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IDENTIFYING KEY WORDS FOR YOUR RESUME
& COVER LETTER
- Prepared by the CTC Staff
More and more employers are requiring job seekers to submit online their cover letters, resumes,
and other documents required for an application. The employer places or receives these
documents in a recruiting database or applicant tracking system. There is a big market now for
recruitment management software which employers of all sizes can use to sort through job
applications. Most of this software is designed to search through a resume database for “key”
words.
The recruiter or the hiring manager will determine the key words for each specific job. Certain key
words can be classified as mandatory and others as desirable. Some software can produce a list of
applicants ranked by the number of key word “hits” or the greatest key word “density” found in
each application and other more advanced software can even weigh the importance of each key
word to the job criteria.
Identifying the Key Words
Key words are words that are commonly used in your profession or industry now. The majority of
key words are nouns or noun phrases that relate to professional skills and experience. They may
pertain to “hard” or “soft” skills.
Key words for hard skills are usually very precise and job specific. These are the key words with
more weight. They may refer to technical expertise, typical industry services, job titles, and proper
names of products. They may also relate to educational courses, degrees, and institutions as well as
professional affiliations, certifications, and licenses. They could even include geographical sites or
regions and -- believe it or not! -- zip codes and telephone area codes. You can find a list of key
words for hard skills in a few professions on the University of California Riverside Career Center
website (www.careers.ucr.edu/Students/JobSearch/nouns.html). Example: the qualifications on
the job advertisement include experience working with compensation and benefits. You took
Compensation and Benefits 101 in college, but have no practical experience in it. The course name
alone may score you a hit and put you in the running for the job.
Key words for soft skills often pertain to
transferable skills, skills that are applicable
in many professions and industries. These
are the less weighty key words. They include
interpersonal, communication, plan,
organization, design, innovation, and listening.
Use current jargon and key words only if you understand fully what they mean and they apply to
your experience. Be sure to avoid outdated jargon -- like “personnel” instead of “human resources.”
“Words are the soul’s
ambassadors, who go
abroad upon her errands to
and fro.”
- James Howe in Of Words
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Make the job advertisement for the position you are targeting the center of your search. Compare
all other key word research to the words in that advertisement.
Try to find other ads for similar positions with similar job titles. Read all these advertisements
carefully and you may begin to see the same words repeated. Those could be the key words.
Other ways to identify key words include:
Peruse the employer’s website, including the annual report and mission statement
Look up the profession and the job title in The Occupational Outlook Handbook and the
Dictionary of Occupational Titles (www.bls.gov).
Network with others in your field (in person and online) and keep your ears open for
professional jargon and the latest buzzwords
Keep your reading up-to-date on professional and general business publications
Conduct information interviews
Ask HR professionals and recruiters
There are also books and websites specifically devoted to key words, such as:
1500+ Keywords for $100,000+ Jobs, by Wendy S. Enelow
Peterson's The Job Hunter's Word Finder, by James Bluemond
Words to Get Hired By: The Jobseeker’s Quintessential Lexicon of Powerful Words and Phrases
for Resumes and Cover Letters, published by Quintessential Careers Press
Babylon.com (www.babylon.com) has glossaries for specific industries
Web Access Employment Network (www.waen.org) offers connections to many other web
resources on the subject of key words
Many career counselors recommend that, although you may find the same key words in many
advertisements in your field, you should still perform the key word search exercise for each job you
apply for and tailor the key words in your resume for each specific job application.
Using the Key Words
If your cover letter and resume are to be scanned by the employer for key words, use the key words
in both.
You won’t get more points for repeating the same key word, so use synonyms. Example: design,
plan, and proposal. You can also use various forms of a key word. Example: manager and
management. Commonly used acronyms can increase the number of key words as well. Avoid
using keywords for jobs you don’t want or duties you don’t want to perform.
Our Government job titles are frequently different from private sector titles -- General Services
Officer, for instance. So, be sure to include key words in your explanation of what your duties were
and what your reporting (supervisory) relationships were in a job. Use the language of the
prospective employer to describe your government work if that language fits.
Try to be as specific as possible in detailing your qualifications for the targeted job. Instead of
stating that you are fluent in several African languages, list all of the languages. Instead of stating
that you have practical experience in spreadsheet software, list the software programs (e.g., Excel).
Make sure to tie the key words to your accomplishments and include key words in your
accomplishment statements.
You may want to include more of your professional and educational history than you would in a
traditional resume. As a result, resumes that are going to be scanned for key words are often longer
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than a traditional resume that you would hand to a private sector recruiter at a job fair. The more
key words included, the better your chance of your resume emerging from the database. But,
remember, the resume will (hopefully!) end up in the hands of the company’s recruiter, a real
human being. You have to strike a balance between detail and readability. Let’s say that the
computer has spit out the 12 resumes with the most hits for a specific job. The recruiter only wants
to interview three candidates for the job. He will read quickly through the stack of resumes and
pull out the three who look like the best candidates to him. If your resume is four pages long and
includes too many details to make it an interesting read, then he probably won’t select it for the
interviews.
Some applicants now include a key word section in their resume with a summary list of the key
words. This section is sometimes “front-loaded” at the beginning of the resume, but most often
placed at the end of the resume. One possible title for that section would be “Key Word Summary.”
A more accepted technique is to incorporate a lot of key words in a resume section called the
“Profile” or “Professional Profile” or “Summary of Qualifications.” That section is usually placed
directly below your name and address on the first page of the resume and provides the reader with
a snapshot of you as a professional. A variation on this style is to include a list of skills and
qualifications (i.e., key words) just below the profile. Here is an example:
Financial Analysis Financial Markets
Trade Issues Commercial banking
Technical Assistance Tax issues
Key words should appear in the actual text of your resume, too – you must substantiate your
claims!
If all or part of your resume is designed in the functional (as opposed to chronological) style, you
can use key words as the functional headers (e.g., Management, Training, Marketing). Then, under
each function, you list accomplishments that illustrate your incredible skill in that functional area
and use more key words.
After you have done your key word research, check your resume by highlighting all the words in it
that would probably be considered key words. Compare the highlighted words to the key words in
the job advertisement and to the key words you have found in your other research. Have you
included the most important ones in your resume (and cover letter, if it’s going to be scanned, too)?
Could you include more?
“The trouble with words is that you never know
whose mouths they’ve been in.”
- Dennis Potter
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Practice Exercise One
Identify the 10 most important key words in the following job advertisement.
World Wildlife Fund
Manager, Multilateral Agency Relations
Job Type: Limited Term | Location: Washington, DC
Job Description: World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the global conservation organization leading international
efforts for a living planet, seeks a Manager for Multilateral Relations. The candidate will oversee and
manage relations with the Global Environment Facility (GEF) to identify, promote, and implement
strategic policy and program initiatives, including funding opportunities. Requirements: Interested
candidate should possess a Master’s degree and familiarity with the GEF and one or more of its
implementing agencies. Ten years experience in international conservation and sustainable
development required. Five or more years experience in proposals management preferred.
Practice Exercise Two
Identify the 10 most important key words in the following job advertisement.
Sixth Star Entertainment & Marketing
Destination Speakers
A Destination Speaker’s responsibility is to give a series of original presentations illustrating the culture
and history of the ports of call on a given cruise itinerary. For instance, a Speaker on a cruise to Mexico
may discuss the Mexican-American War, foreign policy between the United States and Mexico, or the
culture of the country. The talks should not be a reiteration of what to see-and-do in Puerto Vallarta.
Rather, they should provide the guests with insight into the ports that one would not be able to find in
an average guidebook.
Destination Speakers that are placed by Sixth Star are offered the luxuries of a fine voyage in a
passenger stateroom with full passenger privileges in exchange for their services and a small
administrative fee of $50 per day for each day of the cruise. The lecturer is welcome to bring a guest to
sail in the same cabin free of charge. Please note that the daily administrative fee for Silversea Cruises
and Radisson Seven Seas Cruises is $100 per day due to the all inclusive nature of these ultra-luxurious
voyages (gratuities included, etc.).
During a typical week at sea, Speakers traditionally deliver three to four 35-minute presentations, with
10 minutes at the end for questions and answers. Presentations should be very entertaining (or as we
like to say, "edu-tainment"), and we highly encourage the use of professional presentation tools,
including slides and Power Point presentations.
The Destination Speaker must be an excellent and experienced public speaker as typical audience size
ranges from 50-300 passengers for each talk. However, good news travels fast aboard ships and
excellent Speakers have been known to pack the house!
“Words, when well chosen, have so great a force in them that a description often
gives us more lively ideas than the sight of things themselves.”
- Joseph Addison
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Practice Exercise One—Answers
1. Manager—manage—management
2. Global Environment Facility—GEF
3. Proposals
4. Program initiatives
5. Funding opportunities
6. Sustainable development
7. Strategic policy
8. Multilateral—international
9. Conservation—wildlife
10. Agencies
Practice Exercise Two—Answers
1. Speaker—speak
2. Lecturer-lecture
3. Presentation—present
4. Entertainment—entertain
5. Culture—cultural
6. History
7. Politics
8. Foreign—International
9. Audience—public
10. Guide
“There’s a great power in words,
if you don’t hitch
too many of them together.”
- Josh Billings
