Want to get your online resume noticed and have employers
picking up the phone and calling you?  Then forget how
pretty your resume is.  What really matters is how your
resume scores on a search.  Most resumes today go straight
to a computer tracking system that saves online resumes in
the company database allowing for later searches.  A
computer will “score” your resume by the number of keywords
or “buzzwords” that the employer will find most relevant to
their needs. If you don’t account for this, you’ll just sit
waiting by the phone for the call that never comes.

Keywords, Keywords, and More Keywords

The magic is in the keywords and how and where you can use
them.  Focus on the keywords most likely to be used by a
human resources person or recruiter doing the resume search
for a particular job requirement. The greater the number of
relevant keywords, the higher relevancy score your online
resume will receive.

Let’s look at the four major keyword areas you need to
account for in an online resume that will get an employer
to pick up the phone and call you:

1. “Keywords Competencies”:

A.) List this section at the beginning of your resume to
introduce your skill sets from an interviewing standpoint.

B.) Include no more than 75 keywords. List as many
relevant, searchable keywords that describe your potential
job title, technical skills, management or organizational
skills, relevant software and/or mechanical abilities and
expertise as you can. Include anything that might be
important to the particular job.

For example, if you were a Java Programmer, your Keyword
Competencies section might look like this:

“Java, Visual C++, perl, ticl, application development,
visual basic, Windows NT/XP, programming, GUI, html,
project management, layer 2, BSEE, etc”.

2. “Job Description” :  Include every title that may
pertain to your duties and function.  For example, if your
official title is “Member of Technical Staff”, other
companies may call that a Software Engineer, Software
Developer, or even a Programmer.  Take this into account
when you write your resume for online use.  The computer
doesn’t care as long as you have all your bases covered for
whatever human-based search may arise.

3. “Objective” : Once again, keep it limited to specific
keywords when you identify your present and/or aspiring job
title with an added major skill or function (such as
project management, mergers and acquisitions, electronic
design, product verification, quality control, etc).

4. “Past Experience” : Many searches are performed in the
interest of finding people who have worked for or with
certain companies.  This can mean not only working as an
employee, but also having worked with their products or
with them as a client or vendor.  Be sure to list all the
major companies with whom you have had connection.  This
includes experience with their tools or products or your
roles as either a vendor or a customer.

Summary

The bottom line is not how pretty your resume looks.  The
most important element is to cover all the possible
keywords that an employer will be searching for.  There’s
potential gold in your background and you want to make
certain that it is brought to the surface.  Keywords are
truly powerful for this.

—————————————————-
As a recruiter, Joe Turner has spent the past 15 years
finding and placing top candidates in some of the best jobs
of their career.  He makes it easy for anyone to find and
land the job they really want all on their own in the
shortest time possible. Discover more insider job search
secrets by visiting http://www.jobchangesecrets.com

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 15th, 2006 at 12:03 pm and is filed under Business, Career Ladder, Job Interviewing, Resume. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.