A couple years ago, I wrote about signing the Agile Manifesto and the Manifesto for Software Craftsmanship.

Today I want to write about something a lot more important.

Let me use résumés to provide some context.

I used to think that the “Objective” section of a résumé was fluff–a place to dump vague platitudes, maybe. You know the stuff I’m talking about:

Objective: Craft high-quality, enterprise software in an environment where I can make significant contributions to the bottom line of a growing company.

Blah, blah, blah.

Theoretically, this stuff helps you get jobs, but as someone who writes a lot, my drivel-o-meter pegs at such verbiage. Usually, it means about as much as the Business Buzzwords Generator recently posted by the Wall Street Journal.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Your objectives ought to matter.

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