Few People Know About - +Action Verbs & Keywords That Will Bring Your Resume To The Top Of The Stack
Submitting a resume and landing the job isn’t quite as easy as it used to be. Today many companies HR departments scan a resume and allow their computer to pick out keywords and key phrases.
Companies today are receiving such a high volume of resumes they are using scanners that pick up keywords as a way of immediately discarding some resumes to focus on others. If your resume is lacking these key words your resume may find it’s way into the waste basket without even being read.
In this article we will tell you about key words these resume scanners are looking for as well as the format that is most scanner friendly. Finally at the end of this article I will give you the most powerful tool for getting your resume to the top of the stack that few people know about.
Is there any way around the scanner? Some people choose to fax resumes in instead of e-mailing them. This is a solution however fewer and fewer companies are accepting resumes via fax, a lot of jobs are strictly online applications and resume submissions.
The other downfall of faxing a resume is it could potentially make you look not very tech saavy that your using a fax machine instead of e-mail.
Well, let’s get rolling. We’ll with some things that make a resume scanner friendly.
Scanners Like…
Top Line - Name Only - Phone numbers, addresses, e-mail addresses all confuse the scanner. The top line of your resume should be your name only.
Text Only - No fancy borders, no lines, no zigzags, no shading. A graphically boring resume will be more scanner friendly. Boring is better. Content is what a scanner likes to see on a resume so give it content.
Plain Text - No bolding, No italics, no underlining, no curvy fonts that look like a child’s lemonade stand writing. These make letters run together when scanned and that gives the scanner confusion instead of your skills and experiences.
Popular Font - Choose a popular font like Times, Bookman, Helvetica. Font size should be between 10-14 font size.
MUST HAVE Job Specific Key Words - Industry lingo and jargon, skills, software experience, commonly used trade terms, and buzzwords are what a computer will look for. If you don’t know what these terms are for your industry FIND OUT!!! You should also include job titles, hardware and software, programming languages, academic degrees, fields of study, and foreign languages relevant to your target job.
Were obviously not going to cover industry key words for every job out there but below is a list of some terms, verbs, and words that scanners often look for…
A - accelerated, acclimated, accompanied, accomplished, achieved, acquired, acted, activated, actuated, adapted, added, addressed, adhered, adjusted, administered, admitted, adopted, advanced, advertised, advised, advocated, aided, aired, affected, allocated, altered, amended, amplified, analyzed, answered, anticipated, appointed, appraised, approached, approved, arbitrated, arranged, ascertained, asked, assembled, assigned, assumed, assessed, assisted, attracted, audited, augmented, authored, authorized, awarded.
B - balanced, bargained, borrowed, bought, broadened, budgeted, built.
C - calculated, canvassed, capitalized, captured, carried out, out, cast, cataloged, centralized, challenged, chaired, changed, channeled, charted, checked, chose, circulated, clarified, classified, cleared, closed co-authored, cold, called collaborated, collected, combined, commissioned, committed, communication, communicated, compared, compiled, concluded, contrasted, contributed, contrived, controlled, converted, convinced, corrected, corresponded, counseled, created, cultivated.
D - debugged, decided, decentralized, decreased, deferred, defined, delegated, delivered, demonstrated, depreciated, determined, developed, devised, diagrammed, directed, disclosed, discounted, discovered, dispatched, displayed, distinguished, diversified, divested, documented, doubled, drafted.
E - earned, eased, edited, effected, elected, eliminated, employed, enabled, encouraged, endorsed, enforced, engaged, engineered, enhanced, enlarged, enriched, entered, entertained, established, estimated, evaluated, examined, exceeded, executed, exempted, exercised, expanded, expedited, explained, exposed, extended, extracted, extrapolated.
F - facilitated, familiarized, fashioned, fielded, figured, financed, fit, focused, forecasted, formalized, formed, formulated, fortified, found, founded, framed, fulfilled, functioned, furnished.
G - gained, gathered, gauged, gave, generated, graded, granted, greeted, grouped, guided.
H - handled, headed, hired, hosted.
I - identified, illustrated, illuminated, implemented, improved, improvised, inaugurated, indoctrinated, increased, incurred, induced, influenced, informed, initiated, innovated, inquired, inspected, inspired, installed, instigated, instilled, instituted, instructed, insured, interfaced, interpreted, interviewed, introduced, invented, inventoried, invested, investigated, invited, involved, isolated, issued.
J - joined, judged.
L - launched, lectured, led lightened, liquidated, litigated, lobbied, localized, located.
M - maintained, managed, mapped, marketed, maximized, measured, mediated, merchandised, merged, met, minimized, modeled, moderated, modernized, modified, monitored, motivated, moved, multiplied.
N - named, narrated, noticed, nurtured.
O - observed, obtained, offered, offset, opened, orchestrated, ordered, organized, oriented, originated, overhauled, oversaw.
P - paid, participated, passed, patterned, penalized, perceived, performed, permitted, persuaded, phased out, pinpointed, pioneered, placed, planned, polled, prepared, presented, preserved, priced, printed, prioritized, probed, processed, procured, produced, profiled, programmed, projected, promoted, prompted, proposed, proved, provided, publicized, published, purchased, pursued.
Q - quantified, quoted.
R - raised, ranked, reacted, read, received, recommended, reconciled, recorded, recovered, recruited, rectified, redesigned, reduced, referred, refined, regained, regulated, rehabilitated, reinforced, reinstated, rejected, related, remedied, remodeled, renegotiated, reorganized, replaced, repaired, reported, represented, requested, researched, resolved, reversed, reviewed, revised, revitalized, rewarded, routed.
S - safeguarded, salvaged, saved, scheduled, screened, secured, segmented, selected, sent, separated, served, serviced, settled, shaped, shortened, showed, shrank, signed, simplified, sold, solved, spearheaded, specified, speculated, showed, spoke, spread, stabilized, strengthened, stressed, structured, studied, submitted, substantiated, substituted, suggested, summarized, superceded, supervised, supported, surpassed, surveyed, synchronized, synthesized, systemized.
T- tabulated, tailored, targeted, taught, terminated, tested, testified, tightened, took, traced, traded, trained, transacted, transferred, transformed, translated, transported, traveled, treated, tripled.
U - uncovered, undertook, unified, united, updated, upgraded, used, utilized.
V - validated, valued, verified, viewed, visited.
W - weighed, welcomed, widened, witnessed, won, worked, wrote.
Above are some popular but general key words companies scanning resumes will be looking for. Keep in mind however depending on the job your applying for and the company it’s with they may have additional key words having to do with the job or industry.
For example someone seeking a job in online advertising, specifically a job dealing with tracking or analyzing ads may have keywords regarding software or tracking systems they use like Dart, Double Click, Atlas, or industry jargon like pre-rolls, skyscrapers, banners, CPM, tracking, etc.
The last thing I want to talk about is a trick I don’t think very many people know about, and it’s a trick taken from some web designers and bloggers.
When creating a website people want key words in their articles because it helps them rank better with search engines. People try to incorporate these key words into their writing however some people do what is called black hatting.
What is black hatting, it’s basically giving yourself an edge or I suppose even cheating. It will sky rocket your site to the top of search engine results but eventually search engines will pick up on it and penalize you or ban your site.
Basically the practice is done one of two ways. Some people will create a page for their website that their site doesn’t map or link to, so basically a page no visitor will ever see. On this page they will put hundreds or thousands of key words that are search engine friendly.
The other way this is done is by putting the keywords on normal web pages visitors see but doing it in clear font or font color that matches the page background so unless someone were to high-light the page they would never know that text was there.
So were suggesting you do the same thing with your resume. If you have some blank space at the bottom write in key words in clear ink or white ink. This will not show up when someone views your document in word, it will also not show up when someone reads your resume on the computer. If you don’t have blank space at the bottom of your resume you could also do this either between lines or in the margins.
The only way someone will see this is if they high-light your resume as if they were going to copy and paste something which people rarely do. Most hiring managers or HR dept people will either read your resume on the computer or print it out.
Even if someone does notice this I highly doubt it would turn them off to your resume. I have seen some resume experts and articles about resumes say to do this exact thing at the bottom of your resume in text that can be read, personally I prefer it and think it’s better if that text is invisible.
If anything as hiring manager it would make me realize a few things. This person did enough research to find out this will help them land job. They did enough research to figure out what keywords to use. It’s thinking outside the box and doing something to give yourself a competitive advantage. All things I know I personally would want in someone I’m considering hiring.
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