Keyword on the street is …

Human eyeballs rarely see resumes at the first pass anymore. Instead, the documents circulate in cyberspace, courtesy of online job boards and networking sites, until a search engine plucks them from relative obscurity for an actual person to review.

But who wants to wait that long? How can you rein in your resume, target its reach and speed its results when technology is the first to find you? In a word, keywords.

Optimizing your resume with keywords means making it more searchable. The process correlates the document to the most likely search terms, which in turn increases hits in a list of results.

If you are fairly certain your resume wouldn’t rise to the top of a bucket, much less an online search, it’s time for a redo. First, figure out the keywords (or buzzwords) for your field. It also helps to take keyword clues from job descriptions, and work them into the document.

Another tip is to use specific job titles (software engineer), industry acronyms and terminology (C++, RAD), and certification names (MCITP). In addition, include multiple keyword iterations and synonyms throughout the document to account for search terms’ variability.

Plus, action verbs helps electronic scanners pick up your resume, while also giving it punch when the HR person gets a hold of it. And definitely avoid keywords for jobs you would never take in a million years.

While this approach is not a silver bullet against faceless online recruiting, it certainly helps you play the game according to modern technology’s rules. At the very least, you’ll sharpen your competitive edge in an expanding marketplace, and stand out better in the cyber-crowd.

Posted by Roseanne D.