Many recruiters will disagree with me, but such data has little depth. It astonishes me that employers will pay “headhunters” 30 grand to go sift through data bases.

But your point is well taken – people can land jobs by putting their info on LinkedIn. To me, the bigger question is, what kind of job does that lead them to? Rather than choosing what they want, they wind up with what comes along. “Forced choice” is whole ‘nother discussion.

I’ve got no beef with LinkedIn. It can be a useful tool. My issue is, What is a headhunter or a recruiter?

Someone who searches for keywords on LinkedIn is not a recruiter. It’s an armchair database junkie.

I do not just “espouse” information to show how “smart” I am. I share information that I know works based upon 22 years of experience as a resume writer and 6 years as a former Hiring Manager. Frankly, I just want to help make life easier for job seekers.

However, try out what I am suggesting regarding keywords in your resume.

But, as Karsten pointed out, don’t fill your resume with keywords that don’t apply to you. That will only annoy anyone reviewing resumes.

That is why I use the word “relevancy.” The relevancy factor is related to what YOU possess in your background and how it relates to what is in the actual job posting.

BTW, if you want to be found on LinkedIn by recruiters, you need to use the right keywords in your profile. You can check out my profile on LinkedIn if you want some ideas of what makes a strong profile.

Good luck in the job search, everyone!

Kathy Sweeney, NCRW, CPRW, CEIC, CCM
The Write Resume

So, what does this tell me about you? That you have continually “worked your network” and positioned yourself as an “expert” in your field. This is what all job seekers should aspire to achieve. Bravo!

Her reputation is her “keywords.” She has established a solid personal brand and is known in her industry.

There is no reason other job seekers cannot attain this kind of status.

Build up your network and answer questions on LinkedIn; start a blog regarding your industry, posting thoughtful (yet, non-bashing or non-controversial) information. Get an account on Twitter and follow experts in your industry, “re-tweet” their informative posts, and post your own “positive or thought-provoking views.”

This will not only help “brand” you, but if you have any “digital dirt” you can get it buried about 3-4 pages back in the search engines.

Kathy Sweeney, NCRW, CPRW, CEIC, CCM
The Write Resume

So an objective would be: “To reduce costs for XYZ Company by doing this or doing that.” One sentence, and you’re done. Nothing about you, it’s all about the targeted company.

What seems to be missing in the Objective Statement debate is that every resume you send must be customized to the position you are applying for. This is the reason a generic Objective doesn’t work: it doesn’t speak to a specific employer/position. Personally, I use three different resume formats, and I have 41 resumes on my home computer each saved as the name of the company I applied to (diebold.doc, beaconjornal.doc etc.). Gone is the right of passage I went through when I graduated from college and my Dad took me to the printer to get 200 resumes.

Remember nick’s advice to ‘Fold Your Resume In Half’.

Chris Walker

I usually do use a short “Strengths” section at the top of my resume. This is less than 20 words, in bullet points.

I try to use this section to quickly distinguish myself from the competition for the specific opportunity.

I pay no attention to “keywords.”

For all five of my professional-level jobs, I gained them after applying directly to the hiring manager.

In only one of those five cases was my resume submitted in response to an ad.

In three of them, I had some connection to the hiring manager before I applied. In two cases, I had an unsolicited referral. In the other case, the manager approached me at a conference and invited me to apply.

For resumes that will be submitted into an ATS system or posted online you must have the correct key words or you are wasting your time. Key word searching is NOT the best way to find great talent (even though some think it is), but it is the process that 99% of companies use within their recruiting organizations to source resumes.

For resumes going directly to a hiring manager, or to a network contact that is forwarding to the hiring manager, key words are much less useful than RESULTS STATEMENTS or as Nick called them “value offered statements”. One could argue that key words are a waste of space in this context.

When a hiring manager decides s/he needs new/different talent they typically have one or more business problems in mind. They seek talent to overcome those problems. If you can show in your resume that you have overcome the same or similar problems, particularly if you can quantify how successful you were in overcoming those problems, you will stand out from the crowd. This is why you should take the results/value offered statement approach for the hiring manager. Hiring managers look for problem solvers that get results! Keep this in mind when interviewing!!!

With HR I think the problem they face is a little different. Their problem is finding someone that meets the hiring managers “skill set requirements” as Kathy put it. You may be asking yourself, how is this any different than what I just said? The key difference here is that the hiring manager rarely, if ever, presents HR with a list of business problems to be solved because that just isn’t the way they work (but maybe it should be). Instead, HR is presented with a job description or list of qualifications. Their task is to find someone who meets that specification or they run the risk of a dissatisfied customer! Don’t fault them for this, they are just doing their job. That said, HR looks for skills, qualifications, pedigree, key words, etc.

This is where one of the biggest problems with resumes comes from. Both people are involved in the recruiting process and both require a resume. Even though they want the same thing in the long run, they look for different things. The trick is to get a document that satisfies both when you have to interact with HR before the hiring manager and to use the format Nick is suggesting if you have the ability to connect with the hiring manager first. YES, this means having two somewhat different versions of your resume on hand.

For more about how to write a resume summary read my Blog post at http://wp.me/pCoHk-1s. For my complete resume writing advice read my Blog post at http://wp.me/pCoHk-3.

I figure that, at the end of the day, I do better using the approach that suits my personality and that I can do well. Trying to act like someone else doesn’t work.

A company or client is hiring not just my skills, but my personality and style as well. If they don’t feel comfortable with all of these, it’s best that we don’t try to work together.