Seven Secrets to a Killer Resume

CARLSBAD, CA (March 20, 2012) – Technology has revolutionized recruitment, and job seekers who want employers to find them online need to create a “database-friendly” resume, according to a new CareerCast.com report by Martin Yate, bestselling author of the “Knock ‘em Dead” book series.

“One secret to a killer resume is to use the right keywords to improve your performance with search engines,” says Tony Lee, publisher, CareerCast.com. “Yate explains that it’s critical to capture the words and phrases to describe the job you want and put them at the top of your resume, which is the area favored by algorithms.”

The most search-engine friendly resumes contain a target job title, where recruiters focus their attention, and a performance profile, which describes your ability to do the job. Keyword scatter – mentioning your skills a second or third time – doubles and triples your resume’s ranking in a search that uses those words.

CareerCast.com offers these secrets to building a killer resume:

• Understand what your customer is buying - Your resume will work better when it focuses on the skills and experiences you bring to the responsibilities and deliverables of a specific target job. Your resume should focus on how employers think about, prioritize and describe that job’s deliverables.
• Fifty percent of your success is in the prep work - Capture all of the words and phrases used to describe the job you want in your resume to enhance the probability that your resume will get pulled from resume databases for review by recruiters.
• Use a Target Job Title - Seven out of ten resume writers forget to include a target job title. Every movie or TV show you have ever watched, every book, article or blog you have ever read, starts with a title: it gives focus and draws the reader in. A Target Job Title will help make your resume more visible in database searches and will give the recruiter immediate focus.
• Ditch the Job Objective - Starting your resume with a job objective is a waste of time and space. The top of your resume is prime real estate: algorithms favor information at the top of a document, so the right words up front can help your resume get pulled from databases.
• Include a Performance Profile - The first section of your resume should carry the title “Performance Profile,” and it should profile your ability to do this job. Because long paragraphs are hard on the eyes, keep yours to a maximum of five lines; this can be followed by a second paragraph or a list of bullets to aid database visibility.
• Professional Skills - Following your Target Job Title and Performance Profile should be a Professional Skills or Core Competencies section. Placing these skills near the top improves your performance with those search engine algorithms, and provides the recruiter with a series of “aha moments” as each word and phrase drives home your suitability.
• Keyword Scatter - Repeat each skill listed in the Professional Skills section in the context of the jobs where that skill was developed and applied. This puts your skill claims in context for the reader, and every time you mention a skill a second or third time, it doubles and triples your resume’s ranking in a search that uses those words.

For more information on how to build a resume that will get you more job interviews, visit www.careercast.com.

About CareerCast.com

CareerCast.com is among the leading job-search websites. Created by job board software company Adicio, CareerCast.com is a job portal that offers extensive local, niche and national job listings from across North America. It provides job-hunting, career-management and HR-focused editorial content through articles, videos and blogs. CareerCast.com also compiles the Jobs Rated Report (www.jobsrated.com), where 200 jobs across North America are ranked based on detailed analysis of specific career factors.