Keywords in Resumes

[Marcia Coulter <notjust -at- IX -dot- NETCOM -dot- COM>]

Elinor wrote:

>There is a[n]...article [called]..."Making Your Resume Computer
Compatible." It gives a brief overview of how resumes are scanned and
>then gives advice on how to make the content and format of your resume
>work to your advantage when scanned.
>It ends with a discussion of keywords ...

LaVonna replied:

>Such a list *does* exist....I believe [the originator] makes the list
>available to both employers and job hunters.....BTW, after
>deliberation, he decided to leave out software titles
>because such a list would be impossible to maintain.

Joyce Lain Kennedy and Thomas Morrow have published an excellent book
called "Electronic Resume Revolution" (published by John Wiley,
copyright 1994) that covers this topic in some detail.

According to the authors, keywords should include all the buzz words
appropriate to your profession. Generally, these are nouns, not verbs.
(For example, "instructional design" makes it into the database while
"Designed training classes" may not.) They also say that including the
"hot" tools in your keyword list is a good idea.

I think that LaVonna's friend is doing the right thing, trying to
educate employers in the use of the proper set of keywords. But for now
my experience indicates that including software tools among my keywords
gets me more calls.

------------------
Marcia Coulter
notjust -at- ix -dot- netcom -dot- com