Retail management is a competitive field, with multiple qualified individuals often vying for the same opportunities. Resumes and stated career objectives discuss previous successes and compatibility with the organization you're applying to. When you supply your materials to a prospective employer, it's important to spell out your career objectives. This concise sentence is located at the top of your resume, giving the organization an idea of your intended career trajectory -- while letting them know if that arc might help them in their goals.

Improving Personnel Performance

Your goals in retail management are to lead personnel to increase revenue and move more product while improving the customer experience. This can't happen without a motivated, well-trained staff. As such, a stated objective such as "I wish to grow my skills as a leader in order to improve sales staff performance" indicates you're wanting to lead others and improve their individual careers -- and are willing to learn.

Facing What's Ahead

Retail management is filled with long hours selling, training, doing paperwork and fielding customer complaints. Sometimes shifts known as "bells" -- working from open to close -- are on the agenda. Not everyone is cut out for this, nor do they necessarily expect it. Your career objective statement lets you show you not only understand but embrace this challenge. A phrase such as "I seek an opportunity in a fast paced, client-facing environment leading and improving teams" is a good way to express your understanding of the environment you're potentially heading into.

Showing Experience

Like other industries, retail likes to hire managers from other related, relevant environments. There's no real way to replace years of experience that encompass those things only encountered in the retail world. Showing this know-how might place your resume ahead of the pack. A sentence like "I seek to grow in a management capacity, leveraging my 12-plus years in the specialty retail sector" shows you have the longevity and experience required to succeed in your sought-after position.

Respecting the Company's Objectives

The organization you're applying to needs to know you're not just using them as a career stepping stone -- even if that is the case. Every retail organization has goals of improving over last year's sales performance. You can express this understanding though a career objective like "I desire a leadership role to improve the company's sales performance while increasing revenue." Retail organizations are there to build client relationships, with the goal of selling profitable products repeatedly over time. This statement shows you understand this and aim to keep revenues flowing steadily and reliably through your own sales and leadership talents.