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My Career
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Keywords: What Every Job
Seeker Needs to Know
Source: Pat Kendall, Jump Start Your Job Search
ONE TINY WORD had been left out of Eileen Hanson's resume.
Unfortunately, this 3-letter omission (fab – short
for fabrication) was on her potential employer's “must
have” list. Without it, Eileen failed to qualify
for the job she wanted with a leading high-tech manufacturer.
Eileen
put a great deal of effort into writing and editing her
resume, but she made a classic error: She
assumed that employers would read between the lines,
interpret the facts, and comprehend the sum total of
her experience – a costly assumption in this
case.
What many job seekers fail to understand is that
most companies use electronic processing systems to
scan
resumes and store the data in keyword-searchable databases.
To get an edge in this competitive employment market,
job seekers must build their resumes around job target
keywords – hard skills, soft skills, and transferable
skills.
If Eileen had taken the time to research her
job target (i.e., find out which keywords are most
critical for
her field and potential employers), she might have
landed her dream job several months earlier!
Research?
Yes, research! While some folks visualize a dark and
dusty library when they think of research,
the Net has revolutionized this tedious task, making
it accessible, easy – even fun.
Job Target Research
To build a keyword-based resume, start with real examples
of your ideal job target, and then develop a “real
market” strategy for keyword loading and resume
writing based on these representative examples. In
short:
- Start with two or three current job postings that
meet your criteria for the ideal job.
- Extract the keywords.
- Use these keywords to determine resume strategy and
build a keyword-based foundation.
In short, resume writing strategy should be based on
the keywords employers use in their help wanted ads
and job postings.
Using Internet job postings for keyword research is
preferable to using newspaper classifieds because online
postings include more detail, plus checking out a potential
employer's website is just a mouse click away!
What are Keywords?
Keyword Job Titles:
- Job titles, job title variations, your ideal job
- The next logical job in your career path
Other Keywords:
- Skills or knowledge required to do a job
- Technologies and/or industries you're interested in
- Degrees, certifications, special credentials
The Selection Process:
- From the list of results, select the best 2-3 jobs – those
that are an "almost perfect" match based
on your experience and career goals.
- Select jobs you qualify for (or come very close to
qualifying for).
- Take the time to find the right examples, since the
information gleaned during this exercise will be
used to define your job target, develop your master
keyword list, and create the best-possible resume
strategy.
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