How to make the most of Keywords on your CV

Firstly, an apology (of sorts).

It has been a few weeks since my last newsletter.

To be completely honest. I was experiencing a bit of LinkedIn burnout.

Being on this platform every day. Trying to post, add value, and help people. It takes its toll. I needed a break.

Luckily I had a break booked! We went home to the UK for the first time in 3 years!

We also got some much-needed downtime with a little family trip to Spain.

My little girl Lacey got to meet her Grandad for the very first time ??

Now - onto business!

From my experience talking to jobseekers and spending half my day angry with people on LinkedIn, I think jobseekers are a little misguided when it comes to keywords in their CV.

Let's clear a few things up. This is what we will look at in this article.

1. What are Keywords?
2. Why are keywords important?
3. How does the Keyword search work and who comes up first in the list?
4. How to utilise Keywords effectively on your CV

1. What are Keywords

Keywords (in relation to your CV) are words or phrases that are likely to be searched for by a recruiter when looking at your CV.

These could be anything from job titles, to specialisms within your role, software and systems used, qualifications, industries and/or products worked on. Typically they are 'hard' skills and experiences rather than soft skills.

For Example

Marketing Manager / SEO / PPC / SEM

Finance Manager / ACCA / CIMA / Retail / Fashion

Buyer / Womenswear / Jersey / Dresses /

You get the idea now. The 'hard' skills and experiences that may be the deal-breakers or must-haves you see on the job advert if someone were recruiting for these types of positions.

Essentially however, keywords can be anything! Anything the recruiter wants to find in the CV essentially becomes the keyword.

2. Why are Keywords important?

Keywords will often be the skills recruiters are scanning the CV for. As mentioned above, they'll be product areas you've looked after, systems you have used, specialisms within your role.

But how do you know which ones are important?

Quite simply, look at the job advert. What skills are they talking about that are integral to the role, or must-haves? Are they talking about systems? Are they talking about product areas or the specialisms the role will look after?

These will likely be the key skills and therefore the keywords they are looking for on your CV.

There is also another thing to note about keywords. They can be searchable by systems/software also.

Many recruitment agencies or businesses that use an ATS (Applicant Tracking System) will have a search function within that ATS. This allows them to search for candidates that have previously applied to roles or been uploaded into their system one way or another.

Some systems will allow a keyword search of Candidates' CVs saved on the system (as will job boards you may have uploaded your CV to, like Seek, Indeed, Monster, Reed etc!)

Some systems also give candidates a '% match' score when they apply for jobs. Part of this score will be based on the match of keywords against the job advert/description or keywords preset into the system for that specific job to match.

This is rare, but can happen. When it does happen - it is notoriously inaccurate. Most recruiters who have this function don't use it. (See my ATS Survey article for more info on how recruiters use these kinds of functions HERE)

3. How does the Keyword search work and who comes up first in the list?

Like most algorithms and software like this, you will never get a straight answer or at least an exact answer I should say.

Having worked across 14 ATS and being in the process of sourcing a new ATS, I have been privy to ask this question directly to the ATS companies.

Each ATS will weight the following slightly differently, but there are the top 3 things to consider.

1 - Frequency of the word. Yep. That is pretty much how much the word is repeated within the CV. If you talk about SAP a lot in your CV, then you must have quite a bit of experience using SAP..... right?

2 - How high up on the CV it appears. Again the assumption is if it is higher up, it holds more importance, relevance and also you have probably 'used' this keyword more recently. Makes sense I guess

3 - If it is in a job title. This is an interesting one. Much like LinkedIn Recruiters' keyword search, it holds a lot of weight if it appears in a job title. This would be because if you have SAP in your job title - you surely use SAP, rather than it being potentially out of context if in the main body of your CV. Again, this makes sense.

Lastly, How can you utilise Keywords on your CV?

When you start over thinking keywords, where they need to go and how to CRAM them in, you lose sight of what is important on a CV.

There are a few things you can do, however.

Ensure you have descriptive job titles.

? Senior Buyer

?? Senior Buyer - Womenswear Jersey and Dresses

Try a Skills Matrix toward the top of your CV.

These can be specialisms, product areas that you have looked after, or systems used and so on.

This helps the reader quickly see that you have those non-negotibale hard skills and experience that they are looking for, it'll also help should the CV be searched for these skills.

I wouldn't worry too much about the repetition of these Keywords. I think this is when it starts to look inauthentic.

If your CV is written well, the Keywords should come naturally!

To round up. Keywords are pretty important. Mainly to the HUMAN reading your CV, they'll want to see certain skills, experiences, systems, product, specialisms - and see them pretty quickly when they initially scan.

This article was written with a view to helping you understand HOW the keywords work within recruitment systems. This is not a cheat sheet to BEAT THE SYSTEM or THE BOTS. It is the HUMAN RECRUITER you want to impress!

ABOUT ME

If you don't know me, I am Russell. Job Search Coach, Talent Consultant and LinkedIn Top Voice. I have almost 20 years of experience recruiting in Agency and In-House across Retail, Fashion, FMCG, Consumer, Digital and Media.

I now help job seekers in their job search, from identifying the job that they want, to CV review and writing, getting the most out of LinkedIn, Interviewing with knowledge and confidence and everything in between.

Are you currently looking or considering looking for a new job and are either unsure where to start, or just want to make sure you are getting the absolute most out of your search?

Click here to book in a call with me

We can have a free 20-minute chat about your job search, and if we feel it a good fit, can look to work together in your job search.

I also have free CV Writing Courses and Guides, here FREE STUFF

All the best and have a great day, wherever you are.

Russell