Keywords are that powerful words in a resume that help highlight the technical skills, special qualifications, and professional area of expertise. These are mainly stated in the form of job responsibilities, tasks performed, achievements, honors, certifications, job titles, and industry-related jargons.
The key purpose of these keywords is to make your resume easily scannable. Most of the employer use database technology to scan hundreds of resumes received by them. This technology catch industry-specific keywords in the resume based on which employers shortlist candidates for an interview. In short, these powerful words help you get a job interview.
Here are some of the basic principles of using keywords in a resume:
• Identify what the employer is looking for.
• Know which keywords to use and which not to.
• All the keywords you use should be industry specific and in line with the profession.
• Use possible keywords in the summary of qualifications.
• The objective should also be rich in keywords.
• Use possible action words to land into the right job.
• Read the job profile again and again to get the perfect set of words.
• Visit the prospective company’s website and examine the business market.
• Identify key values of the organization and then select appropriate keywords.
• You can also use magazines and trade journals to get better words to put across.
• Scatter them in your resume in accordance to its relevance.
• If extremely importance, use that twice or thrice in the overall resume.
• Use them to highlight your accomplishments and progress.
• You can also grab employer’s attention by incorporating such power words in the professional history or the skill summary.
• Use them to convey your unique talents.
• Do not extend the use of a specific keyword more than twice or thrice in the entire resume.
• If possible also incorporate them in your cover letter.
• Maintain a perfect keyword density because excess of everything is bad. Excess of this can make your resume lose its value.
