Do you ever find that submitting your resume to an online application is like dropping it into a black hole?  Maybe your resume isn't getting the attention it should. Your odds of getting an interview go way up when a recruiter or hiring manager can find your resume easily online.  Especially if they can find what they are looking for in it quickly and easily.

Skill keywords are crucial for getting your resume noticed.  Where they are placed is equally important.  You must explain properly what you have done and for whom.

At the top of your resume in the summary area, you should list the required skills for the job for which you are applying.  Next to each of these, you should list the number of years experience you have with that skill.  If you have no experience with that skill, just say so, or say "knowledge of" or "training in."  Also list any core skill that you possess that may be relevant to that job with the years experience next to it. Ditch the generic summary at the top of your resume.

Make sure each skill that you have listed at the top is also shown in the body of the resume in each job where you used that skill so that the reader can see where and how you used each of these skills.  Under each job description, have a summary of skills used.  List the skills again, along with any other skills that were used during that job.

After the title and company name for each job description in the body of your resume, write a short paragraph with details about what the company is and does, and what your main job duty was there.  Although you may think it's obvious, not every reader of your resume will understand what that company is and what your role was unless you spell it out specifically.

Don't make the reader do any extra work (like having to click a link to find out more about a company you worked for) to understand exactly what you did and for whom. 

In your bullet points under that short paragraph do not just list what you were responsible for.  List accomplishments.  Use numbers and descriptive words to show what your impact was.  "Increased sales" is not enough.  "Increased sales by 15% over 6 months" is better. 

Repeat everything you have now done on your resume in your LinkedIn profile.  Use the information that you might include in a cover letter in the top summary portion of your LinkedIn profile.  Include your keywords there, too.  Start the "skills used" section under each job description with your name, like this:

Craig Fisher: Talent Acquisition Manager, Talent Attraction Strategist, Recruiting/Sales Manager, Sales, Business Development, Recruiter, Headhunter, Executive Search, Staff Augmentation, Information Technology Consulting Services; Contract, Temp-to-Perm / Contract-to-Hire, & Full-Time Staffing Recruiting; Executive Search. CIO, CFO, CEO, ERP, Oracle, SAP, Peoplesoft, .Net Application Developers, Project Managers, Business Analysts, DBAs, Software Package Installation/Configuration, Social Media Recruiting/Branding/Twitter Strategy Training

You need keywords that will be specific to what you do in order to help separate your resume from the thousands of resumes that are less specific.  A good recruiter will narrow their search with less generic keywords.  Having these listed multiple times in your resume will help it come up at the top of the search results in Google, Linkedin, Job Boards, and company databases.

This article was originally a guest post by me on the Matrix Resources Blog.  Thank you Matrix!

Related posts:

The Best Format for Your Resume (Hint: It's not .PDF)

Top 10 Things to Leave OFF of Your Resume

If you are on the hunt for a new job, there is no better place to look for help than a live chat with hundreds of recruiters onboard to answer questions.  Two very good ones are #JobHuntChat, and #TNL (short for TalentNet Live).  Both feature recruiters talking about issues of job search and hiring.  #JobHuntChat is every Monday, from 10PM EST to 11PM EST.  #TNL is the last Wednesday of each month from 9PM to 11PM EST.

Ryan Leary was kind enough to post a how-to article and video on using TweetGrid to participate in Twitter chats.  I have re-posted it below.  Don't miss #JobHuntChat with host Rich DeMatteo (@cornonthejob) tonight and each Monday at 10PM EST, and #TNL next Wed. at 9PM EST.

Managing #Twitter with #Tweetgrid and #TNL by Ryan Leary

Ever join a Twitter chat like #TNL or #jobhuntchat?  Ever have trouble keeping up with the hundreds of tweets coming across your screen? Some may already be running with this program, but if you’re  not you should highly consider looking into Tweetgrid.com.

It’s simple to use and will help you make sense out of your Twitterverse. Here are a few key points (below the video) taken from the FAQ’s of Tweetgrid but check out the 2 minute video on making your #TNL experience the best it can be.

This video was created for @fishdogs and the crew at #TNL

What is TweetGrid.com?

TweetGrid is a powerful Twitter Search Dashboard that allows you to search for up to 9 different topics, events, conversations, hashtags, phrases, people, groups, etc in real-time. As new tweets are created, they are automatically updated in the grid. No need to refresh the page!

Can I recruit or Source on TweetGrid.com?

Yes. You can’t get overly complicated, but try modifying something like this:

developer OR coder near:Seattle, WA within:15mi –jobs –job

Try searching keyword or tweets to and from individual tweeters:

Searching Tweets to a user:

To:ryaneary

Search Tweets form a user:

From:ryanleary

Track conversations:

to:ryanleary from:billboorman

What browsers are supported by Tweetgrid?

TweetGrid has been successfully tested in the following browsers:

• Windows
  • Firefox 2 and 3
  • Safari
  • Chrome
  • Internet Explorer 7
• Mac OSX
  • Firefox 2 and 3
  • Safari
• Linux
  • Firefox 2 and 3

Note: TweetGrid is not supported on Internet Explorer 6.

Technorati Tags: craig fisher,fishdogs,hashtag,twitter chat,job search,jobseeker,@ryanleary,cruitertalk

If you are a passive job candidate (someone not currently looking for a job but open to listening), are you likely to submit your resume to a job posting?  Probably not.  But you might participate in a group of other professionals with your skill set online that happens to be sponsored by a company who might want to hire you.  The resume you didn't submit would reside in a company database.  The group is a Talent Community.

Stephanie Lloyd started a series this week on her blog, Radiant Veracity, called Building Talent Communities.  Part 1 asks, "What is a talent community?".  And What is the difference between an applicant database and a talent community?  Follow the series and some answers to that question here.  I commented and offered some tips to employers and Talent Community Managers.  I have reposted them below.  Thank you Stephanie for starting this great series.

When building Talent Communities, I suggest a couple of things to consider: a company may want more than one talent community depending on skill sets. If you want to encourage membership and participation, don’t call them talent communities.

You may have one all encompassing group for “those interested in working at XYZ Corp”. But if you want participation from passive candidates (which should be a goal), have another group called “North Texas Project Management Professionals” (or whatever).

The sub group can still be sponsored by your organization and share some of the ways things are done within your organization, with an eye toward driving traffic and membership to the general talent group.

The platform may differ for each company or skill set. Facebook, Linkedin, and Ning will each generate a different type of audience. Get creative and have members of your organization actively participate in each group to get to know the prospects.

How do you sell the use of social media in your company if the powers that be are afraid of using it or don't understand it?  Jessica Merrell aptly said "Social Media has a PR problem" in our session at HRevolution 2010 in Chicago.  And it's true. 

Use different terms when building a business case for using social tools for business development, branding, or talent attraction.  Talk about building referral networks and resource networks.  The tools will just be a means to that end.

Big thanks to the HRevolution team for having me at this really great event.  I loved meeting everyone and look forward to the next time we meet and collaborating with you in the meantime.  Thanks also to the Monster.com team, Pinstripe HR, and Catalyst Ranch for sponsoring and hosting.

Happy Mothers Day!

Who is your target audience in social media?  If you are just there for fun and enjoy wasting lots of time, it doesn't really matter.  But if you are trying to build up your business, you need to be conscious of who you are trying to attract, or network with, and why.  What you post should be something your target audience will be interested in. 

I believe you should also post some personal/funny stuff too so it doesn't get boring.  Let your audience see the human side of you.  But never forget that social media is a powerful networking and marketing tool for business, not just fun.  Target your audience and post accordingly.

Here is a quick video of me talking about this subject at the  DFW Technical Recruiters Network in Dallas in March.