Objective Statement Wed, Jun 07, 2017

When you’re a mechanic, you’ll always have friends and family wanting you to look at their cars and diagnose things. When you’re a photographer, people always want free portraits. A baker? You’ll be doing your friends’ wedding cakes. A veterinarian? Calls in the night from distant relatives about their cat’s case of the sniffles. Well I’ve found that with working in recruiting and employment, I have a pretty steady stream of resumes and LinkedIn profiles to review in my spare time. I enjoy it though, and my big red pen gets lots of use.

Recently, while reviewing a friend-of-a-friend’s resume, I noticed how caught up she was on her objective statement (the headliner at the top of a resume stating career objectives and usually a bunch of fluff about how hard of a worker the applicant is). I was honest and told her “delete the whole thing. No one reads those anyway.” In fact, did you know the average time that a recruiter spends scanning a resume before they make a decision to continue reading or throw it in the “no” pile is a mere 7 seconds? I reassured her that her work experience speaks for itself, and that she didn’t need to waste valuable seconds trying to explain it.*                                                                                                                                                                                                                              It’s been a weird way to learn the “actions speak louder than words” concept, but it’s helped me realize that people talk a lot, and 9 times out of 10 it’s their actions or experience that really impress. Seeing that someone put in years at a job and moved through the ranks will make me believe that they are a hard worker far more than them informing me of the fact.                                                                                                                                                                               Expounding on this to a personal and useful level, rest assured that to others, your hard work, in whatever you do, is bound to shine through and speak for itself on your resume, in your demeanor, and in the quality of life you live outside of your job. No need to shout out your objective statement and tell people how hard you work at SlideBelts - let your work do the talking for you.

**I do, however, suggest a headliner on your LinkedIn to showcase your passions and interests & to bring a personal touch to your page (: