Omit an "Objective"

I have been a contractor and a full-time employee for 25 years. I have a total of 16 entries in my experience section. Today a recruiter told me that “I have to pick a side” and that I have to provide an active summary of my experience. I decided to go with:

I am a 25 year veteran programmer and system architect with progressive collaborative, development and leadership skills focused on, but not limited, to Java, SQL, Erlang, perl, python, Ruby on the Unix and Microsoft platforms. Two projects were acknowledged by SleepyCat and I have been recognized by my superiors for my skills, dedication and vision. While I have experience as an independent contractor at present I am looking for challenging full-time opportunity.

MEH! I just read the suggestion that a summary is good.

That’s a fine summary by me, if you bulletize it. Remember, it’s the first thing a hiring manager’s going to see, so you want it to be easily read by her. I might do it like so:

• 25 years of programming and system architect experience in team lead roles.
• Polyglot programmer with skills in Java, SQL, Erlang, Perl, Python and Ruby
• Recognized leader in the open source community
• Looking for full-time position after N years of independent contracting

Be sure to eliminate fluff words like “challenging.” Everyone wants challenging. Here’s some more about self-assessment vs. presenting evidence: http://theworkinggeek.com/2008/02/give-just-the… .

Good luck, and let us know how the job hunt goes!