Make sure employers see you – increase your keywords

Dear Coach:


My friend just told me that a company’s software screens my resume before anyone even sees it. Great. How’s a computer going to appreciate the hours I spent putting myself in the best light?

Give Me a Break

Dear Give Me:

Sorry, but your friend is right.

Many of the resume books and articles I’ve read in the past few years agree that the majority of large companies use software to make the first cut on the resumes they receive. Why? Because anything HR people can do to reduce the time they spend looking at unqualified applicants’ resumes saves them money and aggravation. How can a software program make these all important determinations about who gets to be considered for an interview? There’s a one word answer: keywords.

Keywords are your industry’s buzzwords. They are the shorthand that lets the employers know you have the set of skills and talents they are looking for. The employer simply supplies the keywords that they want the software to screen for, and voila! The resumes are sorted by the number of keywords they find. Those with the fewest may never be seen by human eyes.

If you’re a computer programmer, for example, keywords might be the applications you know, the years of experience in project management, or your understanding of database architecture. If you’re a communicator, employers might want to see Power Point expertise, experience working with the media, publications in certain publications, or certification by a professional organization.

So how do you generate the keywords that will make your resume move to a human being’s desk instead of the “We regret to inform you . . .” pile? It’s fairly easy, really. Over the next week, look on line and in the newspaper for 10 jobs in the industry you want to work in after graduation. Then, take a paper and divide it in three columns:

Education Skills and experience Bonus points

Now take your job ads and highlight what education and training employers are asking for (level of education, certifications, licenses). Then, go through with another colored highlighter and note skills and experience they want in their hires (like computer programs, years of project management, mastery of specific equipment). Finally in another color, highlight all the requirements that say: “Preferred candidate will …” (speak Mandarin, work in a MAC environment).

As you place what you find into the columns on your paper, look for repeats and patterns. In the bonus point column you might see items that are specific to one firm. But if you see a pattern in this column, it may give you an idea on the expectations of your industry in the future.

You have your basic list of keywords – an indication of what employers want to see on resumes from people who work in their industries. Your job now is to work as many of those keywords as you can into your resume. Here are some guidelines to help:

* Be specific. List the actual programs you know how to use, not just “many applications.”
* No need to repeat. The software doesn’t give you any more points.
* Keep refining your keyword list every few months. Industry requirements change.

Finally, be sure to customize your resume to include the exact keywords that appear in an ad for a job you want. It only takes a minute to add in the phrases that an employer is looking for.