THE POWER OF KEYWORDS

Many candidates are completely invisible to a hiring team because they don’t understand the importance of keywords. Today, we will quickly examine why keywords are essential to improving your discoverability during a job search. Let’s get started.

What Are Keywords?

Keywords are the critical words and phrases associated with the role that you are trying to get hired for.

Candidates tend to make two mistakes here.

1. Limited Keyword Usage: They either have no keywords or limit their usage, which restricts their ability to appear in a hiring team’s search.
2. Generic Keyword Usage:? They are not utilizing specialized keywords that the hiring team is searching for based on the role they are trying to fill; instead, they list generic skills.

Why Does This Hurt Your Job Search?

Hiring teams often use a search strategy called BOOLEAN SEARCH, which allows them to get specific with their search strategy. For example, let’s pretend an Organic Peach Farm is looking for a new SENIOR FARM MANAGER, and the hiring team wants to prioritize candidates who specialize in three areas: Farming, Peaches, and Organic Processes. When I put their needs through my network using boolean search terms, the following results returned to me:

• Farming OR Agriculture: 1 Million Candidates
• (Farming OR Agriculture) AND Peaches: 775 Candidates
• (Farming OR Agriculture) AND Peaches AND ORGANIC: 209 Candidates

I quickly went from 1 million potential candidates to 209, eliminating thousands of qualified candidates. For example, if you were a candidate specializing in PEACHES but only listed a more generic keyword such as FRUITS, you were invisible in my search. If a candidate had extensive knowledge of ORGANIC processes but only listed generic keywords such as NO CHEMICALS or NON-GMO, they didn’t make the final candidate shortlist. Yes, a good recruiter can and should infer that if a candidate has expertise with NON-GMO processes, then it’s possible that they may have experience with ORGANIC techniques and will adjust their search accordingly to ensure qualified candidates don’t fall through the cracks. However, you can’t afford to leave your job search to luck because most recruiters may not go that extra mile for you.

What Are Some Other Red Flags?

Acronyms are another way that people inadvertently eliminate themselves. For example, a candidate may only have ML, AI, or QE on their profile, and the hiring team may be looking for MACHINE LEARNING or ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE or QUALITY ENGINEER specifically. I recommend that you type out the complete spelling with the acronym at least once to ensure the system can capture it. Here is the recommended format:

• Machine learning (ML)
• Artificial Intelligence (AI)
• Quality Engineer (QE)

What Should You Do Next?

Print out three job descriptions you are applying for, and highlight the common keywords that are present across all three roles. Additionally, highlight the more specialized keywords that are unique to each position. By taking a moment to identify the subtle differences in each job description and the skills that the hiring team is looking for, you can improve your discoverability immediately.

Overall, there are too many nuances to cover, but this should have given you a high-level overview of why you may have inadvertently been overlooked in the past.?

Next week, we will discuss the two areas where we should place these keywords and the best way to integrate them.