Career Objective

by Stephanie Blye

Is it important to have a

career objective

in your

CV

? Most career advisers think it is. Sure, if you apply for a part time job or for a job which is actually a collaboration, you could skip this area. But the truth is that the

CV career objective

offers the prospective employer an idea about what your intentions are with regards to a certain job.

If you apply for a permanent job, based on a contract, having a

career objective

at the beginning of your CV is actually essential. The general career objective extends over a larger period of time, while the personal career objective refers to the first steps you will make in a certain organization (i.e. To become a researcher in "Human Bioenergy" is a general career objective while accepting the position of a laboratory technician is an objective targeted to a specific post).



When it comes to the career objective, you should think in terms of "what can I do for the employer?" instead of "what can the employer do for me?" because it is through the career objective that you can sell yourself as the best product on the job market, a product without which the company of the employer would not become successful.

Try to avoid general statements like "to work in a company where I could use the abilities and competencies I have gained in college and X company", "to broaden my experience in X domain" etc because the career objective should be TARGETED to the specific of the job you apply for. If you apply in more than one company, then prepare more versions of your CV, in which the information vary according to the profile of the desired position.

5 compulsory criteria you should have in mind when building your CV career objective:

An effective career objective should be:

• concise
• measurable
• applicable
• result oriented
• refers to a specific period of time