The Great Resume Keyword Search

There is nothing like an air of mystery to perk up people's ears and create a frenzy. And certainly all it takes in the job search world is to tell job seekers that they must have something or they will miss out on the greatest opportunities ever, and pretty soon you have a trend worthy of epic proportions on your hands.

The whole concept of keywords in resumes is one of those mysterious things that has caused many a job seeker to lose sleep. And all because this issue has somehow taken on a life of its own.

I like to equate it to the old records that used to get everyone clamoring to play them backward to hear some creepy musician say "I see dead people" or whatever. You felt like you were part of some special club because you found the Holy Grail, the special secret. I guess a more modern example would be the hidden levels in a video game. You've cracked the code! You've discovered something that very few ever do!

The truth, of course, is that although it might make you feel good to find out these things, they aren't really that much of a secret and almost always blown out of proportion.

When it comes to resumes, many job seekers are savvy enough now to ask about "embedding" keywords into their resumes. The idea is that after resumes are scanned into a database, hiring managers, HR staff, recruiters, etc., can perform keyword searches to find suitable candidates.

And just think...if your resume is missing that keyword, then your resume will be passed right over!

Back in the old days (3-5 years ago at least!), that meant creating a whole separate document called a scannable resume that included long lists of possible keywords.

Some job seekers went so far as to creatively "embed" keywords into an invisible watermark, header, or footer of a document, thinking that this would greatly increase their chances. Now resumes are often including Core Competency or Keyword sections that include many of the buzzwords of the candidate's industry. Again, the idea is that their resume will come up on a database search.

The obvious dilemma here, then (and the one that causes job seekers to lose sleep), is whether you included the best possible keywords for fear of being passed over during a search. After all, companies receive hundreds of resumes per job posting; you can't possibly expect them to read them all, right?

I'll be honest, as a resume writer, I find the whole thing ludicrous on several fronts. First, the number of companies actually scanning resumes into databases is much smaller than the perceived threat.

Second, it makes no sense to "embed" keywords for the sake of embedding keywords. At the end of the day, even if the resume comes up in a search, someone will eventually read the resume and see whether you actually have the skill set. So you aren't really fooling anyone.

Moral of this story: Don't put keywords on your resume that you don't have experience to back up.

Third, Internet job posting sites are about the most ineffective way of finding a job in the first place. So if job seekers need something to lose sleep over, they should instead focus more of their angst on how/when they are going to launch an effective job search that gets them around the HR black hole, where they are going to devote the bulk of their time and resources, and what kind of networking channel they have.

So does this mean that I think you should run immediately to your resume and delete any and all keywords (core competency terms, etc.)? No, but I definitely don't think you need to be fretting over it either. Pick some key industry terms that are strongly reflected in the body of your resume (i.e., your work experience) and be done with it! And, please, whatever you do, don't be putting secret messages in the headers, footers, and watermarks. That's just silly...