How to Make Your Resume Better With Resume Keywords & Key Phrases

Are you uploading and sending your resume here and there, again and again, but still not getting called for an interview?

MRI Network’s 2015 survey of more than 400 recruiters revealed that we’re in a candidate-driven market. Applicants are more confident to reject a job offer in lieu of a better one.

If that’s the trend, you’re probably wondering why you don’t have a job offer yet.

Perhaps there aren’t enough vacancies in your industry?

A 2015 survey from The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) shows that 48% of small businesses report there were none or few qualified candidates for the positions they tried to fill.

So what gives?

The NFIB’s finding gave a hint: few qualified candidates.

When a company or small business posts a job ad, they screen applications manually or with the help of Resume Scanner or Applicant Tracking System (ATS) software. The screening process finds applications that contain keywords used for measuring an applicant’s compatibility to the position.

Resumes that don’t contain these keywords don’t appear in the search results, so they’re not read. In recruiter lingo, these resumes are stuck in the ‘black hole of applications.’

That means you have to include the list of Resume keywords in your resume to increase the chances of your application getting pass through the Resume Scanner or ATS and showing up in the recruiter’s search.

In this guide, we will explain why and how important Resume Keywords are for your resume, also, the process of how to research and find the right Resume Keywords to be used on your resume. Then let’s deep dive into how to make  best use of Resume keywords and phrases into your resume to get them passed through the Resume Scanner or ATS software and improve your chances of getting shortlisted and landing the next job you apply to.

And if you aren’t aware and have much insights about Resume Keywords, here’s The Ultimate guide to Resume Keywords for framing best resume, How Resume Keywords work in a resume and what are the Resume Keywords recruiters are looking for.

What Counts as a Keyword for a Resume?

Keywords are mostly nouns.

You’ve been taught to use power words or action verbs like ‘created’, ‘solved’, or  ‘trained’ to emphasize your skills and achievements. A recruiter won’t use these words to search for their next hire. 

In the examples below, the words in italics are power words, while the ones in bold are the keywords:

• Created a training program for new-hires
• Coordinated product launch campaigns and outreach events
• Developed a budgeting software using JavaScript and HTML

For example, if a startup is looking for a programmer with Ruby on Rails experience, they’ll include Ruby on Rails or Ruby in their resume keywords list. They might also include HTML, CSS, and JavaScript in their keywords to narrow down the search, since these programming languages are related to Rails.

Types of Keywords for Resumes

What keywords should you use on your resume? Here's a short and a quick glance to begin considering the types of Resume Keywords to put on your resume. Resume Keywords list:

• Industry-Specific Skills - Bookkeeping, product launch, and proposal writing
• Soft Skills - Communication, solving problems, sales, and team management
• Hardware and Software Used for the Job - Sublime, Dreamweaver, SQL, and VOIP
• Job Titles - UX Designer, Business Development Manager, and Full stack Developer
• Training and Certification - Six Sigma, Project Management, and ITIL
• Education - MBA, PhD, and BS
• Industry Jargon - Asset management, A/B Editing, and digital video editing workflow
• Impressive Terms - Fortune 500 and top salesman
• Company Names - Names of big and top companies are often used when finding applicants for top positions.
• Locations - Zip codes, city or state names used to cut down searches from a specific geographic location

Resume Keywords List (Free PDF Download)

Here you can download the  PDF Resume Keywords List for free. It can be used as a guide in helping out find the right resume keywords and key phrases to use in your resume.

How Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) Works

Now you might think inserting all the relevant keywords you could think of is enough. But a  Resume Scanner or ATS software is more sophisticated than you think. It can be programmed to:

• Look for resume keywords that employers want
• Count each chosen keyword being used the number of times on the resume, and then rank your resume in order of keyword frequency
• Assign a weight to a particular keyword. If development skills are more important than designing skills for a certain job, the recruiter can tell the ATS or the resume scanner to put more value on keywords like “PHP”, “JAVA”, or “C++”
• Detect keyword spamming

Advanced  Resume Scanners and ATS softwares can detect keywords used in context. They give a higher ranking to a keyword used in a sentence with related skills, compared to ones used on a table or beside other unrelated keywords.

You can’t just trick the ATS into thinking you’re the best applicant because you included a bunch of keywords on your resume.

CV Owl helps you with this cause with its free Online Resume Builder / free CV Maker as we have professional resume samples with predefined content comprising of resume keywords. CV Owl is helping freshers by providing free professional resume writing services, Also, you can get a free CV review by the experts as well. So what are you waiting for, get your resume crafted by experts from CV Owl and get shortlisted for your next job.

How to Find the Right Resume Keywords for Your Resume

Now you need to search for the best and the top resume keywords and key phrases used for your target position or job opening. The best keywords for resumes are specific to the position you're applying to. Figuring out what those keywords are though, requires some work.

The truth or reality is, you have no way of knowing the specific resume keywords used by the hiring managers and recruiters. But with sufficient amount of research, you may reach at an educated guess that comes close to their actual resume keywords list. Make use of these research techniques to find the right resume keywords for your resume:

1. Review Job Posts

Read ads for the same job title. Scour job portals (Monster, Indeed, Glassdoor, etc), trade publications, and company websites to collect at least 10 advertisements for the same position.

How to Analyze the Job Ads

1. Read each ad or the job description carefully and list the keywords that could be used in the employer’s criteria to get pass through ATS. Use the types of resume keywords listed earlier as a guide. The skills and experience mentioned in the first paragraph are usually the most important.
2. After reading the ad or the description list all the keywords you’ve highlighted. Then choose the resume keywords that are common—or at least appears in most—of the job ads. These are the ones likely used for that specific position.  

You can use a word-cloud generator if you don’t want to look for resume keywords on each ad manually again and again. Just paste the whole ad into the system then select the most prominent ones in the word-cloud. The number of times a word appears in the ad is listed beside each word.

2. Review ‘One-up’ Jobs

Look for at least at 3-4 job ads a step above to your current position (for ex: junior developer to senior or lead developer). The skills present in the different ads are your resume keywords for that specific position.

If you’ve some got some of those skills inside you, put them in your resume. Doing this gives you a leg up from other applicants who don’t have those next-level skills.

Quick Tip: Don’t have any of the skills you found? Add an ‘areas of interest’ section at the bottom of your resume and put the keywords there.  

3. Talk to an Insider or Recruiter

Ask your hiring manager or an employer or someone who is currently working in the company you’re targeting for an informational interview. Know and learn how to conduct an informational interview:

Recruiters will frown upon questions about their  Resume Scanner or ATS resume keywords list, but there’s no harm in asking about the professional experience, background and skills they want for a specific position. The jargon and specific skills they mention are likely used to screen applicants on their ATS.

Where and How to place Resume Keywords on Your Resume (With Examples)

1. Resume Summary Section

The professional summary at the top of your resume ‘sets the recruiting manager up with background details about you. Placed at the top, it’s one of the best places to include relevant resume keywords to showcase your professional brand. Resume Keywords placed in the summary section are also presented in context, so it’s ATS and human friendly and can help you a lot.

2. Work History on Your Resume

Stand-alone keywords, such as skills and industry jargon give your resume a boost in Boolean searches on a  Resume Scanner or ATS. But these aren’t enough for more sophisticated ATS searches.

Advanced  Resume Scanners and ATS software detects context. That’s why you should also use keywords that could be associated to other skills or experience related to your job.

Keywords should also be tied to accomplishments. One way to do that is to write an accomplishment that describes how you’ve used the expertise represented by that keyword.

3. Resume Skills Section

The skills section of your resume is the most obvious part to place relevant resumes keywords, specifically skills, hardware or software, and industry jargon. Organizing keywords into different sections relevant to your job gives it context for the ATS, while making it easy on the eyes.

4. Education and Training

A college degree are sometimes used to screen applications. Ivy League schools, for instance, may be used to filter applications for high-profile companies and positions. A specific college degree, on the other hand, may be used for entry-level positions where the applicant’s degree is one of the primary considerations for getting an interview.

The training and certification section is another area where you can add skills, industry jargon, and specific training required for certain job titles. For example, a company hiring an experienced ECE might also require CCNA certification, so they’ll add it to their list of keywords.

Quick Tips to Help Maximize the Power of Keywords in Your Resume

1. Using Synonyms and Acronyms on Your Resume

Again you must not be knowing the exact terms a recruiter or hiring manager looks for and will be using on the ATS or the Resume Scanner. So it does make sense to look for synonyms, acronyms, and other versions of a resume keyword to be used in your resume.

The ATS or the Resume Scanner doesn’t automatically recognize common abbreviations. It doesn’t know that “MBA” also means “Master of Business Administration,” so the ATS won’t flag the abbreviated version unless the recruiter also typed it into the system.

2. Using Location Based Keywords

Recruiters also use city, state, specific towns or any specific geographic location on ATS searches to find applicants for local positions. For example, a US-based company hiring a Video Editor will use the key phrases, “Video Editor” AND “US” so the ATS will only show applications that includes both the key phrases.

It pays to include your city, town, and state into your resume. If you’re concerned about your privacy, include your city, town, and state and just exclude the house number and street address.

3. Use Keyword Analysis Tools

Go for tools like Jobscan or Resunate, services that can help you compare your resume to the job ad/desc you’re applying for. You just need to upload your resume into their system and then paste the entire job description to begin the comparison.

These tools helps you by providing you with a percentage rate that shows how your resume compares against the job desc, and helps you with some tips for improving the keywords on your resume. Resunate uses a 10-point compatibility scale instead of a percentage. Both services offer a free trial.

And if you aren’t aware and have much insights about Resume Keywords, here’s The Ultimate guide to Resume Keywords for framing best resume, How Resume Keywords work in a resume and what are the Resume Keywords recruiters are looking for.

Write for Both Audiences

Making sure your resume passes the ATS’ scrutiny is important. But the human readers, the recruiters and employers, are just as important. Do not sacrifice the readability of your resume just to satisfy an ATS.

Ideally, an ATS and recruiter-friendly resume is grammatically correct and includes at least 50% of the keywords in the job ad.

Not sure how to make an awesome resume that employers and ATS will love? Check out this comprehensive, multipart series on How to Create a Great Resume (Ultimate Guide), or begin with this helpful tutorial:

CV Owl helps you with this cause with its free Online Resume Builder / free CV Maker as we have professional resume samples with predefined content comprising of resume keywords. CV Owl is helping freshers by providing free professional resume writing services, Also, you can get a free CV review by the experts as well. So what are you waiting for, get your resume crafted by experts from CV Owl and get shortlisted for your next job.