Writing a Winning Career Objective: 6 Tips to Get Started

You’ve written your resume, and sent it out to what seems like hundreds of companies without any success.  Perhaps it’s time to look at one of the most important, and yet often neglected, parts of the resume – your career objective.  If done correctly, this will show potential employers at a glance that you are serious about the job in question and know what you want to do.  A poorly executed objective, however, may disqualify you from the position altogether.

Follow these simple steps to write a winning career objective every time.

• Be pithy. Generally, an objective should be limited to a sentence or two.  It’s all about saying as much as needed in as small a space as possible.  Remember, this is only the first thing that a potential employer sees, and the goal is to write so that he or she wants to continue reading the rest of your resume.
• Begin with ‘To’ not ‘I.’ The career objective on your resume should tell what you can do for the company, and not what you expect to get from the company.  When you’re competing with hundreds of other applicants, the employer’s focus is on which one of you can benefit them the most.  Here is an example of a quality resume objective: “To work for a small graphics company using my graphic design, layout, and drafting skills.” This shows what you can do for them instead of saying, “I want to work for a small graphics company to improve my graphic design and layout skills.”
• Convey facts. Words such as challenging, useful, educational, helpful, etc. mean different things to each person, and therefore do not convey specific messages to a possible employer.  Instead, explain how you want to use your English degree and editing skills to work for a book publisher.
• Use action verbs. It is tempting to try to stand out with your objective by starting it with something other than ‘to’ such as: my goal is, I hope to, my plan is, etc.  Not only does this show employers that you are more concerned with helping yourself than with helping his or her company, but the passive voice makes the sentence wordy and weak.  Phrases such as to work, to promote, and to advance show that you know what your career goal is and how you can help your prospective employer.
• Decide how specific you need to be. This is by far the trickiest part of writing a career objective for your resume.  If you know exactly what job you want within a company and understand what type of skills that job requires, then your objective can be written like this, “To work as an office production assistant with a small film company specializing in television using my clerical skills and Communications degree.” Unless you understand what the job requires and have specific skills, however, you will probably want to write something a bit broader such as “To work in an advertising agency using my experience in graphic design, layout, and copywriting.” This does not mention what position you seek, but includes a varied list of qualifications that would make you an attractive candidate to work in graphics or ad copy.
• Use what experience you have. If you’re a recent college graduate, you may not have many practical, real world skills that you can list in your objective.  Don’t worry.  Consider what you were good at in college (editing, researching, memorizing facts) and re-word it for a corporate environment.  If you were good at gathering data for essays then you have skills as a researcher.  Similarly, if you have a photographic memory then that can be a marketable quality.

Since you have such a short space to make a good impression, be careful in selecting the skills to list.  Choose ones that will be the most advantageous to each individual company.  You may have to re-write your objective several times for different jobs, but a well-written objective will help put you ahead of your competition.

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Bethany Stringer is a graduate of Texas A&M University (class of ‘08) and has her B.A. in English Literature with minors in History and Psychology.  Writing her first story at the age of 5 (with help from Mom), Bethany still enjoys writing and researching about everything from business and history to travel and fiction.  Enamored with languages, she plans to teach English in Russia in 2010 as a CELTA certified teacher.  She owned her own business working horses when she was 17, and still loves riding her horse Romeo.  Always appreciating a challenge, she loves sea kayaking and prefers Rachmaninov to Bach.

Stand Out on a Team: 6 Tips to Get You Noticed (in a Good Way)

Conventional wisdom dictates that a good team player is someone who is always willing to put the good of the whole above personal interests. While true, we, as individuals, want credit for whatever our contribution was. After all, without that, how will the boss know the difference between your work ethic and value to the company compared to that of sir and madame slacks-a-lot? By the same token, the office suck-up is not exactly the most respected person on the team and others may even refuse to work with him or her. Follow these simple tips to improve your interpersonal skills and avoid becoming the under- appreciated but irreplaceable wallflower.

1. Ask questions. Research the project and go to the first group meeting prepared with intelligent questions about the project and do not be afraid to speak up quickly. Be sure to actually pay attention to the given information to avoid asking something that has already been answered. If you are one of the workers who consistently asks important questions, the boss will remember you more easily and will see that you have done the required “homework.”

2. Smile and listen. You may think someone else’s idea is poorly founded and completely worthless, but after all, you want others to listen to yours.

3. Make others feel appreciated. This is not about false cotton candy fluff, but rather being courteous and helpful to colleagues. It doesn’t matter if you are the best at your job if no one will work with you because of attitude issues. When a team member helps with something, thank him or her – do not take it for granted. If a colleague has a brilliant idea, congratulate him or her and help support it with good ideas of your own.

4. Pick up the slack. Even if an associate is not working as hard as you, it reflects badly on all participants if the project fails. Perhaps the straggling worker is confused or has hit the proverbial mental wall. Bosses notice (even if they don’t immediately acknowledge) employees who are willing to help out their colleagues. Even if you feel as though no one noticed, it is much better than standing out as the person who didn’t assist his or her partner.

5. Mediate conflict. Sometimes an impartial third party in a dispute is the best way to help both combatants see a different perspective on an issue. Disagreements can be difficult to diffuse by the individuals involved if it is over an important issue. Emotion, not logic, all too often leads the way. Be careful not to take sides – instead show the good points in each person’s argument.

6. Know your strengths and improve on weaknesses. If you’re the slowest typist in the office, a project meeting is not the time to improve. Work on weak skills in personal time, and ensure the success of the team project by volunteering to do what you excel at. It will really impress and surprise the boss, however, if you (not known as the best negotiator) are able to show that you have mastered new negotiating techniques.

While some of these ideas may not obviously pertain to helping you get noticed, but becoming known as the employee who is great to work with will earn you more and more projects. People don’t want to work with the heartless cut throat, but rather someone who has not only proven his or her intelligence and capability, but also has shown their willingness to consider others’ opinions.

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Bethany Stringer is a graduate of Texas A&M University (class of ‘08) and has her B.A. in English Literature with minors in History and Psychology. Writing her first story at the age of 5 (with help from Mom), Bethany still enjoys writing and researching about everything from business and history to travel and fiction. Enamored with languages, she plans to teach English in Russia in 2010 as a CELTA certified teacher. She owned her own business working horses when she was 17, and still loves riding her horse Romeo. Always appreciating a challenge, she loves sea kayaking and prefers Rachmaninov to Bach.

Personal Brand Statement: 7 Winning Steps to Creating One

After polling several well-educated young professionals about their personal brand statement, I realized that there are still many individuals who don’t understand how to use personal branding.  Your statement is not a mission statement or job title, but rather your “catchphrase” if you will about your specific expertise.  If you don’t have much experience at something, then it can be about an area that you want to become an expert in so long as you don’t exaggerate.  Limit yourself to only one sentence for your personal branding statement.  Since there are still many people who are unaware of the need to create a personal brand regardless of the industry, then having a great one may just be the edge needed to win out over the competition.

Here are seven tips to write a winning personal brand statement.

1. List your attributes.  This may seem a little bit too simple, but when you are trying to find some quality or skill that only you and a few other people have it really helps a lot.  The goal here is to find the one or two things that separate you from your competition and make you unique.
2. Choose an audience.  Creating a statement that is too broad and undirected at any particular group will most likely alienate many of your potential employers.  Since the purpose of a personal brand statement is to briefly list your primary skills, it is necessary to target the industry where those skills are most useful.
3. Be honest.  It is tempting to exaggerate about your abilities, but this is not the place to do that.  Don’t say you’re “the best” or a “leader in the field of…” unless you actually are.  Keep in mind that the brand statement is only supposed to get people interested, and not say everything about your professional career.  Hopefully, with a good sentence an employer will want to know about you.
4. Make it memorable.  Even though you want it to stand out, remember that using excessively large or technical words may alienate your audience.  The statement of your brand should be something that others can remember easily since you need to be able to use it whenever a networking opportunity arises (baseball game, elevator, social function, etc).  Try telling it to a friend or significant other one time and see if he or she can easily recall the entire sentence.  If so, you’re off to a good start.
5. Make your self-impression = other’s impression.  If you have trouble brainstorming personal skills, ask close friends or co-workers what they think your strengths are.  Even after you’ve decided on a statement, it is a good idea to check with a friend to make sure that your idea of yourself matches what others think of you.
6. Market yourself.  I cannot emphasize this fact enough, when looking for a job you have to be willing to be your own advocate.  A personal brand statement will not help you much if you are not telling people what it is.  Have a personal website, or at the very least use social networking sites like facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, etc to reach potential employers and use your professional statement.  Make sure to keep it consistent across platforms, however, because using the same sentence every time will help others remember it and associate it with you.  Having a short brand statement means that you will be able to market yourself quickly whenever a chance for networking arises (on the subway, for instance).
7. Be flexible.  Even though it’s time consuming, your personal branding statement should be revised at least once a year to reflect changes and advancements in your professional career.  In order to be effective, it needs to stay current.

Don’t procrastinate creating your statement.  Since it is such a powerful marketing tool, you are going to want to spend enough time on it to make it fantastic and ensure that it projects exactly the image of you that you want.  Eventually, personal branding statements will be as common as a resume or reference list, but for now, it’s a sure way to get you noticed as a competitive applicant who is capable of keeping up with current self-marketing trends and using them to advantage.

For more articles about personal branding and personal brand statements check out these posts:

1. Personal Branding Worksheet
2. Top 7 Must-Read Personal Branding Books
3. My personal brand
4. the elevator pitch – you have 6 seconds for your personal branding statement

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Bethany Stringer is a graduate of Texas A&M University (class of ‘08) and has her B.A. in English Literature with minors in History and Psychology.  Writing her first story at the age of 5 (with help from Mom), Bethany still enjoys writing and researching about everything from business and history to travel and fiction.  Enamored with languages, she plans to teach English in Russia in 2010 as a CELTA certified teacher.  She owned her own business working horses when she was 17, and still loves riding her horse Romeo.  Always appreciating a challenge, she loves sea kayaking and prefers Rachmaninov to Bach.

Finding a Career After College for the Rest of Us

While researching for this article I came across a lot of information about what to do once you’ve landed your first post college, professional job.  Great!  So what happens if you don’t have one of those?  In fact, what happens if you are not one of the graduating seniors with a 4.0, 3 solid summer internships, and a ton of volunteer hours?  What happens to the average student’s career after college?  It’s no secret that jobs are harder to find now, and especially difficult if you hadn’t decided exactly what career you want to pursue before you graduated.  This, however, is not a time to despair.  Jobs are still available if you know where to look and are willing to go a little bit outside of your comfort zone.

Here are six tips to help you get a career after college:

1. Broaden your focus. If you happen to be one of the lucky individuals who knows exactly what career you want to pursue, but are unable to break into it at the moment then don’t be afraid to take a job in a different field for a while.  If you studied business marketing, but really enjoy going to the theater then volunteer doing promotions  or fundraisers for one.  If you enjoy being outside, apply for jobs or internships in the national parks.
2. Don’t be discouraged by low paying jobs. Choosing a job now does not mean that is what you’ll be doing for the rest of your life or even longer than a year or two.  If it’s in a field you find (or think you’ll find) interesting then go for it.  The worst that can happen is that you discover that you don’t want to work in that field anymore, and well, that’s something you didn’t know before you started.
3. Be willing to re-locate. This is a scary thing for many people, but being willing to move for a job does not mean that you have to go overseas.  If, however, you give an employer the idea that you must stay in a certain city, you may be missing a great opportunity.  For example, if your family is from Austin, TX, and you are the small town, family-oriented type who wants a job near family, don’t rule out working in cities like Dallas or Houston.  The jobs there are more abundant and it’s not a very long drive to mom and dad’s house.
4. Look for jobs in other countries. Certainly, the US job situation has affected other countries as well, but it is sometimes easier to get a job overseas.  One good example is teaching abroad.  Places such as Mexico, Russia, the Czech Republic, China, and Japan have a great need for certified (classes to become a certified TESOL teacher range in length from a weekend to several months) English teachers. Teaching abroad would be a unique experience on your resume that will help later in your US job search.
5. Network! This doesn’t mean that you must attend a lot of fancy balls or benefits.  Simply talk to people you meet – you never know when or where you may meet someone that will be able to help you later.  Going to local job fairs and career fairs are a good idea too, but it’s harder to stand out because of the high volume of job applicants.
6. Take a temporary job. If your current resume is a long list of dead end jobs, or you have no work experience then consider going to a temp agency.  You can apply for jobs in a field that interests you in order to get related field experience.  It’s also a great way to decide whether the industry you thought you wanted to work in is really a good fit for you.

Remember that it’s not at all uncommon for people to have more than one career in their lifetimes.  In fact, some studies suggest that Americans will have worked in an average of 5 different careers by retirement age.  This chance to travel and be adventurous will probably not come again as the increasing demands of life limit your options (spouse, kid, solid job with upward mobility, etc) so use the hiring hiatus to your advantage and get paid to do something you love when you find your career after college.

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Bethany Stringer is a graduate of Texas A&M University (class of ‘08) and has her B.A. in English Literature with minors in History and Psychology.  Writing her first story at the age of 5 (with help from Mom), Bethany still enjoys writing and researching about everything from business and history to travel and fiction.  Enamored with languages, she plans to teach English in Russia in 2010 as a CELTA certified teacher.  She owned her own business working horses when she was 17, and still loves riding her horse Romeo.  Always appreciating a challenge, she loves sea kayaking and prefers Rachmaninov to Bach.

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