The One Thing That Will Improve Your Résumé

2012-2-27
Source From: MSN Careers

Too many books on reacutesumeacute writing are out-of-date. Although well-intentioned and filled with other good information, most have not been updated for the modern job search.

Your reacutesumeacute will be seen by many eyes, including electronic. Computers quotscorequot reacutesumeacutes by the number of keywords (also known as quotbuzzwordsquot) the employer will find most relevant. If you dont account for this, your reacutesumeacute could stay locked in some database, never to be even seen by anyone while you wait for a call that never comes.

Write a quotKeyword Competenciesquot section.

One solution for the electronic gatekeeper (or applicant tracking system) is to include a special section called a quotKeyword Competenciesquot section. You want to focus on the words most likely to be used by either a HR administrator, hiring manager or recruiter. They search reacutesumeacutes by keywords. The greater number of relevant keywords you can include, the higher relevancy score your reacutesumeacute will be given.

This section should list all the relevant keywords pertaining to your career and skills. This section is best listed at the beginning of your reacutesumeacute to introduce the skill sets you possess early on from an interviewing standpoint. Include no more than 75 keywords.

For example, if you were a Java Programmer, your quotKeyword Competenciesquot section might look something like this:

quotJava, Visual C++, perl, ticl, application development, visual basic, Windows NT/XP, programming, GUI, html, project management, layer 2, BSEE.quot

The idea here is to put in 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. Include anything that might be important to the particular job.

In addition, if you can locate a description of an actual job or one similar to the actual job for which you are applying, copy in all the applicable buzzwords listed under required and desired skills. This includes education levels (if they require a BS in Electrical Engineering, then include quotBSEEquot as well).

If you spend some time on this, you should easily come up with a list of from 40 to 80 relevant searchable keywords to include here.

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