What is an Effective Keyword Resume?

Your resume is the hub of your career wheel. It connects all of the spokes together in your job search, while keeping you focused and traveling in the right direction. Of course we will all take detours now and again, but a well prepared and continuously updated résumé will keep things in perspective.

The objective of a resume is still the same, regardless of whether it is in electronic or traditional format: to get you an interview. What's changing is the way you get noticed. Today, there are three factors that will affect how you get noticed:

Factor One: Corporate downsizing and restructuring have created a results-oriented job market. This means employers are looking for candidates who can solve problems and adapt to changing conditions.

Factor Two: There is an increasing demand for technical and nontechnical workers who are computer-literate.

Factor Three: More companies are turning to computer technology to manage their job application and screening processes as human resource staffs become more efficient and cost effective. This means there is a high probability that your ink-on-paper résumé will be transformed into electronic data and entered into automated résumé databases.

Just as an entrepreneur must look to the future to determine today's marketing strategy, so must the person in search of a new job. And a good effective résumé should help to facilitate that process. For the purpose of this tutorial, the definition of an effective keyword résumé is one that:

• Aligns your career objective to meet the needs of the job market;
  
• Presents your qualifications to reflect the kinds of problems you can solve;
  
• Emphasizes your technical skills, diversity and flexibility;
  
• Highlights your accomplishments rather than previous job duties and responsibilities;
  
• Incorporates formats that are computer-friendly;
  
• Answers the "Who," "What," and "So What" within the first 30 seconds of a visual scan.