How to Write Your Resume for Online Posting

Most books on resume writing are terribly out-of-date. Although well intentioned and filled with other good information, most have not been updated for the job search realities of today. Surprisingly, few resume books will even mention what I am about to tell you today.

Your resume will be seen by many eyes, including electronic. First, a little background: resumes nowadays go straight to the computer. Since most companies now have some sort of computer tracking system that allows for storage and later searches, resumes are date-stamped and stored. Print resumes are scanned in, then all resumes are then saved into the company database file allowing for retrieval at some later time. If you write your resume as most resume books would suggest, it most likely will never again be seen. What actually happens is a computer will "score" it by the number of keywords (also known as "buzzwords") the employer will find most relevant. If you don’t account for this, your resume will stay locked in some database, never to be even seen by anyone while you sit waiting by the phone for the call that never comes.

Add a Keyword Competencies Section

An easy catch-all way to score with the computer search gatekeeper is to add a section in your resume called Keyword Competencies.   Here is where you want to focus on the keywords (or "tags" in Web 2.0 vernacular) most likely to be used by a Human Resources person. The greater number of relevant keywords you can include, the higher relevancy score your resume will be given.

This section should best be listed at the beginning of your resume to introduce the skill sets you possess early on from an interviewing standpoint. Include no more than 75 keywords. For an online resume, you may want to include more.  

For example, if you were a Java Programmer, your Keyword Competencies section might look something like this:

"Java, Visual C++, perl, ticl, application development, visual basic, Windows NT/XP, programming, GUI, html, project management, layer 2, BSEE, etc".

The idea here is to put in as many relevant, searchable keywords that describe your potential job title, technical skills, management or organizational skills, relevant software and/or mechanical abilities and expertise. Include anything that might be important to the particular job.

Added Tip : If you can locate a description of an actual job or a one similar to the actual job for which you are applying, copy in all the applicable buzzwords listed under required and desired skills. This includes education levels (if they require a BS in Electrical Engineering, then include that as well).

If you spend some time on this, you should easily come up with a list of from 40 to 80 relevant searchable keywords to include here.

Have you checked out the Job Search Guy Blog?  You can get the latest tips, tricks and techniques  to win your dream job presented by Joe Turner, "the Job Search Guy".  Also, find out what others are doing and saying about how to succeed in today's job search scene.  Do you have a job search or interviewing question? Post it here.

Have a Killer Job Search!!

Best Regards,

Joe Turner
"My Goal is Getting You Hired Faster"