As a Career Advocate at Nexxt, I have the pleasure of speaking with hundreds of job seekers each week. Many of our conversations are about creating an effective and impactful resume. Each week, I plan on featuring a question that I received and answered while engaging with job seekers. Here is this week’s question:
What do you mean by optimizing the keywords in a resume?
It’s quite common for human resources and hiring managers to receive hundreds, in some cases thousands, of applicants for the same position. With this in mind, companies often rely on technology to help screen for the best possible candidates. There are several components of this screening process. One of those components is to scan resumes for the best fit based on keyword match.
My suggestion is to make sure you include some of the keywords and phrases from the job posting in your resume. This will give your resume a better chance of “matching” what the employer is looking for. It is important to select keywords that are relevant to your skills and qualifications. Remember, you want to be able to support and speak to the information that’s in your resume during the interview phase.
Bottom line, the job posting is sharing with you the skills and requirements that are important to the employer. You should use this information to effectively market yourself in your resume.