Most searches rely on two things: a search engine and keywords for the engine to search for. The search engine is built into the system (and works similarly to the engine you use when you search the Internet for a topic). The keywords are usually subjective, because they’re created by the person who is operating the search engine. For that reason, there may be no set list of keywords for your profession because it depends entirely on who is generating the list on the hiring side. A keyword search might examine each resume for up to 60 keywords. Keywords could indicate the following information:
- Technical expertise
- Management skills
- Industry knowledge
- Education
- Geographic location
- Employment history
After the keywords are entered into the search engine, the engine goes through its database, matches resumes with the designated keywords, and even ranks the selected candidates against each other according to how many keywords appear in each resume. The most sophisticated systems have synonym-search capabilities that find not only the exact word listed for the search (such as management), but also related words (such as supervision, administration, and leadership).
Bonus Check
Despite all your research, you probably won’t be able to find out exactly what keywords are being programmed into the computer by the hiring manager in his search for the perfect job candidate. To come up with a sure-fire list, put yourself in the hiring manager’s shoes and write down 20 to 60 keywords you would use to define the ideal job applicant.
The E-Creation
An e-resume isn’t all that different from your hard-copy resume. With just a few alterations to that hard-copy version, your resume will sail through scanners, e-mail systems, online resume banks, and the World Wide Web.
Here are some guidelines:
- Use formatting that’s acceptable for the type of e-resume you’re creating. In addition to the general principles for eresumes in this section.
- Include keywords in your resume that an employer would use to search for a top candidate in your field.
- When listing dates for your college degree, put only the year you completed each of your degrees. Let’s go over some tips for good e-resume construction.
Terms of Employment
Keywords are the terms an employer enters into the database search engine to scour the database for the ideal job candidate.
Electronic Headings
Your name should be the only thing that appears on the first line at the top of your resume. Here’s why: The search engine interprets the first line (no matter what is written on the first line) as your name and will input it into the resume database as such. By the way, every-thing in the first line is interpreted as your name, so be sure you put your professional title (if you include it in your heading) on the second line.
Also, place each piece of your contact information on a separate line, as in this example:
Kerrie Oslow
Medical Technologist
123 Perkins Cove Lane
Brentwood, CA 12345
123-123-1234
OslowK@thenet.net
For your e-mailable resume it makes sense to include your e-mail address in your heading because it’s a tool the employer is likely to use to contact you.
Bonus Check
Consider signing up with Hotmail TM (http://www.hotmail.com), an e-mail service provided by Microsoft. Your personal Hotmail TM account can be accessed from anywhere in the world as long as you are at a computer that’s hooked up to the Internet. This type of e-mail service is ideal if you travel a lot or if your access to the Internet doesn’t offer you a personal e-mail account (for instance, if you use your company’s ISP account, it would be inappropriate for you to use it to send and receive personal e-mail). And to top it off, Hotmail TM is free!
Job-Hunt Hint
Most managers look for nouns, so list nouns in your Keyword section. In other words, list Management, not Manage. Adjectives may accompany those nouns, for instance, Personnel management.
Key Placement
There are two ways to get keywords into your resume so that they’ll get spotted whether your document is read by a human being or searched while in a computer database. You can do one of two things:
- Place a Keyword section near the beginning of your e-resume.
- Sprinkle keywords throughout your document.
A Keyword section makes sense in any e-resume because the e-resume may be subjected to a resume database search. If, however, you don’t want to have a Keyword section, it’s acceptable to submit a resume without one. In that case, be sure to include the essential keywords in the content of your resume.
Create a Keyword section near the top of page one (right above your Summary of Qualifications section) by following these steps:
- Make a list of 20 to 60 keywords you think the hiring manager will use to search for the position mentioned in your Job Objective. Keywords can be technical, such as MIS analysis, or nontechnical, such as Conflict resolution.
- Compile your keywords in paragraph format, starting each term with a capital letter and placing a period at the end of each term.
- Title the section “Keywords.”
For example, a resume for an accountant might have a Keyword section that looks like the following:
Keywords
C.P.A. CPA Certified Public Accountant. Accounting. Controller. Great Plains. MAS 90. Peachtree. QuickBooks. Excel. Lotus. Quattro pro. Microsoft Word. MS Word. Conversion. Internal accounting system. Job costing. Strategic planning. Supervision. Management. Cost control. Audit. Compliance. Policies. Procedures. Administration. Communication. Team relations
Career Casualty
Don’t be misled by the resume section heading Keywords–not all of your entries have to be one word each. In addition to listing individual words that an employer might key into a search engine, include terms made up of two or more words (such as Marketing Communications) and acronyms (such as DSL).
Years of Completion
Resume search engines have a tendency to interpret dates in the Education section in a rather peculiar way: If there are two dates given for a degree (for example: B.A., 19941998), the computer will assume that you did not receive your degree. To make sure you get credit for your degree accomplishment, put only the year of completion (for example: B.A., 1998), and the computer will recognize that you have your degree.
