Importance of Keywords in a Resume

In days gone by, most job seekers began their resumes with a targeted objective.  As industry evolved and candidates acquired broader skill sets, summaries of qualifications or professional profiles replaced the objectives.  With technology providing recruiters and managers with a strategic and accelerated means of evaluating future employees, keywords now play a critical role in the hiring process.

What are keywords?  These are words and phrases that highlight, succinctly, a candidate’s skill sets.  Usually in bulleted form, they first appear at the beginning of the resume and can be combined with a brief but powerful narrative summary.  Keywords and phrases also appear throughout the body of the resume.  

Using talent acquisition management software, employers identify keywords specific to the available positions and, when applicable, to their individual industries.  The hiring authorities then electronically scan resumes sent to their company’s database via email and/or uploaded or copied and pasted into the employment section of their business website.  They utilize job board technologies to import resumes into their database for analysis and/or perform similar analytical functions.  The greater the number of keywords that appear in a resume, the greater the relative rank of that document and the more consideration the employer will give to the applicant.

The trick, of course, is not to create a resume that consists entirely of keywords.  Once an employer has selected a resume to review, he or she wants it to tell the story of the candidate’s prior accomplishments and infer future contributions.  The most effective resume, therefore, is one that blends and balances keywords with a persuasive narrative.