The Resume and Curriculum Vitae have not seen much innovation since the initial idea of boiling one’s self down to a single-sided piece of paper as a way to help you get a job by providing a quick summary (resume literally means ‘summary’) became the normal mode. The most innovative of resumes, the Targeted Resume, still convey the same stale content, just reorganized around desirable skills and related experience instead of around discrete positions. With either format, one thing is clear to me. Resumes and CVs without some list of goals do a disservice to both the employer and job seeker.

The idea behind an Ambition Vitae is that, while previous experience is a good indicator of suitability for a position, it tells only half of the story. Traditional resumes only tell what you’ve done, not what you want to do and learn going forward. Your goals should be very important to an employer, because those are what you will be trying to accomplish during and, to face facts, after holding the position. If an employer, and the job seeker, want to really know that they are a good fit for each other, listing goals on a resume is a must.

An Ambition Vitae doesn’t need to be complicated or overly thorough. A short list of goals directly on the resume, including things to learn or do, will suffice. You can even simply list the URL to your 43 Things profile and allow it to serve as your living Ambition Vitae.