely wrong.

As a recruiter, what do I do with a resume like this? I receive a lot of resumes. I don’t have time to spend a significant amount of time on each. I have to make a quick assessment if I can place the person and move on if I can’t. To make this decision, I look for something showing how a person stands out in their field – why they are better than their competition. If I can’t find something with some “wow factor,” I’m likely to move on. The key to this is assessing the candidate’s capability quickly and comparing them to other candidates in the field I have assessed. If I can’t determine what field the candidate is in, I can’t even start this process.

After reviewing the resume for a minute, I don’t know what job the candidate has held. I can’t assess his performance relative to his peers, because I don’t know who his peers are. I can’t even tell if he’s been successful because I have no basis for determining the scope of his role. My final assessment is to move on to the next candidate. I will be able to screen several other candidates in the time it would take me to pick up the phone, call this candidate and ask the basic questions like “what job did you hold at your last employer?”

What Should You Do?

There are a lot of job seekers who create overly vague and confusing descriptions of their experience. This forces a hiring manager or recruiter to spend a lot more time figuring out what the person is capable of doing. Every second increases the odds the resume will be discarded. To avoid this, you need a quick to read, easy to understand and impressive description of your background and potential.

Print out your resume and sit it in front of you. Take a highlighter and highlight the phrases that best summarize your experience and accomplishments. Don’t highlight more than 50 words. I’m sure there is a lot of important info on your resume and 50 words won’t capture everything. Stick with only the most important 50 words.

Where on your resume are there 50 words? They need to be at the top if want them to be read. If they are buried deep in the resume, there is a good chance you will be rejected before they are read.

Are your most important two or three skills clearly presented in these fifty words? You probably possess dozens or hundreds of different skills. They are not all equal. There are a couple that will land you a job and the rest are supporting information. Make sure the essential skills stand out.

Do you show how you were successful? It is easy to write that you are highly successful. In fact, putting “highly successful” and a job title as the first few words in at the top of a resume are a common way to start. Anyone can write this. It is nothing but hype. What matters is what comes next. You need examples of your success that are clear and impressive. Without specific accomplishments, you will not measure up to your peers who list accomplishments on their resume. Even if you were successful, you are likely to be rejected before you get a chance to tell your story in an interview.

What is your specialty? Make sure you show a clear specialization on your resume. A non-descript generalist, with no specialization will appear very unimpressive. You need something that will differentiate you and specialization is critical. Make sure your fifty words show this specialization clearly.

If you complete this exercise and focus your resume to make your potential stand out in the first fifty words, you will dramatically improve your odds of getting an interview.

Maintenance Tech Resume

A resume I read from a medical equipment technician. The resume illustrates a few of the common mistakes many job seekers make.

First, the job seeker failed to list his skills. Every job seeker needs to highlight their strongest skills on their resume. For equipment technicians, this is even more important. With technical positions, the technical skill of the job seeker is a major factor, and often is the most important assessment criteria. Omitting this information will hurt the candidate’s chances.

The job seeker could correct this by adding a skills section showing the specific types of equipment and technologies he has proficiency with. Adding some of the training classes he has taken would also help. In 25 years of operating and maintaining high tech medical equipment, the job seeker doesn’t show a single training class where he updated his skills.

The second change the job seeker needs to make relates to the responsibilities he has had. His resume has nothing more than a list of responsibilities. There are no accomplishments listed. Most hiring managers will assume he has either been unsuccessful or minimally successful in his career as a result. Below is are the bullets from his most recent position:

Maintain and troubleshoot anesthesia equipment and other medical electronics in the hospital
Provide clinical assessments during surgical procedures for anesthesia staff and residents when needed
Perform in-service training for anesthesia students on a variety of electronics equipment
Develop equipment maintenance procedures for department

For an equipment tech, it’s difficult to imagine someone else in the same role not having essentially the same responsibilities. The job seeker has succeeded in making himself a commodity no different from anyone else. This will not help him get hired.

I expect there are a number of accomplishments the job seeker could list. For example, he could expand on how he developed maintenance procedures. Giving a specific example of this, including the type of equipment, the scope of the procedures he developed and some measure of how change contributed to the organization would make a great impression.

A few questions this job seeker could answer that would lead to the type of impressive content that would get a hiring manager excited are:

When have you developed or changed a maintenance procedure resulting in lower overall maintenance costs?
When have you improved the performance of equipment you were maintaining?
When have you improved the reliability of the equipment you were maintaining?
When have you developed a faster process for maintaining equipment?
When have you modified equipment to better suit the needs of medical personnel using the equipment?

As it stands, a hiring manager who is concerned about some of these questions (cutting costs, improving performance and reliability, etc.) will assume the answer to each question is “never.” That’s not the impression this job seeker wants to make. Fortunately, the solution is easy. Add a couple bullets points showing the contribution the job seeker made.

Why Your Resume Should Have a Summary Section

The resume I read today illustrated how important a summary section is. The resume was from a sales professional with around five years of experience. The resume started with candidate’s work experience. Although work experience is extremely important, you are limited in your presentation if you lead off with a work experience section.

A great way to start a resume is with a summary section. This section provides the primary sales pitch to get a hiring manager excited and interested in your resume. Without a summary section, it’s difficult to grab attention fast and keep it.

The problem with starting a resume with your work experience results from the order of the information. You need to put your experience in reverse chronological order. This puts the most recent position at the top.

If your most impressive experience is listed under your most recent job, you’re in good shape. Often, your best selling points will be scattered throughout your career and your resume. This is where a summary section helps. You can gather the most important elements and list them separately at the top of your resume.

To illustrate this, look at the top of the resume I received:

<Employer Name>, Account Manager Sept. ’08 to Present

Manage the relationships with key prospects throughout my region, to ensure that is best placed to win major contracts and associated services

Coordinate internal resources to respond to RFPs and secure business from both new and existing customers

Establish and strengthen customer relationships through developing an intimate knowledge of individual accounts and key stakeholders

The candidate has been in this job for less than a year and lists a few responsibilities, but no accomplishments. In sales, especially a field with large proposals that can take upwards of a year to win, it is difficult to show significant accomplishments in the first few months. This leads to an unfavorable impression of the candidate at the very beginning. He is a sales professional who has not had any success – not the kind of sales pitch that is going to get a person hired.

The core problem is how a hiring manager reads a resume. Hiring managers scan resumes very quickly, focusing on the top of the resume. They also will not assume a candidate is any better than what is presented, and will not assume a candidate has been more successful than the resume presents.

In the case of the resume excerpt above, a typical reaction will be to assume the candidate has been completely unsuccessful. Otherwise, the candidate would have listed something about his success. This leads to an impression in the first 15 seconds that the candidate is an unsuccessful sales professional. The resume will probably be rejected at this point.

The truth is the candidate does have some impressive accomplishments. Unfortunately, he is unlikely to get the opportunity to tell a hiring manager about them because his resume will be rejected at the start of the process.

The solution is easy. Write a short summary section highlighting the key accomplishments and skills of the candidate. This will get a hiring manager excited and motivated them to give a call.

Turn Your Resume Into a Billboard

One advertising media that can teach an important lesson about resume writing is a billboard on an interstate. Billboards can be effective because they are seen by a huge number of people who have little else to read. They also pose a significant challenge. Drivers only have a second or two to read the billboard.

A resume is an advertisement for you. It needs to contain some specific information about your background, but at its core, a resume is designed to make a sales pitch. Focusing on this aspect of resume writing can greatly improve the effectiveness of the document you produce.

Imagine designing a billboard version of your resume. You would have to shorten the content to a few words. Adding too much will hurt the overall effectiveness, even if the added content is important and impressive. The reason for this is simple. A driver may only have time to read five or ten words. You can’t count on them starting at the beginning of the message. This means that any content beyond the most important five or ten words will reduce the chance the most important content will be read.

Your resume faces a similar challenge. A hiring manager will only look at a resume for a short time. Often, it will only get a 15 to 30 second look initially. This prevents the hiring manager from reading more than few a sentences. If they read content that is of little importance, the odds your resume will be rejected go way up.

To write the best resume, you should not assess the value of each piece of content in isolation. This will lead to a resume that is too long. You need to assess the relative value of the content and delete the elements that may be valuable but distract the reader from the most important elements.

One of the biggest challenges in this process is detaching the emotional ties to specific experiences. Deleting something from your resume does not reduce the significance of the experience. It only reflects the lower importance of the element to a specific audience. For example, billboards for restaurants, hotels and other destinations always list the exit number. The exit number is a very minor detail in assessing the quality and value of a restaurant in every situation except for a passing driver who doesn’t know where the location is. In this case, details about the quality of the food, the selection, the cost and the overall attractiveness of the restaurant are less important details and are usually omitted from the billboard.

Approach your resume from the same perspective of the billboard designer. Imagine a hiring manager speeding past resumes, only getting a quick glance at the content and deciding in an instant, whether they are going to get off the exit and take a long look, or keep driving. If you catch their attention quickly, you will greatly improve your odds of getting an interview.