Keywords are your resume's best friend

Things we know already:

*85% of jobs are NOT advertised. (Why is that?)
*Advertised jobs rarely lead to a call or an interview. (Again - why is that?)
*95% of advertised jobs get a minimum of 500 resumes during this economy - even unqualified/ underqualified people are slipping their resumes in "just in case something I'm qualified for" magically pops up. (Not much bugs resume sifters more than sifting through a fresh batch of email resumes with "Brain Surgeon Application" in the subject and "#1 McEmployee in August last year" in the first paragraph of the resume - trust me, it's a sure way to get your resume deleted if not your email address blacklisted too!)

Have you seen Up in the Air yet? Great movie, I loved it but then again any reason to see George Clooney dance or look studly in a tux is what I live for these days (he was great in Men Who Stare At Goats too.)  Why did I mention it? Well, the movie centres around this theme of taking the human contact element of things that require a human element, in that case it was firing people by a new remote program that had been developed. (I won't tell you any more except that I would love to go to a wedding with George. Really good movie - see it if you haven't.) For me, it's a coin toss whether the lack of a human element is worse than stupid human element, but that's another post. Here's what I mean:

You'll notice Big Companies out there placing ads on Big Job Boards that cost serious coin. Here you are. You do your job search on a jobsite and pull up yet another ad from The Humungous Corporation and think "well, frig, I registered and uploaded my resume last month and the month before that and they sent me a generic 'no thanks' e-letter. WTH is up with that? I was perfect for that job? Why didn't I get a call?"

I hear you, it's frustrating as heck, isn't it? There are a few reasons you're getting that e-letter, and trust me when I tell you that the headhunting and recruiting business is guilty of all of this as well (and you were right when you were cussing your suspicions into your coffee!) There are a number of possibilities but the biggies are:

1. There is no job.
Nope. No job but either Big Company is planning on expanding or recruiting for a similar position in the future, they want to keep their database full of potentials. They may or may not be trying to look busy to the competition.

2. You used your Standard Resume that you send to everybody else.
YOU knew when you applied that you had everything they were asking for in a perfect candidate - why didn't they call you? What a slap in the face! Who needs to work for them anyway? (You do. That's why you applied.) It's a great resume, maybe you spent a lot of money getting somebody to do it for you but...

This is where Hot Recruiter Mom is going to repeatedly say over and over TAILOR EACH RESUME and HAVE MORE THAN 1 RESUME. This is also where Up in the Air comes in - who exactly are you sending your resume in to?

Big Job Boards and Recruiting Companies cost money. Big money. So Big Company and the rest of them thought they'd beat the system by bypassing the Job Boards and Recruiters as much as possible. They invested in things like Taleo who are online resume processing/ database systems. Taleo is costly too, but Big Companies thought they were being wickedly self serving by indulging in their own internal database system. (NOTE: At least good recruiters not only talk to the owners of the resumes, but we guarantee our hires too - another plus for Big Companies to work with us. When we're niche & specific (like me), we're worth our weight in gold to Big Companies - we already had you in our system and could've had you in to them for 2 interviews by the time they posted and "processed" the shout out for the job!)

The thing is, that 90% of qualified people are being passed over because of these non-human database systems. It's an electronic game of match-up.The humans aren't around to puruse the resumes and see what matches. The database system has been programmed to scan for KEYWORDS. If they aren't on a resume, the resume gets stored and collects cyberdust somewhere. That's where your resumes are right now.

What you need to do is to check each and every ad and make sure those KEYWORDS are on your resume somewhere. What I used to teach in my basic resumes 101 classes was to copy/paste the job requisites and paste them in the "Summary of Qualifications" part of the resume. Somebody has carefully scripted a wishlist of qualifications, so to have an internal database pick up the resume to be looked at by a human being, a carefully re-crafted summary of qualifications will nail that part. That works for the not-so professional jobs. For anything that requires special degrees or computer programs or experience that you have, make sure that you mention exactly those terms as often as possible ie: whenever you used them on a job or got the certification.

On the other end, somebody who is going to look through those resumes is logging in and pushing a couple of buttons to tell the database system to go through all those new emails and see who qualifies. Keep in mind, whoever is doing the resume grunt-work is probably not an expert in what you do. If they're not using a database and only scanning emails or faxes, their beady little eyes are looking for whatever is on the job description they were handed. They probably have no clue or interest in any of what you do, have or did. They're just trying to play match-up.

So lets say database makes some matches. Resume Scanner Person opens it up and all of those database pre-programmed words are highlighted. Resume Scanner Person decides whether to pursue it further. You can be put into the YES pile or NO pile before your resume even gets seen by human eyes simply because of the KEYWORDS - or lack of them! How cool is that? Not, to the job searcher. (I'll rant about HR people, God love'em, some other time.)

Think of how many qualified people are going ignored because of the lack of human contact! That's unfortunately the name of the game. Now it's up to you to beat them at their own game.

For each and every resume you submit, make sure the KEYWORDS are in your resume and cover letter.

Did you really want that job? REALLY REALLY? Then phone the company politely ask for the person in charge for recruiting for that job. Talk to them. See if they saw your resume. Ask for feedback. Expect different scenarios and have the return question.They hired? Do they expect any other positions in the future? They haven't started interviewing yet? Ask to speak with the Hiring Manager. Politely. (But if you don't have the KEYWORDS in your resume, don't expect to hear much more than "you don't seem quaified".) Be nice. The person on the other end of the phone could be your new best friend!

Two thumbs up - you're awesome and a Hireable Desirable. Everybody has something to offer employers. There ARE jobs out there, the choice is up to you!







A poignant view of what's happening out there AND a look at my secret dream of kissing George Clooney on the steps in high school. *sigh*












If your library or employment centre don't have these available to use, this is a pretty good program to easily make a resume and be able to change your KEYWORDS for each resume.













You can download the first chapter on the author's website. I've just ordered this one too. It's about focus and keeping your eye on the prize. It works on jobs, relationships, and all the good stuff we want out of life.