Resumes in the 21st century are more complex than they have been in the past.  In addition to presenting the job seekers' skills and accomplishments in the best light, they must also be "friendly" to the technology employers use to store and find resumes.  So, 21st Century resumes must operate effectively on several levels not required of resumes in the past.

For a job seeker to be considered for any job, their resume (or other Internet presence, like a social network profile) must contain the keywords the employer or recruiter is using to find resumes meeting the requirements of the jobs being filled.

The applicant could be the best person for the job, but if the resume is not found in a search, the probability that the candidate will be even considered is quite low (this is where networking and luck come into play!). 

The content of a "searchable" resume is designed to leverage typical search technology in:

• Job board resume databases
  
• Employer applicant tracking systems
  
• Employer email systems
• Social media (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.)
• Web search engines
  

What are "keywords"? Keyword are the words used for search and finding appropriate candidates. For example, if an employer is filling an administrative assistant position, the keywords are the words associated with the requirements of the job:

• the skills (accounting, calendar management, meeting management, correspondence management, coordination, etc.)
• the tools (Microsoft Office, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Outlook, iPhone, iPad, MacBook, etc.)
• the education (BA, BS, AA, AS, high school, etc.)
• the location (North Bay, MetroWest, East Village, etc.)

Where should the keywords be? Everywhere!

• Filename of the resume or profile (for those that are emailed or published as a web page)
• Title of the resume or profile (for those in systems that use entry titles, like LinkedIn and Craigslist)
• Body of the resume or profile
• Body of the LinkedIn Profile
• Twitter Bio
• Facebook Page
• Email address (maybe)

It is very important that the keywords be customized for the position being sought. If you are looking for more than one kind of job (more than one target job title), the resume used for each job should be directly related to the keywords appropriate for that job.

More about Keywords:

• Defining and developing the keywords
• How and where to optimize your resume with those keywords

• Internet Resumes
• Cyber-Safe Resuemes
• Protecting Your Privacy

More about Resumes:

• Resumes
• Managing Resume Red Flags
• Triple the Value of Your Resume

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About the author...

Online job search expert Susan P. Joyce has been observing the online job search world and teaching online job search skills since 1995. Susan is a two-time layoff "graduate" who has worked in human resources at Harvard University and in a compensation consulting firm. In 1998, her company, NETability, Inc. purchased Job-Hunt.org, and Susan has been editor and publisher of Job-Hunt since then. Follow Susan on Twitter at @jobhuntorg and on Google+.

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