Resume Help

21st Century Resumes

Your traditional printed resume must be supplemented now with a 21st century version that is compatible with e-mail and with Internet and database search technologies.

• Changing the content of your resume - small but very important changes
  • Cyber-safe resume - protect your identity and your job.
  • Keywords in your resume - increase your resume's search ability in big-company applicant tracking systems and web job sites.

Think of keywords as the jargon or "buzzwords" used by insiders in a profession or industry. It's how insiders describe themselves and others in their profession. These are the terms they give to the people writing job descriptions as the job requirements.

Keywords are the nouns and noun phrases used by recruiters searching through applicant databases and Web job sites for resumes meeting the requirements on job descriptions. In case you've forgotten 8th grade English class, nouns are the words that represent a person, place, or thing. ["Assistant" and "manager" are nouns. "Administrative assistant" and "marketing manager" are noun phrases.]

Key words are a relatively new requirement. This requirement developed when employers and agencies began storing resumes in applicant databases. Then, Web job sites started appearing in 1994, and keywords became more important. In the past, we focused on "action verbs" in our resumes -- for example: "Managed a P&L..." or "Created and implemented a marketing campaign..." And, they are still very important because they explain what you did and are capable of doing for an employer.

However, now you need more than action verbs in cyberspace. You need the right words, or key words, used by someone searching a resume database for qualified applicants.

So, think of the education and experience you have had and the job you want, and brainstorm the nouns and noun phrases that would be used in the description of the requirements of that job, using the suggestions in the section below. Look through the job postings you find for the skills, experience, professional certifications or organizations, etc. that will tell you what keywords will be used. If you can, get a copy of the job description for the job you want, and pick out the noun and noun phrases used. As appropriate (you have the skills, education, etc.), add those words and phrases to your resume when you apply for that job.

Developing Your Keywords

When developing your list of job-related keywords, be creative, but not inaccurate. Make a list of the following (ask your friends, family, and co-workers for help):

• Standard job titles that are used for your current and previous jobs, particularly if current (or former) employer(s) used non-standard titles
• Names of job-specific, profession-specific, and industry-specific tools that you use or are qualified to use because of education and/or experience (e.g. MRI images, etc.)
• Software and hardware that you use or have been trained to use, particularly if it's unique to your job, industry, or profession (e.g. Microsoft Project, SAP, etc.)
• Names of techniques that you use or are qualified to use
• Industry and professional organizations that you have joined (include committee membership or association officer titles, as appropriate)
• Trade shows, and conferences that you have attended and/or where you have presented papers
• Professional and/or technical acronyms -- the more; the merrier, as long as they are appropriate to your experience and education
• Classes of employers who offer your services, "national specialty retailers," for example
• Applicable education that you have (degrees, majors, applicable course work, post-graduate courses and certifications, etc.)
• Other jargon (common "insider" words, terms, and acronyms specific to the profession and/or industry) that describe your work, typical products and/or services involved, and the people who do your job

Adding Keywords to Your Resume

• Include both the acronyms and the phrases that explain each of them in the body of your resume. The acronym and the phrase explaining it don't have to be in the same sentence or paragraph. Just use both versions if you can. It will increase the probability that your resume will appear in the search results whether the recruiter searches on the acronym or the phrase that it represents.
• Be inconsistent. If you were being judged on your writing skills, this wouldn't be an advantage. In the resume search-ability game, however, it is an advantage. So, without destroying the meaning of the words on your resume, be as creatively inconsistent as you can -- "M.B.A," "MBA," "Master of Business Administration," "Masters in Bus. Admin," etc. so your resume will pop up in the results regardless of the exact term used by the recruiter in their search
• Add a section near the top of your resume named "skills" or, even, "keywords," where you concentrate as many of your key words as possible. For an example, check out our sample ASCII text resume. It has a "Skills Summary" section which is really a collection of keywords - the nouns and noun phrases that best summarize the experience and skills as well as education and relevant association memberships.
• Hot Tip: Be sure to include the word "resume" in your resume. "Resume" is a word frequently used by recruiters searching for resumes. Put it in the top line (e.g. "M. J. Smith's Resume"), as well as in the file name (MJSmith-resume.doc., MJSmith-resume.html, or MJSmith-resume.txt). Check out our sample ASCII text resume.
  
  HOWEVER, don't use the word "résumé" which is really the proper form. Why? The proper form replaces the letter "e" with a character code ("é") to create the "é". Most search software will not recognize this character as an "e" and will not find your résumé.

• Changing the format of your resume - a couple of short cuts for emergencies plus:
  • Converting a Word document to ASCII text - compatible with the Internet technologies, safely transits e-mail systems (see Using Your ASCII Resume, below).
    • Polishing your ASCII text resume - it doesn't have to be boring. You can jazz it up (a little).
    • Sample ASCII text resume - cyber-safe, with keywords added, and polished to look more interesting
  • Personal Resume Web Page -- Add simple HTML tags to your ASCII resume, and do some "search engines optimization" so your resume will be found.
    • Basic HTML tags will get you started, and here's help viewing your Web Page as you work on it.
    • Some final touches will make your Personal Resume Web Page more employer-friendly and optimized for the search engines.
    • Adding META tags should help with some of the search engines.
• Using your ASCII text resume - now that you have an Internet Resume, use it!
  • E-mailing a resume - usually the fastest way to respond and generally preferred by recruiters and employers, but not as easy to do well as you might think...
  • Keeping Your E-Mail Out of the Spam Filters - a new complication to the resume e-mail process.
  • Cutting-and-pasting your resume into Web job site resume and profile forms makes things move more quickly and, hopefully, minimizes the extra spelling and grammatical errors that can happen when you are typing text directly into a resume/profile form.

You do still need your traditional printed resume when:

• You have developed a relationship with a specific potential employer or a trusted recruiter who has requested your complete resume.
• You respond to an employer's ad or an off-line opportunity through the USPS (or "snail mail") system.

It is also a good idea to include a plain, scannable version of your resume with your printed resume when you are responding via regular mail. Then, if you are the "right" candidate for the opportunity, you resume may be scanned, particularly by companies with more than 500 employees that may have an internal applicant tracking system.