Guide to including the RIGHT keywords in your Resume

A good resume is necessary to land a job and what makes a resume stand out are the keywords which highlight the key skills, credentials and accomplishments of the candidate. The recruiter looks for a qualified candidate which suits their job description through ATS (Application Tracking System), and eliminates those resumes in which certain keywords are not mentioned. Hence, right keywords play a vital role in getting your resume shortlisted.

What are Resume Keywords?

Keywords are the words that depict a candidate’s professional abilities and competencies. When the recruiter scans a resume they look for skills as per job requirements. Those target job related keywords in the resume makes it easy for the company to jot down the selected or the qualified candidates.

Why are keywords important?

Resumes are digitally scanned  these days  which is a purely key word based approach to shortlisting resumes. If the right keywords are mentioned in accordance with the recruiter’s job description, only then will the resume be shortlisted in the very initial screening. Things like proper formatting and personal information are the least considered things in the recruitment process.

Where should you add these keywords?

Keywords should be used throughout your resume while describing your jobs/ internships, developing a separate skill set section, or making a resume summary. Keywords are best used to describe a trait that one has developed in course of any professional endeavor, or acquired through academic or training pursuits.

How many keywords should be used?

Through it is a good practice to use keywords, don’t overload your resume. Use only those keywords that are relevant and specific to your profile. Also do not concentrate all the import keywords in a particular section.  Usage of unnecessary keywords will take up extra space thus reducing scope of putting other relevant information.

An Example: If you are a content writer then keywords such as writing, editing, proof reading, research can be used. Don't confuse them with action words such as managed, mentored etc.

It is of utmost importance that the content of the resume should be appropriate to the profile and its overall look and feel appealing to the recruiter. Web applications like Resumod help you to make ATS friendly resumes by giving you well defined sections for clearly mentioning your skills at absolutely no costs.