LatinaStyle Career Center Create a "Buzz" by Using Keywords to Screen-in Your iHispano Resume while Others are Screened-out

Latina Style National Magazine for the Contemporary Hispanic Woman

Create a "Buzz" by Using Keywords to Screen-in Your iHispano Resume while Others are Screened-out

Your resume will generate more interest from employers if it contains specific keywords and industry "buzzwords"

By Pat Kendall, NCRW, Principal of Advanced Resume Concepts

Provided and edited by Murray A. Mann and Rose Mary Bombela-Tobias
Co-authors, Barron's The Complete Job Search Guide for Latinos
www.JobSearchGuideforLatinos.com

ONE TINY WORD had been left out of Maria Ortiz's resume. Unfortunately, this 3-letter omission (EEO, short for Equal Employment Opportunity) was on her potential employer's "must have" list. Without it, Maria failed to qualify for the human resources job she wanted with a leading corporation.

Maria put a great deal of effort into writing and fine-tuning her resume, but she made a classic error. She assumed that employers would read between the lines, interpret the facts, and comprehend the sum total of her experience – a costly assumption in this case. If Maria had taken the time to research and find out which keywords were important to this employer, she might have landed her dream job several months earlier!

What job seekers need to know is that 80% of resumes are processed (screened) electronically, sorted, scored, and selected based on their keyword content. To get an edge in this competitive employment market, job seekers must build their resumes around job target keywords – the specific hard skills, soft skills, and transferable skills that employers list in the jobs they post.

iHispano.com makes it easy to research your job target so that you can "keyword optimize" your resume. It's a 3-step process:

Step 1: Find Jobs on iHispano.com

Go to iHispano.com's home page to access the JOB SEARCH function: http://www.ihispano.com/jobsearch.asp
Type in keywords that represent your ideal job (job titles, skills, qualifications).
Type in the city and state (optional)
Click on "go" and scroll down to view the results of your search
For more options, scroll down to ADVANCED JOB SEARCH

Step 2: Select Job Target Examples

Read through the postings and select 2-3 jobs that are most compatible with your goals, background, and/or interests. Location is not a factor at this point.
Select jobs that you qualify for – or come very close to qualifying for.
Take the time to find the right examples, since the keywords gleaned from these postings will play an important role in resume-writing strategy.

Step 3: Maximize Your Keywords

Make a list of the keywords (skills and qualifications) described in each job posting.
Open your resume in your word processor and use the SEARCH or FIND function to see if these keywords are present.
As appropriate, and in context weave these keywords into your resume's summary statement, job descriptions, education, etc

What are Keywords?

Buzz words
Job titles
Job functions / skills
Transferable skills
Industry terminology
Soft skills, including bilingual, fluent in Spanish or other languages
Acronyms
Personality traits
Technology terms
Product names
Hardware / software
Industry buzzwords or jargon
Technical expertise
Types of degrees
Certification's
Colleges
Company names
Terms like Fortune 500
Professional organizations to which you belong such as iHispano partners NSHMBA, NHBA, HACE, NHSN, Hispanic Bankers Association and others
Industry and company awards
Industry publications
Locations
Area codes

Taking the time to research your job target will not only optimize your resume's keyword "score" but the process itself teaches you about keywords and how the electronic job market works!

For more information on writing successful resumes read HISPANIC Résumés Generate Job Interviews

¡BUENA SUERTE!

Pat Kendall is a Nationally Certified Resume Writer (NCRW) and Certified Job & Career Transition Coach with 25 years of experience. As principal of Advanced Resume Concepts (www.reslady.com), she has worked with 10,000+ traditional and online job seekers. She is coauthor of eResumes (McGraw-Hill); author of Jumpstart Your Online Job Search (Prima Publishing); and creator of www.JumpstartYourJobSearch.com, an A-Z job search index.
©2006, Pat Kendall, All Rights Reserved