Resume Secret: State Your Objective

Many job seekers write a general statement such as... "Seeking entry level position which will utilize my skills and experience" for their résumés objective. But its better to be explicit about the job you want. In writing the objective on your résumé, stick to the basics. If you are applying for a specific job you found in an ad, just use the following format and you can't go wrong.

Objective: The position of Senior Accountant, Job Code #102233, posted on Monster.com on Thursday, Feb. 5, 2003.

This format tells the recruiter exactly which job you want, exactly where you saw it, and exactly when it was posted. And the recruiter knows exactly what to do with it. The rest of your résumé's content should support this objective.

UPDATE
Ralph over at PageBites also suggests..."if you have your resume up on the web, I think a more general objective is useful. For example: "Seeking a software engineering job with a search engine company where I can apply my machine learning skills." This allows recruiters to know that you are currently looking for a job with a search engine company and that your specialty is machine learning. Check out these objectives for example: http://www.pagebites.com/?what=objective%3A%22machine+learning%22&where=&type=resume"