Published By
The Career Center
The Florida State University
Created By Dorothy Domkowski
Revised By Denise Saunders
Your job campaign for future employment consists of many activities: writing a resume, locating lists of potential employers, reviewing job openings, typing application letters, making contacts, interviewing, dealing with rejections, negotiating job offers, making many personal and professional decisions. Where do you start? Start with a goal, an objective. It may be helpful to ask yourself questions like: What do I want to be doing? Where do I want to be?
Your career objective is a personal statement which defines the specifics which you wish to attain with respect to your professional work.
It’s personal. Others may share similar goals, but your objective should state your goals in terms that you are comfortable with.
It’s a commitment. Stating a goal is a form of identifying who you are and what you want to achieve.
It’s action-oriented. It’s you taking control of your life and communicating what you can do to an employer in action terms.
It’s directional. By focusing on your future, you can then identify the next step to take, which resources to seek. Your focus can be short-range or long-range. The more completely you examine your future, the better able you will be to evaluate potential work situations.
It’s specific. It clearly identifies some facts or elements about a work situation. Broad terms such as “successful” or “challenging” may mean something to you, but they convey no facts to an employer.
What Do You Include In A Career Objective?
Deciding what to include in a career objective is often a difficult task. This guide will review possible elements of a career objective to help you decide what to include.
Remember, a career objective is personal, so deciding what to include is your decision.
Career Fields
Career Fields are general areas of work which include many different job titles that require similar kinds of work activities.
You may be considering several different job titles within a career field. Identifying the career field category allows you to specify a broad area you are interested in without limiting you to specific titles. While you may be interested in more than one career field, for purposes of the career objective, it is better to limit yourself to one.
Examples:
“To work in the health field as an administrator in a service delivery unit.”
“To do research within the field of law.”
Position Titles
Position title, occupational title, or job title is the name of a specific position one holds. While some organizations may have their own reference names, most position titles are generic and generalizable to many organizations.
Listing a position title on your career objective is appropriate if you know you will be applying basically for a specific position either in many different organizations or targeted for one organization.
Examples:
"To obtain a position of Accountant with a public accounting firm and eventually become a partner.”
“To become a Community Organizer where I can use my human relations, administrative, and research skills.”
Categories of Organizations
Category of organization is really identifying the setting in which you might like to work. In the broadest sense, organizations are categorized as either service producing or goods producing. More specifically, organizations are categorized by industry groups. One or more of these groups may appeal to you.
Identifying a category or industry group helps you identify specific employers within that group. In your objective, you narrow your focus and demonstrate interest in a specific setting without naming individual employers.
Examples:
“To work within the Cable T.V. Industry as a technical advisor.”
“To secure a position as an editor for a mid-size publishing firm.”
Functional Areas
Functional area refers to the structure of an organization. Most organizations are differentiated into various departments, each responsible for completion of specific tasks or functions. The larger the organization, the more differentiated it usually is, that is, the more specific the functions. Smaller organizations may have the same department handling several functions.
Identifying a functional area in a career objective specifies which part of the organization would be of interest to you without narrowing yourself to a specific industry group or organizational category.
Examples:
“To work in a government relations function within a Fortune 500 organization.”
“To obtain a management trainee position within the Quality Control Unit of a Production Department.”
Skills
Skills describe your ability to perform various functions or tasks. Skills identify actions you exhibit. Skills can be identified generally or specifically.
You have probably developed many skills through academic, work, and leisure experiences. Some of your skills may cover all three areas. The same skills might be used, or transferred, to several different occupations. They are usually referred to as transferable skills. Skills identify what you can do, what actions you can perform, without limiting you to a specific career field or organizational category. Most jobs require a combination of skills. Identifying your combination lets the employer know where you might fit into the organization.
General skills are broad areas which encompass related specific skills. Identifying general skills in an objective identifies which combination of skill areas you prefer to use in your work.
Examples:
“To use my scientific and human relations skills as a Nursing Supervisor.
“To work for a government agency using my management and communications skills.”
Possible skill areas that you may want to use in your work:
communications management mathematical
human relations administrative scientific
creative clerical technical
athletic mechanical artistic
Specific Skills are specific actions or behaviors used to perform tasks. Identifying specific skills in your career objective allows you to highlight your strengths or specializations within a general skill area.
Examples:
“To use my artistic skills especially doing layout, graphic design, and lettering for an advertising firm.”
“To work for a rehabilitation agency and use my group and individual counseling skills.”
The list below identifies some of the more common skills. You may have some very specific skills you want to focus on. Review the list to identify skills that you wish to use in your career objective.
account act administer
advertise advise analyze
appraise arrange assemble
assist audit budget
build calculate catalogue
chart clarify collect
communicate compete complete
compile compose conduct
control coordinate correct
counsel create dance
delegate demonstrate decide
design determine develop
diagnose direct document
draft draw edit
engineer entertain establish
evaluate exercise exhibit
experiment facilitate formulate
furnish guide hire
implement improve initiate
influence inspect install
instruct interpret interview
investigate judge landscape
lead make manage
market meet mobilize
model motivate negotiate
operate order organize
originate perform persuade
photograph plan play
predict prepare present
produce program promote
propose provide publish
purchase qualify raise
read recommend recruit
repair report research
schedule select sell
serve solve staff
start supervise synthesize
teach test train
translate travel tutor
type verify write
Other Factors
There are other factors which can also be included in your career objective. These would include any limits, conditions, or personal criteria which would affect your work situation and which you feel are important to identify.
By identifying other factors, you can further focus your goals and communicate them to potential employers.
Examples:
“To work outdoors in a supervisory capacity for the United States Forest Service.”
“To obtain a secondary teaching position in the southeast United States.”
“To work in law enforcement and pursue additional specialized training in forensics.”
Other factors regarding your own limits, conditions, or personal criteria for employment might include:
Geographical Area
Fringe Benefits
Training/Education
Working Conditions
Promotion/Advancement
Size of the Organization
Travel
Populations
Populations are the people with whom you work as you perform your work. The population can be defined as your peer group at work, i.e., your colleagues. However, in a career objective, population usually refers to the clients or customers of your services or products.
Examples:
“To work with elderly individuals in the field of recreational therapy.”
“To design programs and services for children with disabilities.”
Goals
Short-term goals are those goals you wish to achieve immediately.
Identifying short-term goals provides a focus of where to begin your professional career. Also, they will help you identify the next step of organizing your job campaign.
Examples:
“To obtain an entry level position of Weather Observer.”
“To begin employment in a variety of beverage management positions which provide opportunities for advancement to a top, policy-making position with a beverage organization.”
Long-term goals are those goals you wish to achieve in 5 to 10 years.
Having long-term goals can be beneficial to you in several ways:
(1) Many organizations have staffing plans or forecasts regarding where they want their employees to be in the organization in the future. By having your plan, you and the employer can evaluate if there is a good match, not only with respect to where you might start, but where you may advance and in what time period.
(2) Our society is constantly changing and likewise, careers change. No doubt, as you’re working, opportunities and problems will occur. Long-term goals give you a yardstick to evaluate the situation and make appropriate decisions.
Making A Choice
As you review the information included in the Career Objective Guide, think about which elements you wish to include in your own career objective. You may want to keep in mind those that may be useful for you in other job search activities such as the interview or in negotiating an offer.
For your written career objective, choose at least one element but no more than three or your objective may be too lengthy. You may wish to have different career objectives for different work situations or environments that you are considering.
How Good Is Your Career Objective?
To help evaluate your career objective check to see that it is:
Personal
A Commitment
Action-Oriented
Directional
Specific
You may want to use the Career Objective Guidesheet to identify potential elements to be used in your career objective.
Revised 4/02
This Publication Is Available In Alternative Format Upon Request