Quintessential Careers:
Resources for Identifying Resume Keywords
by Katharine Hansen, Ph.D.
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In our article, Tapping the Power of Keywords to Enhance Your Resume's Effectiveness, we discuss the importance of keywords and how you should use them in your resume. We note in that article that best way to identify keywords for a particular job is to scrutinize employment ads, a subject we cover in our article, Researching Keywords in Employment Ads. This article describes other ways to find keywords.
Ideas for identifying Resume Keywords:
- Look for job descriptions in books and job-description software.
- Visit the meetings and Web sites of professional associations in your field to look and listen for current buzzwords.
- If you are working with a recruiter or headhunter, that person can be an excellent source of keyword tips.
- Consult government publications such as The Occupational Outlook Handbook at libraries or online.
- Visit company Web sites. See The Quintessential Directory of Company Career Centers
- Imagine you were writing an ad or job description for the type of job you seek; what keywords would you use?
- Research and incorporate into your keywords the company culture and values of employers you are targeting. Read our article Uncovering a Company's Corporate Culture is a Critical Task for Job-Seekers. Note especially the company's mission statement and look for ways to quote it in your resume and/or cover letter.
- Scrutinize news stories in trade magazines relevant to your work. Read cutting-edge magazines, such as Fast Company.
- Join online discussion groups and chat rooms that relate to your field and observe the words professionals are using in their discussions.
- Read annual reports from the companies you'd like to work for.
- Conduct informational interviews at companies you want to work for and listen for the jargon and buzzwords that your interviewees use in talking about the company and its jobs.
- Talk to human resources professionals.
- Use Web search engines, such as Google and Yahoo, to search for job descriptions.
- Consult online dictionaries and encyclopedias.
- Visit online specialty sites defining acronyms and technical jargon.
- In her column distributed by Tribune Media Services, Joyce Lain Kennedy describes a freeware program that she calls outstanding in the keyword quest: Babylon.com. Writes Kennedy: "Among Babylon's many virtues is a glossary index of words used in specific industries, such as arts, business, computers, education, entertainment, health, science, social science and recreation. Babylon.com also allows you to download related glossaries as a way of keeping track of keywords that apply to your career field or industry."
Web sites that provide keywords and keyword resources:
Keyword collection from the Web Access Employment NetworkSome engineering keywords from the University of Texas
Keywords by subject from the University of California, Riverside Career Center
Keyword Books:
1500+ Keywords for $100,000+ Jobs, by Wendy S. Enelow, Paperback, 185 pages, Impact Publications, 1998, ISBN: 1570230897Peterson's the Job Hunter's Word Finder, by James Bluemond, Paperback, 219 pages, Petersons Guides, 1996, ISBN: 1560796006
Everything You Need to Know About Using Electronic Resumes to Tap into Today's Job Market, by Susan Britton Whitcomb and Pat Kendall (eBook), McGraw-Hill; ASIN: B00005RYUA, $11.95
Excellent articles on the Web about keywords:
Identifying Key Words to Put on Your Resume, by Dr. John SullivanImportance of Keywords. Heighten Your Load: Databank-Able Resume Design Tips, by Darrell Gurney
Questions about some of the terminology used in this article? Get more information (definitions and links) on key college, career, and job-search terms by going to our Job-Seeker's Glossary of Job-Hunting Terms.
Katharine Hansen, Ph.D., creative director and associate
publisher of Quintessential Careers, is an educator, author,
and blogger who provides content for Quintessential Careers,
edits QuintZine,
an electronic newsletter for jobseekers, and blogs about storytelling
in the job search at A Storied
Career. Katharine, who earned her PhD in organizational behavior
from Union Institute & University, Cincinnati, OH, is author of Dynamic
Cover Letters for New Graduates and A Foot in the Door: Networking
Your Way into the Hidden Job Market (both published by Ten Speed Press),
as well as Top Notch Executive Resumes (Career Press); and with
Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D., Dynamic Cover Letters, Write Your
Way to a Higher GPA (Ten Speed), and The Complete Idiot's Guide
to Study Skills (Alpha). Visit her
personal Website
or reach her by e-mail at
kathy(at)quintcareers.com.
Have you taken advantage of all our resume resources?
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