The Key to Keywords in Your Resume

A resume that only provides a summary of your career history and is not strategically developed to capture attention and highlight your value, will never get a second glance in today’s highly competitive job market. Effective resumes should read like a marketing document with the words jumping off the page.

Keywords are attention grabbers, easy to locate and read, and help to provide information on the skills, experience and value you offer. Whether in a column, table, separated with commas or sprinkled throughout the resume, keywords are most effective when they are specific to a position, field and industry.

If you are unsure of what words best fit the position you are seeking, look through several job descriptions that fit your targeted position to see which keywords are used most often and which skills and requirements are being asked for. Identify these keywords and incorporate them into your resume.

The use of keywords in your resume and other marketing tools is important because they help the resume fit accurately into a particular job, industry or company. Keywords are also vital when applying for a position online. If you have ever used your resume to apply to an online application form, it was most likely scanned and placed in a database by the company or recruiting firm. Tracking system software varies but in many systems data is collected and used to weed-out ill fitting applicants. The closer your resume matches the keywords, phrases and need of the position, the more likely your application will get noticed.

The key to using keywords correctly is to embed them throughout the resume so that they are picked up by tracking systems but also make you very appealing to hiring manager, recruiters and the decision makers that will also read your resume at some point during your interaction with a potential employer. Used correctly keywords will be key to bringing you attention and interview offers.

Shine on Job Seekers!