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Is there any difference between "Aim" and "Goal"?
I often seen while filling the Resume or Bio-data, there were two fields as:

Aim:
Goals:

apaderno
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Prasad Jadhav
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3 Answers3

9

In general, aim, goal, objective can be considered synonyms, but consider these Google Books results:

long-term aim 197,000; short-term aim 32,500
long-term goal 255,000; short-term goal 471,000
long-term objective 115,000; short-term objective 161,000

I think what that tells us is that aims tend to be more general, vague, non-specific, long-term, compared to goals, which are more likely to be specific, short-term targets (objectives are somewhere in between, or more accurately, they simply have no relationship with this distinction).

Thus, you're more likely to have a long-term strategic aim/objective which is broken down into component goals in pursuit of that aim, rather than a goal which is achieved by meeting several subsidiary aims. But this distinction is nowhere near a "rule", and few would see anything odd in reversing the usages.

In the context of a resume or curriculum vitae, I'd probably use objective, if for no other reason than it sounds a bit more formal/professional.

EDIT: Regarding the point about goals being more associated with short-term aims, I think it's worth pointing out that a goal in ball/puck game contexts (soccer, say) is just one step towards the aim / objective (to win the game). A bit like Winning the battle not the war.

FumbleFingers
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    `I'd probably use objective` But that has a different meaning. Objectives are **concrete** goals/aims, whereas goals and aims can less specific. Always be careful using 'fancy' English, because words often have a slightly different connotation. – Sanchises Oct 27 '14 at 12:18
  • @sanchises: I'm not aware of that distinction. If there were any truth to the idea that *objectives* are more (or indeed, *less*) "concrete" than *aims* or *goals* I'd expect that to be reflected in Google Ngrams for either **our [overall | specific] [aim | goal | objective]**. But in fact, *objective* sits right between *aim* and *goal*, regardless of whether it's *specific* or *overall*. None of these terms are "fancy" though - it's just that *goal* is a bit more informal, and *objective* is a bit more military/corporate. – FumbleFingers Oct 27 '14 at 12:56
  • [Here's the chart if you're interested](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=our+overall+objective%2Cour+overall+goal%2Cour+overall+aim%2Cour+specific+objective%2Cour+specific+goal%2Cour+specific+aim&year_start=1950&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cour%20overall%20objective%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cour%20overall%20goal%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cour%20overall%20aim%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cour%20specific%20objective%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cour%20specific%20goal%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cour%20specific%20aim%3B%2Cc0) – FumbleFingers Oct 27 '14 at 12:56
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From my computer dictionary(WordWeb):

Goal

  1. The state of affairs that a plan is intended to achieve and that (when achieved) terminates behaviour intended to achieve it
  2. The place designated as the end

Aim

  1. Move into a desired direction of discourse
  2. Intend (something) to move towards a certain goal
  3. The action of directing something at an object
hjpotter92
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0

Goal is the target that I want to achieve

Example: I wish to become an engineer.

Aim is determined course I set to achieve my target

Example: I plan to get B.E. degree to become an engineer.

ColleenV
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zoom8amit
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