The best career objectives are tailored to your personal goals. Start by developing a clear idea of what you want to achieve, and be specific when writing your goals. Avoid cliched and filler information, but be sure to outline the skills that demonstrate your ability to succeed. Be aware that career objectives are not one size fits all, so you will need to rework them to suit different positions.
To choose the best career objectives, you should first understand their purpose. Career objectives should not be something that you attempt to thoughtlessly copy or select based on popularity. The objectives that you choose should be reflective of your personal goals. Think of them as guideposts that will help you to develop a path to success.
This means that you need to first have a clear idea of what it is that you would like to achieve or an exact position that you would like obtain. As you are outlining your goals, make sure that they are specific. You can test how specific your goals are by writing them down and having someone else review them. If that individual can identify what you plan to accomplish, then you are likely on the right track. Otherwise, you need to work harder on clarity.
You will also be more likely to choose the best career objectives if you avoid examples that use cliched or empty phrases. The words you use to describe what you are looking for and looking to do should have meaning. Saying, for example, that you are looking for a “challenging position” can easily appear to be a filler statement because it does not precisely communicate what you want from a job. In this case, describe what you identify as a challenge.
Realize that the best career objectives specify the skills that make it possible to achieve them. In addition to outlining what you want to do, you need to show confidence that you have what it takes to get the job done. Make sure that the qualifications that you outline are relevant to the tasks that you will manage. For example, stating strong organizational skills is more relevant to a filing clerk position than strong customer service skills.
If you are just beginning your career, it is important to understand that the best career objectives generally need to be tailored to the positions that you are applying for. Your objectives should read differently when applying for a receptionist position than if you are applying for an administrative assistant position. This is true even if your strategy is to accept an entry-level gateway to ascend to a higher-level post.