Coaches Corner: The Importance of Keywords

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The Importance of Keywords
by Milt Haynes

I was watching the CBS News last night (Feb 8, 2009 6:10 pm US/Central) and saw a well done piece by Dorothy Tucker that gave some solid advice on how to get your resume noticed by recruiters. It’s based on a concept I’ve been talking about for years, the importance of keywords in your resume.

Keywords are something you hear in terms of websites and blog posts, but they are becoming vital in the creation of a resume as well. Even if you don't intend to apply with large corporations, you still need to do a keyword check on your resume to make sure that you are getting through to the hiring manager in charge of your department.

In order to emphasize the importance of keywords, I developed a process to help job seekers measure the likelihood that their resume will be noticed. Since I have a computer science background, I had to give it a fancy name, so I called it a “resume matching algorithm” (see below).

Resume Matching Algorithm
This “brute force heuristic is used to ensure that your paperwork is a good match for the job. Print the job posting. Print your resume. Compare the job posting to your career objective and resume. Everything must be aligned. Highlight the key word matches between the 2 documents. Complete this calculation. Number of words matched/Number of words in Resume * 100 = Matching Percentage.

Matching Percentage
21% and above - Excellent
11-20% - Good
6-10% - Marginal
0-5% No Match

Consider adding additional words to your resume and changing the word usage to improve your Best Fit Score.

Milt Haynes, Founder of Blacks Gone Geek, a social networking initiative dedicated to promoting African Americans in IT, www.blacksgonegeek.org

Join the Blacks Gone Geek Community.
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Here’s an excerpt from Dorothy Tucker’s report along with a link to the full article. Check out the video, it’s well done!

Pepper Your Resume With The Right 'Buzz' Words

More than half of all companies today rely on online applications to hire new employees. With hundreds of thousands of people each month joining the ranks of job seekers, it's crucial to know how to make your resume catch someone's eye.

CBS 2's Dorothy Tucker offers the best buzz words to include so you'll get noticed and back to work.

Click here for the full CBS News report
http://cbs2chicago.com/local/buzz.words.keywords.2.929830.html