Why Resume Headlines Are Better Than Objectives

"What have you done for me lately?" asked Janet Jackson on her 1986 hit song of the same name. This is exactly the kind of question employers are asking job seekers. It's not just about what you want from a job, a company or a career. It's about what you have to offer. And that's why topping your resume with a headline instead of an objective is a better way of selling yourself to potential employers.

Why Objectives Don't Work

Here's the thing about objectives, if you try and make them generic - "seeking a growth opportunity in a supportive environment where I can utilize my background and experience to its fullest" - in order to make them fit with every job you apply for, you risk making them so general and empty that you render them useless.

On the other hand, if you attempt to make them more substantial - "seeking an entry-level general accountant position in a non-profit environment" - you limit where you can send your resume, so you wind up needing different objectives for different jobs, which is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, many resume specialists subscribe to the idea that your resume should be adjusted according to the job posting.

However, very often job seekers will write one resume with one objective that is too specific and send it out to jobs that don't even fit the objective. And while objectives rarely cause a person to lose out on an opportunity, it will probably cause the recruiter to scratch his head and wonder if you are lazy or not smart enough to know better.

Instead of filling your objective up with "Twinkie" words (see Don't Use "Twinkie" Words in Your Resume) that really lack substance, write a headline that characterizes your best qualities and helps the employer see what you have to offer them in the way of skills, abilities and knowledge.

Headlines Sell Newspapers and Resumes

If you've ever picked up a newspaper and seen a bold headline splashed across the front, you know the impact that those words can have on people. The same is true for a resume headline. Not with quite the same ferocity, mind you, but with a similar amount of interest.

Just like with newspaper headlines, resume headlines are designed to capture in one sentence the most important aspects of what you're about. This includes information on things such as business or industry, field of interest, job title, skill sets, education, and areas of knowledge.

You can start by narrowing down exactly what you want to say in your headline by creating a list of those things most important to your career and job search AND that help you to stand out from the crowd. You're a CPA and MBA? That should be on your list. You have over ten years of accounting experience in the entertainment industry? Yes, that helps. You're a Sarbanes-Oxley expert? Now you're cooking with nitro.

From these bits of information you can grab the attention of potential employers while still communicating what you want; unless, of course, you are looking to move out of the accounting field to take up a new trade. But if you're not, then your headline might look something like:

"Sarbanes-Oxley expert with a Harvard MBA, Big Six CPA background and over ten years specialized accounting experience in the entertainment field"

Objectives vs. Headlines in a Nutshell

The whole idea behind submitting your resume for an employment opportunity is to grab the employer's attention and sell them on the idea that you have what they need to run their business. If you're still using an objective, you're still asking them to meet your career needs.

By switching to a headline, you assert yourself as someone special. You communicate confidence in what you have to offer and help the employer see you as the person they want to hire. Placed at the top of your resume (where the objective used to go), centered - bold and italicized, if you want to add a bit of drama - a headline will help you stand out from your competitors.