Optimizing keywords in your resume is a growing trend. It’s your only way to connect with the recruiter who is scouring social media and ATS systems to find someone with your exact credentials. It’s like a really solid independent movie. You know if you watched it, you’d fall in love with it! Heck, you’d say it was better than the Martian (sorry Matt Damon), but you know what the problem is? You won’t be able to see this fantastic low budget drama because you don’t know about it, nor do you find it when searching Google for “good independent films on Netflix.” It’s a shame, but marketing is how you’d find out about this movie. Well the same thing goes with resume searches.
When recruiters try to find you, ala the really good independent film, they have to use “key word searches” of “buzzwords” on your resume when looking through the ATS. Now what’s the ATS? It’s the applicant tracking system. It’s the recruiter’s database of candidates. It’s the funnel you go sliding down when you click “submit resume.”
So to ensure you’re found in these searches and actually considered for candidacy, you need to optimize the keywords in your resume. To do this, a few things need to be done:
1. mention words only your “job types” or “industry types” use. This means any software, equipment, processes, acronyms, etc. Think about those funky slang words thrown around you all day. Get those into the resume.
2. monitor other job postings similar to your job and see what buzzwords other companies are throwing around. Make sure they’re relatable to what you do so you’re not lying on your resume either. Get those into the resume.
3. monitor industry trends to be on the lookout for new processes, equipment, software, acronyms, etc and see if any are also relatable and able to fit. Get those into the resume.
4. look into third party sites that offer assistance with buzzword creation/tracking, like these examples:
https://www.labor.ny.gov/agencyinfo/industrykeywords.shtm
http://jobera.com/resume-keywords/keywords-by-industry.html
http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/including-search-keywords-and-phrases-in-a-resume.html
All in all, this should be one of your #1 tasks in creating a solid resume. Remember, you’re a piece of work, an art, a product. You know you can handle the job, so make sure those making the decisions can find you. Because once they do, they’ll rate you a 10 on IMDB and more people might find out about you then for the next go around in your job search.
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