What Are Your Career Keywords?

• Finding your keywords is like indexing a book
• The old keywords were called “buzzwords” and were primarily verbs, adjectives and adverbs
• What key words will the recruiter use to search for the best candidate?
• Example – Before and After Electronic Resume Excerpt
• How do you find your keywords? There is no book available with all of your keywords. You have to find them yourself.
• Keyword Search Tips

Have you ever thought about your job and skills in terms of keywords? Better start now. There’s a whole new way of writing about your work experience using the right words – or keywords.

You may be looking to migrate within the civil service or leaving military service for a civilian job. In both private industry and the federal government today, the keywords of your current job or your future job will either get you hired or leave you wondering “What’s happening with my resume?” Many hiring federal agencies and private industry firms are using resume databases to manage applicants. The personnel recruiters will search for qualified candidates by typing in a few “keywords.” This is how the first cut is made with many automated recruitment systems instead of the old way: personnel officers individually reading your resume to see if you are qualified. Knowing your keywords and key skills will be critical to the success of your next job search.

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Finding your keywords is like indexing a book

I had a discussion with L. Pilar Wyman of WYMAN INDEXING in Annapolis, MD about keywords and indexing. Most books have an index in the back that is developed based on keywords. If you want to find information on a subject, you look in the index under a keyword.

Here is Pilar’s definition of keywords after our conversation regarding electronic resumes and the personnel selection process with keywords:

"A term or phrase which reflects a person's knowledge, skill, ability, or expertise."
Or
“A proper name, noun, verb or other descriptor (word or phrase) which describes a person's knowledge, skill, ability or expertise.”

He goes on to say this: “For example, for myself, I might supply the following keywords: "indexer," "information architect," "site-map designer," "indexing instructor," "teacher of indexing." Additionally, the savvy resume writer should consider using more than one keyword for a specific knowledge skill or ability as cross-references: "instructor and teacher".

In this author’s case, if I were searching for a writer-editor position, my keywords would be: author, writer, published author, Webmaster, content developer, editor, publication coordinator, publisher, and curriculum developer. Hopefully the recruiter would search under 3 or 4 of these terms and my resume would come up as “qualified."

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The old keywords were called “buzzwords” and were primarily verbs, adjectives and adverbs

Until recently resume keywords were referred to as buzz words. Many people were taught to write their resumes using the right verbs, adverbs and adjectives. The new key words are primarily proper names, nouns and skills. In the old days, some important buzz words were: manage, supervise, plan, lead, implement, direct. But with the new search process, a manager could not search a thousands resumes under the term “manage." Every resume in the category would include the word “manage." The searchable terms must be more specific to the job, therefore the new key words are nouns, proper names and skills.

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What key words will the recruiter use to search for the best candidate?

Nobody knows the searchable key words and skills but the selecting official who is doing the hiring. This is not public information. You simply have to write a good resume covering the knowledge, skills and abilities that will be required in the potential position. Hopefully, you have the right mix of words in your resume.

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Example – Before and After Electronic Resume Excerpt:

Here’s a before-and-after excerpt from an electronic resume. The BEFORE is more generic and not as easy to understand as the AFTER paragraph. You’ll see that more nouns and proper names are used in the AFTER paragraph.

Management/Program/Project Analyst, GS-343-13, Department of the Army.

BEFORE

Principal staff analyst on all Force Integration and Force Structure development/management matters. While using vision, external awareness and strategic thinking conducts, researches, analyzes, and prepares analytical reports/courses of action to commander, major army command, and Headquarters Department of the Army and U.S. Army Force Management Support Agency.

Responsible for conducting studies identifying, diagnosing, analyzing, and resolving issues and promoting initiatives for thirty-two combat service support units. In addition to the studies, thoroughly integrated, coordinated and staffed force structure requirements for submission to the annual Total Army Analysis.

Additionally, served as a team leader in working groups for conversion of commands to a multiple-component unit (MCU). Other duties included briefing on force structure requirements. Other tasks included providing a basis for adjusting military manpower force structure; assess program force deficiencies and measure risks; and assess impacts of limitations imposed on current force structure for armistice and wartime operations.

AFTER

PRINCIPAL ANALYST: Based on requirements established in Mission Essential Task List and theater contingency documents, coordinate Force Integration, Force Structure development, management, and analysis of the command’s MTOE/TDA and submissions of change. Research, prepare analytical reports, develop courses of action for Commander, Major Army Command, MACOM, and Headquarters Department of the Army, HQDA. Manage Officer realignment initiatives, functional Army assessment, civilian issues, contracting of military positions, base realignments, closures. Prepare and submit fiscal year Command Plan for unit activations, conversions, inactivation, evaluation and exceptions to Table of Organization and Equipment, TOE. Conduct studies identifying, diagnosing, analyzing, resolving issues for 42 combat service support units. Staff force structure initiatives for Total Army Analysis, TAA.

TEAM LEADER supervising working group of twenty employees in conversion of commands to multiple-component units, MCUs. Develop courses of action, present recommendations to ensure unit readiness. Evaluate projected changes in force structure, personnel and equipment, unit locations for presentation in the fiscal year Command Plan. Produce final memoranda of agreements, MOA, with Active and Reserve Component units.

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How do you find your keywords? There is no book available with all of your keywords. You have to find them yourself.

You can find more keywords by reading and research. You can look for vacancy announcements and recruitment ads from government ads. The “duties” section of the announcement will contain keywords for the jobs. If these words fit your experience and skills, use these in your resume. Here is a recruitment ad from Boeing.com for a Contract & Pricing Administrator taken from the CD-ROM companion to the Electronic Federal Resume Guidebook. A critical part of writing an outstanding resume is recognizing the right words to include in your resume.

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Keyword Search Tips:

• Keep all written materials with descriptions of your work experience
• Develop a list of keywords that could be important to include in your resume
• Always keep your resume up-to-date, even if you don’t plan to retire or seek another job for five or more years. It’s too difficult to remember projects, skills and experiences 10 years after the fact. Good luck with writing your keywords and electronic resume!

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Kathryn Troutman is the author of popular resume books. Kathryn is a popular speaker in federal agencies on resume writing for government and Defense positions. Her Web site is www.resume-place.com. She writes a free weekly e-mail column which you can receive by registering on the site.