Your resume or CV will be at the height of its effectiveness when packed with keywords. Why? Over 90% resumes will be skim read. The detail of your resume will only be read once it has been established that you are amongst the strongest applicants. This may be at a later stage in the process and perhaps even by a different reader!

Why?

Prior to actually reading your resume, the employer or HR manager has identified the key skills they want, these will be both hard and soft skills. Then keywords associated to these hard and soft skills will be identified. Having these on your resume, will assure the reader you have the technical know- how to perform the job.

Many large business and recruitment companies have databases or systems which have automated a degree of the recruitment process. Employers are also increasingly searching resume job boards. Both methods rely on “keyword” searches.

Database searches also enable the searcher to narrow applicants by areas such as salary, post code or address and industry sector or phrases such as ‘ASX Listed’ or ‘Fortune 500′

When writing it is important to think about what and who you are applying to. What will they consider the most important skills and keywords?

What?

You should identify those most critical keywords for your application and include them as often as possible.

How to identify which keywords you should include?

Thinking through your audience and how they would refer to the most important skills is a good starting point. Think about writing your resume from their perspective. How would they see the opportunity and how would they communicate this?

Key words tend to be a noun related to both your hard or soft skills. Such nouns are attributed to your qualifications, job title, company, professional associations or software utilized.

There is also an importance on verbs or the “how” you completed a task. Such verbs also form the basis of keywords which are searched. For example: staff management, may be “autonomous management”. In a more competitive market, the “how” or the action you took to complete a task becomes more essential. This is why listing your achievements in the body of your document is important.

The more keywords you include, the more you will appear to be a good match. Generally, databases will fail to identify those who do not meet all the identified ‘keywords’ and those who incorporate most or all of the keywords will certainly appear the strongest applicant on paper and be the first to be called for interview. If you can, throughout a 3-5 page resume or CV try to have at least 20-25 keywords incorporated throughout.

The more specific a keyword is for a particular role or industry, the more credence it will carry. This is why it is important to include even the most basic of terms where they may be considered an essential skill. Do not try to “dress up” a skill for that reason. For example “recruitment” maybe a keyword I am looking for, although I could label this as “talent management” or “talent acquisition” if I use the later and these aren’t the keywords being searched I will potentially be missed in the selection process.

Another example of this: the key skill maybe “business development” if I don’t include this keyword but rather utilize the phase “cold calling” or another more casual term then my application maybe over sighted.

The message here: knowing and understanding who you are applying to will help. If I know I am applying to a recruitment consultant then “cold calling” maybe a keyword however if I am applying to an HR manager or sales manager potentially the term “business development” will be more appropriate.

Be aware that in the same way a phrase such as “team management” maybe a keyword an abbreviation may also be a keyword. Try to prevent making your resume too informal by using too many abbreviations. But, prevent being missed out by not including any particularly as they are commonplace for qualifications.

One method to prevent being over sighted is to state the full name and then the abbreviation in brackets. From then on when you repeat the use of this keyword you can use either. Example: Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) then continuously refer to as CIMA.

If you expect your reader to be a non technical person with little understanding of a qualification or abbreviation then be careful not to reduce your resume to a list of bullet pointed abbreviations.

How?

If the process is partially or fully automated or if the person involved in the recruitment process is scanning for keywords, then how can I identify which keywords will be searched?
You can gain an idea through the advertisement or the job specification. The recruiter or hiring manager is summarizing the role through a job description or advert. So whatever has been summarized is considered essential. Be sure to address such areas and any words which are repeated, are likely to be considered key words.

Looking through other advertisements for related positions can provide an insight to the soft and hard skills in demand, these will have keywords associated which are probably industry specific, include them wherever possible.

Note to self, any skills you have you but which you are not looking to develop further try not to emphasize and avoid using as keywords. Otherwise you will find yourself constantly approached for roles which you are not interested in. The more advertisements you read and agents you speak with the more information you can gather about what’s in demand. Create a list for yourself so you can be sure to cover these off in your application and again in interview.

If possible, it is also beneficial to speak with the person recruiting the role; they will hopefully be able to highlight the most essential areas and may even utilize the keywords making your life very easy! Make sure you re iterate such areas and keywords.

Generally the best way to highlight keywords in your resume will be by using ‘bullet points” remembering that in most first instances, your resume will be skim read. Repeating such keywords will then further emphasize the skill and even better, provide an examples of achievement you have had which addresses the “how” you utilized such a skill.

You should compile a covering letter/email or career summary which is best included at the top of your resume is another great place to include as many keywords as possible. Most commonly the reader will form an impression of your resume and whether you are suitable for the job based on your front page or within the first 10 seconds!

In extremely systematized database searches potentially only the first 150 words maybe scanned depending on the size of the search. The assumption is that the most relevant content will be at the top of your document. Once you are satisfied that you have included keywords in your cover letter/email or career summary you should continue to utilize these throughout the body of your resume/CV.

You will find various online tools which will help you trial the effectiveness of your resume and the keywords in it. Ask for feedback on your resume, work out which words have been successful in application and be sure to change those which aren’t effective. Online tools such as linked in and online web marketing material can help. Online candidate websites enable you to post and have your document ’searched’; this is a means for knowing how effective your resume is. If you are not gaining any interaction or being approached via such sites then chances are the keywords you have used are not effective.