Career coaching clients ask us all the time about the software companies use to filter through resumes online and how to get past it to get the interview in their job search. They don’t want to get booted out of the process in this first stage if they feel qualified for the job just because they may not know the keywords the company will use to filter. It’s an understandable concern and something critical to consider, not just on your resume, but on your cover letter and your LinkedIn profile as well.
You can use keywords:
- In your summary.
- In your expertise and experience section.
- In your header.
Be careful though, don’t clump them all together. It will appear too obvious and won’t read well. Employers and headhunters will search for people with your brand of talent using specific keywords so it’s critical to consider using keywords that will appeal to both groups.
Take a look at this straightforward resume article for more information, especially the “How Do I Find the Right Keywords?” section. Then, add the following ways to find keywords to your list:
1) Job boards like Indeed.com and also industry-specific job boards. The latter can really give you specific ideas about keywords to use in your search for your dream job because you’ll only see job openings specific to the industry you are interested in.
2) Websites like Glassdoor.com where you can search for specific job titles and also salary. This will help you to know what to use in your job descriptions on your resume since job titles can vary across companies.
Read the article here: http://www.iseek.org/jobs/resume-keywords.html
Thank you to Jasmine Marchong, one of our resume writers, for her help with this article. We hope this is helpful to you! The career coaches at HallieCrawford.com.
