Job Search: Four Ways to Stand Out in Today’s Market – SEO Your Resume
Part two of 3rd post in a four-post series on ways to differentiate yourself as THE candidate employers want. 3) SEO Your Resume
Yesterday we started our discussion into how to stand out in today’s market by improving your resume. Today, we will expand on your resume improvements by adding more advanced SEO, or Search Engine Optimization techniques in order to push your resume to the top of the “Yes” pile!
Many employers use Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) or screening software to weed out irrelevant resumes. In fact, more than 90 percent (90%) of all corporations identify candidates using keyword searches from online resources (e.g., job boards, LinkedIn, Twitter, FaceBook) and their own applicant tracking systems.
To ensure that your resume doesn't get screened out and does capture the hiring manager's attention, you need to use two additional, advanced resume techniques. First, you must optimize your resume for search engines by stocking it with keywords and search strings unique for each job opportunity, that recruiters, HR personnel and hiring managers will use to select candidates’ resumes. You then need to weave your selected keywords and experiences into an engaging yet succinct story of your career, so your resume stands out for the hiring manager.
If you’re not already familiar with your target industries' critical keywords, you can learn them by reading industry-leading magazines and analysts’ articles and whitepapers. You'll also often find the unique keywords that the hiring manager is specifically looking for in the job ad to which you're responding.
The job search research you should be doing for each job opportunity should provide you with the majority of the keywords you need to include. (If you need more help getting started, check out these keyword lists: Jesse Ruiz, Job-Interview-Site.com, Job-Hunt.org, Applicant.com, CareerRocketeer, QuaintCareers.com, and of course, Google/Bing your industry and roles.)
Using search engine optimization (SEO) and organization techniques will enhance your chances of an applicant tracking system flagging your resume as one that the HR or hiring manager must read. The three techniques I recommend as having the most impact are:
1. Repetition - By purposefully repeating the most critical keywords multiple times throughout your resume, as well as in your cover letter and in all your correspondence for a specific job opportunity, the search engines (and humans) will see your experience in these skills as more in-depth, and therefore, more relevant to these criteria.
2. Placement – Search engines and humans will focus on the skills and experiences that you list on your resume first as more relevant to their own criteria than other skills you may list. This means you need to strategically prioritize the order in which you list keywords in your resume's descriptions. As well, you should prioritize the listing of your accomplishments to match the priorities for each job opportunity.
3. Referenceable/Cross-Linking – Recruiters often verify the skills and accomplishments candidates list on their resumes through online searches, so it's a good idea to list things on your resume that can be easily verified by recruiters (as long as they’re relevant to the job opportunity in question). Doing so adds
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