An objective may not be necessary on your LinkedIn profile, but they are preferred on resumes, especially when applying to unadvertised positions.
A Director of Talent Acquisition for a Schedule A bank in Canada shared these perspectives:
- “Many companies have sourcing specialists with LinkedIn licenses that enable them to call you and start asking a range of questions about what you would be interested in job wise. That’s assuming you have deep expertise.”
- “However, if you are a recent graduate or fairly new in your career making a general application to a company, you need to help the recruiter understand your career focus area. Recruiters are much too busy in large companies to do that for you. A short objective statement is helpful.”
Here are two examples for an Objective for an unadvertised position:
- “A recent university graduate looking for a position to launch a career in financial analysis, whether in a Finance, Risk Management, Investment Banking or Analytics department.”
- “A junior Marketing professional eager to contribute to a growth oriented company or department that is marketing products, ideas, software or programs.”
- If you are applying to a specific posting in a large company that discourages the use of covering letters, it would be useful to include a short objective statement or the title of the advertised position, to communicate your career focus in a particular area of expertise, whether IT, Finance, Banking or HR. All of these professional careers have specialized areas within them. Just use the title of the advertised position.
- Not all organizations have Recruitment Management technology like big companies that post their job opportunities frequently. So having a clear, slightly tailored objective statement might be even more critical for these small or medium sized firms who are reading your resume.
- A candidate who applies directly to a job posting in a big company may not need a covering letter or an Objective statement. They will ask a job seeker to answer some initial online screening questions to help determine whether they should be shortlisted or not.