Sunday, August 12, 2007

What Keywords Should I Use On My Resume? Job search question of the week - Page 2

Occasionally I post a job search question from one of our readers. This was a question sent to me in response to my daily articles, but I’ve seen the same question posed on a number of job search groups, including mine (Career Change Central on Linkedin).

T.R. shared a question about her own job search, and asked:

"What are the best keywords to use on my resume?"


Keywords: Do You Want The Effective Answer Or The Easy Answer?


Everyone wants the easy answer, of course. The lure of a few “magic” words that will unlock the hiring manager’s door, leading to the interview express train sounds too good to be true.

It sounds too good to be true, because it is too good to be true ...

Here’s some examples of the easy answer:
CareerBuilder: What are Resume Keywords?
BestSampleResume: Financial Resume Tips
ResumeKeyWords: Industry Specific Resume Keywords

Just one problem - these easy answers don’t work well. How can one set of keywords match the unique needs and unique internal language of a specific company and hiring manager? If easy solutions actually worked, wouldn’t your friends tell you about how easy their job search is?

Using the easy answer - a single set of keywords - means that you are betting that the keywords you choose magically match the words an employer is searching for.

Do you realize how bad those odds are? You have better odds playing Lotto.

The effective answer isn’t easy - it takes a lot of work. Many candidates just aren’t willing to devote that much effort to a single opportunity, because they are used to an environment where there were more jobs than candidates. For the past 2 years and probably for the next few years, there’s no more “low hanging fruit” - so the easy ways that used to work just aren’t effective anymore.

( Continued ... The Effective Way To Use Keywords: )

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Related Articles:
Should I Use White Font To Get More Keywords On My Resume? Question of the week
When Do I Bring Up Salary? Job search question of the week

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Source: http://reCareered.blogspot.com

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