CV Objective Examples & How to Write One

You see that most of the CV online have these impressive personal statements that really do make the candidate look confident and in control of their career. But you, for one reason or another, just don’t have the experience you’d need to write an introduction like that, no matter how hard you tried. All is far from lost, though.

This article will show you how you can write a CV objective that focuses on your strengths without dwelling on your lack of experience.

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Writing a CV from scratch? Check these useful guides:

• Achievements for a CV & How to Emphasize Them
• CV Personal Statement & Key Examples
• Expert Tips to Create an Effective CV
• Hobbies & Interests to Include in a CV
• How to Make a CV With No Experience?
• How to Use ChatGPT to Write a CV
• How to Write a CV for Any Job in the UK
• Speculative CV: Definition & Detailed Guidelines
• The Best CV Length in 2024: 1 or 2 Pages?
• Visual CV: Definition & Recommendations

CV sample with a CV objective

Now that’s a perfect CV example for entry-level jobs. Let’s check how to write a CV objective that will enrich your CV.

What is a CV objective?

A CV objective, also called a career objective, is a short paragraph at the top of a CV that describes your professional achievements, career goals and reasons for seeking a career at the specific company. It often contains 2 to 3 sentences at maximum that recruiters are likely to read first when picking up your CV.

Done right, your CV objective will start making your case while grabbing recruiters’ attention. If you don’t have much experience that’s relevant to the job you’re applying to, use a CV objective to start your CV. Whether that’s because you’re just entering the workforce or changing careers, a CV objective will put the focus on your strengths—your qualities and your skills—and bring your potential to the fore.

CV objective examples

The process of writing a CV objective for a student CV is exactly the same. Your occupation is ‘student’ and you should specify whether you’re a high school or university student as well as giving your year. When writing your first CV as a student, your actual objective may be a little more focused on you than the company at this level.

Student CV objective sample

As a graduate, you have a larger and more specific—if not more relevant—pool of skills from which to choose. You also have more life, and possibly work, experience under your belt. All this adds up to a CV introduction that’s more focused on what you can realistically do for your potential new employer.

Graduate CV objective sample

Changing careers means that you don’t have any direct experience in your new field, but you may well have some impressive transferable skills from your old one. Introduce yourself using your old job title and mention how many years’ experience you have. Focus in on what you bring to the table.

Career change CV objective sample

A strong CV summary will convince the recruiter you’re the perfect candidate. Save time and choose a ready-made personal statement written by career experts and adjust it to your needs in the LiveCareer CV builder.

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How to write an objective on a CV

Writing an objective for your CV is fairly straightforward:

1. First, write a sentence to introduce yourself. Use one or two appropriate adjectives to describe yourself, state your occupation (‘student’, ‘graduate’, etc. work well here—it need not be a job title) and include 2–3 relevant skills.
2. Next comes the ‘objective’ part of writing a CV objective statement. Your objectives should be based around what you want to achieve for your new employer rather than for yourself. Do some background research to figure out what the employer might like to hear and make that your career objective.
3. If this is going to be your first job, then it’s fine to focus on your actual career objectives. In that case, emphasise the development of those skills that are directly useful to the employer. There’s no point in telling them what they can do for you, they have no reason to care. Instead, focus on what you can do for them.
4. A good objective for a CV will be 2–3 sentences and about 30–50 words long. Be sure to mention the name of the company to which you’re applying and the job title. Don’t use any personal pronouns at all and don’t write about yourself in the third person. 

If you’re working on writing an objective for your CV rather than a standard personal statement, summary of qualifications or CV summary, then you’re unlikely to be writing a regular, chronological CV. This is the most common and generally preferred CV format, but something else might be more suitable in your case.

A student CV or graduate CV will be a more appropriate choice for you if you’re still studying or just finished your studies. These CVs will make use of a skills-based (or functional) CV format to take the focus off of your (lack of) work history and onto your skills and education. You can switch to a chronological CV later.

A career change CV, on the other hand, is best written using a hybrid (or combination) CV format. This format still swings the focus away from your work history and towards your skills, but it represents a less drastic departure from the common chronological CV format. Use it as you transition between career paths.

Keep these tips in mind when working on CV objectives

The reason it’s recommended that you always mention the employer’s name in full, as well as the job title for which you’re applying, is that your application is likely to be passed through an ATS (Applicant Tracking System) before anyone even sees it. ATSs run on algorithms and adding these details can help.

Something else that will help your application dodge ATS filters and algorithms is echoing keywords from job advert. You can do this in two ways: by making sure you mention at least two of the key skills listed in the advert and by using similar wording to describe them. So don’t use ‘team player’ in your CV introduction if they’ve used ‘teamwork’.

One more important piece of advice for how to write an objective on a CV is to write it last. A CV objective is to some extent a summary of your CV. It’ll be much easier to write once you yourself have more of a big-picture view of your CV. At the very least, wait until after you’ve done your work history and skills sections. Learn more about what should a successful CV look like.

Finally, take care of the overall impression your CV makes (with special attention to your CV layout). Proofread the whole thing at least twice, using technological aids to catch spelling and grammar mistakes. Go with an appropriate CV font like Garamond, Noto, Liberation, Arial or even Calibri. Leave font size and margins at the default 11–12 points and 2.5 cm. 

You don’t have to be a CV writing expert. In the LiveCareer CV builder you’ll find ready-made content for every industry and position, which you can then add with a single click.

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As you can see, writing a career objective for your CV is pretty simple once you know how. Do you have any questions, comments or feedback you’d like to share? Drop us a line in the comments section below, we’d love to hear from you and will be sure to get back to you.

How we review the content at LiveCareer

Our editorial team has reviewed this article for compliance with Livecareer’s editorial guidelines. It’s to ensure that our expert advice and recommendations are consistent across all our career guides and align with current CV and cover letter writing standards and trends. We’re trusted by over 10 million job seekers, supporting them on their way to finding their dream job. Each article is preceded by research and scrutiny to ensure our content responds to current market trends and demand.