Your job objective is usually the first item of substance on your resume, appearing right under your name and contact information. Is yours getting the job done, or is it wasted space?

If you’re like most jobseekers, it’s wasted space. Often, job objectives are so vague that they add no value whatsoever to your resume. Recruiters can recite by heart the standard resume opening. It goes something like this:

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As an alternative to an objective statement, a summary of qualifications can be very effective at the top of your resume. While an objective focuses on the job, a summary statement focuses on the job seeker by highlighting experience and skills that employers are likely seeking.

A summary statement is a one- to two-sentence overview that captures the essence of your skills and experience. It highlights what makes you a qualified candidate as well as what makes you different (and better) than other applicants. It can be most useful for managers or for candidates who aren’t sure exactly where they might fit into an organization. Here’s an example of a strong summary statement:

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A job objective is the merging of your perceived strengths and the job you think those strengths would allow you to be most effective in. Some career counselors advise against objectives statements because they can limit you to a specific position when your skills match several. However in certain cases objectives provide the necessary opportunity to sell facts not easily garnered from an accomplishment oriented resume.

Here are some cases where including an objective might be a good idea:

• Recent college graduates without work history can use the objective to let the potential employer know what type of work they would like to do.
• Those who know exactly what job they want should use the objective to spell out why they are the perfect candidate. Let the employer know you designed your course work around your love of shoes and accounting.
• Those whose career goal isn’t obvious on their resumes. If you worked in finance for 10 years but are looking to work in human resources take this opportunity to let the reviewer know it wasn’t a mistake your resume ended up on their desk, even better, let the reader know what skills and lessons you learned in your prior field that you can bring to the new one.