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How to Write an Objective Summary to Impress
May
What Is An Objective Summary On A Resume?
Learning how to write an objective summary that summarizes your key points or attributes with as little personal detail or clear bias in them, is an art.
While these can be challenging to write for an essay or project summary, an objective summary for a resume can be more challenging.
These are where you sum up your skills and experience to be attractive to a hiring manager or interview team.
Define Objective Summary: Objective Summary Definition
According to Oxford, an objective, when used as an adjective, is described as:
Being based on facts and not influenced by personal beliefs or feelings.
A summary is defined as:
a clear, brief description that gives the key ideas or facts about a point
Therefore, from these two definitions, we can understand that an objective summary definition is a summarization of facts without any emotion attached to them.
They should be clear, concise, and honest.
How Long Should An Objective Summary Be?
Ideally, you should keep your objective summary to no more than 2 or 3 sentences or bullet points.
Remember that this is a summary and not an overview.
Therefore, it should wrap up all of the main points that you want an interviewer to know about.
These include:
- Terms of critical skills
- Experience
- Education, or at the very least the skills that you believe make you the best candidate for the job.
How To Start An Objective Summary?
Starting is always the most challenging part of any task.
Still, an opening statement on a resume’s objective summary should be straight to the point.
It should convey a dynamic approach, positive attitude, and skilled applicant.
Your opening should either state what you are looking for in a job role or what you can bring in terms of skills.
Objective Summary Outline
Objective Summary Examples: What Is An Example Of An Objective Summary?
Let’s talk through and break down an example of writing an objective summary:
‘A highly motivated marketing graduate with a strong understanding of traditional and digital marketing platforms.
A love of creative problem solving and attention to detail has drawn me towards finding a marketing position where I can provide innovation and creativity to campaigns.’
Taking the above as an example, we can see the different aspects of work.
‘A highly motivated marketing graduate with a strong understanding of traditional and digital marketing platforms.’
This opening thesis statement sums up the applicant – the most relevant and recent experience that they have.
And it indicates that they understand the need for both traditional and digital marketing experience – which may be listed as necessary in the job description.
Adjectives such as ‘highly motivated’ are also critical positive descriptors.
‘ A love of creative problem solving and attention to detail draws me towards finding a marketing position….’
Here they list essential skills that have made them successful in their career so far.
At this point, they can bring in a personal element, ‘me,’ as it emphasizes the fact that they are searching for a position.
While the use of present tense makes the statement more active and dynamic rather than the use of a passive voice.
‘…where I can provide innovation and creativity to campaigns’.
At this point, they highlight more of what they want to bring to a role that suggests what the company can gain from them as an employee.
What Is A Good Objective Summary?
An excellent objective summary is clear and presents all the critical points of your resume in an easy-to-understand format.
It is towards the end and, while only a few sentences long, conveys the main points of your resume and expertise.
The first sentence should describe both your key motivations and the skills you want interviewers to know about at the start of the summary.
Other sentences could also refer to your relevant qualifications.
The focus is often on the best adjectives and adverbs that describe a topic in an objective summary.
As objective summaries are so short, the goal is to convey as much as possible in as few words as possible and pick each word carefully for maximum impact and meaning.
Good objective summaries impress because they identify and prioritize the unity of their two main concepts – structure and a key idea or focus.
In the case of writing an objective summary for a resume, the main focus would be the skills that you have that would make you an asset to a company.
The structure would be the roles that provided those skills and the actions you took within those roles, which will benefit you in your new position.
Typically, it is also worth noting that most objective statements written for resumes do not use personal pronouns such as ‘I.’
Describe yourself and your accomplishments throughout.
The subject of the sentence is already assumed and known.
If ‘I’ is included in the summary, it is not used in the opening statement, as you will see from the examples here.
Your opening statement acts as a thesis statement regarding what you can bring to a role or what you are looking for in a position.
Objective Summary Sentence Starters
Writing for something as important as a resume can be daunting.
It is especially true for something that requires finesse and care, but that also does not follow the standard grammar rules of most sentences.
Therefore, we have provided you with a few sentence starters below as examples of objective summaries and templates that you can use as you begin to craft your own.
How To Write An Objective Summary: Examples
‘A hard-working, problem-solving accountant with interest in….’
‘An IT Services Manager with six years of experience and a strong knowledge of cloud computing and front-end coding languages….’
‘Seeking a Sales Management position at XYZ company, to utilize my communication and interpersonal skills, while bringing a background of 5 years of working in sales….’
What is a good objective summary?
The first sentence should describe both your key motivations and the skills you want interviewers to know about at the start of the summary. Other sentences could also refer to your relevant qualifications. The focus is often on the best adjectives and adverbs that describe a topic in an objective summary.
What is an example of objective summary?
An example of an objective summary can be, ‘An IT Services Manager with six years of experience and a strong knowledge of cloud computing and front-end coding languages….’