Monday, February 9, 2009

Key Words and Their Importance in Your Search


KEY WORDS
By Dianne Grubin

A vice president at a major bank (not affected by the mortgage market) said that the bank is receiving over 2000 résumés for every open position.

If you’re actively looking for a job, then you know that it takes over an hour to drill through the job boards and set up an online account. Only then can you submit your cover letter and résumé.

How can you get noticed when submitting your résumé on-line?

Key words are the answer.

Formula for On-Line Submission Success
Find the job to which you’d like to apply.
Paste the job write-up directly onto your résumé between your summary and your first position description.
Look at the description; then add to the summary, when appropriate, skills you have that directly apply to the job.
Tailor your résumé to match the key qualifications of the position.
Check to make sure your technical skills and education are up-to-date.
Use “power verbs” such as “responsible for,” instituted, integrated, validated, etc.
Be sure to delete the job description you pasted into the text.
Save your résumé with your name so the reader sees your name in the attachment. For example: John Doe Résumé.doc
Consider how an internal recruiter or hiring manager searches for your résumé in a database. What key words do you need to stand out? The closer your résumé seems to the job, the more likely you are to gain an interview.

You may consider adding a section called "Key Words" to the bottom of your résumé so that you are more likely to appear at the top of the skill set search.
A tailored résumé will get you called in for the interview.


As president of Tech Exec Partners, a national staffing agency, Gubin is a recognized leader in providing contract and direct-hire search services. Gubin has accelerated thousands of career successes by opening doorways to life changing opportunities within Fortune 500 corporations, government, and fast-growth companies.

Gubin’s board and business related volunteer activities include founding director of the Los Angeles chapter of Women in Technology International. Gubin led the most successful chapter in the WITI professional association, with quarterly meetings routinely attracting 250 or more attendees. For WITI, she started committees for education, mentoring, and entrepreneurs. Gubin chaired the Digital Coast Roundtable, Industry Relations Committee. Currently she is active in the National Speakers Association and Valley Industry Commerce Association (VICA).

Dianne Gubin Talks Business, an Internet radio show, engages industry leaders on hot-button business issues and offers expert insight into what matters most in careers and professional development. She also hosts a series of video blogs discussing hiring and the job hunting process. http://www.diannegubin.com/

She is the co-author of PowerLadder, a book on networking and professional development.

1 comment:

Steven D. Davies said...

Great reminder about the importance of keywords! Thank you.

Indeed.com (a job board aggregator) also has a "keyword trend" tool that can help us figure out which keywords to use.

If I can I'd also like to suggest our tool, PerfectJob, which helps everyone organize their search. Try it for free at http://www.PerfectJobSoftware.com

Steve Davies (President PerfectJob Software)