The New Workplace (A Special Report) --- The Keywords to Put on a Resume: An AI tool may read it first. Here's how to make sure it passes muster.

"Before a job recruiter gets a peek at a resume these days, an AI tool is likely to judge it first. And its main criteria are keywords.

If there is a job for a CFO, for instance, the AI would be told to look for the phrase "chief financial officer" -- but also terms that might relate to it, such as "Fortune 500" or "team collaboration." The AI -- part of a type of software known as an applicant-tracking system -- can then plow through hundreds of resumes in a second, find the ones with the most keyword matches and pass them along to a human.

So, applicants should just drop in as many keywords as possible to boost their chances, right? Wrong. To leverage keywords correctly, job seekers must strike a delicate balance, experts say. Too few keywords means the AI will reject the resume. But too many keywords may turn a resume into a word salad that will turn off a human recruiter.

Here's a look at some of the crucial things job seekers should do -- and avoid -- to get the most out of keywords.

DON'T: Forget the Basics

Two of the most obvious questions about keywords are "How many do I need to include?" and "Are there any generic ones that work for different types of jobs?"

First, there is no correct number of keywords to use, says Wendy Enelow, a professional resume writer and author of "Modernize Your Resume: Get Noticed . . . Get Hired," adding that 10 is often a good minimum, but she has seen effective resumes with dozens.

On the other hand, she says, there are keywords that could work across many jobs or industries -- less technical ones such as "interpersonal relationships" and "efficiency."

DO: Search for Clues

The good news is that there are many places to look for hints to keywords. A good place to start is with the posted job description itself, says Julia Pollak, chief economist at ZipRecruiter, an online employment marketplace. Pull critical words from the posting, and similar listings, and use them to replace comparable terms that are already in the resume. For example, applicants might use "application of intelligence" instead of "experience" in a job description, or "human-centric" instead of "client-facing." Job seekers might also find potential keywords in other parts of the site, like corporate bios, the company blog and employment section.

"The algorithm is looking for a strong match between skills and the job at hand," says Ms. Pollak, "so it's smart to put those skills first, using simple, clear terms that people in your industry regularly use."

Job seekers should also do some googling. Somebody looking for a job in logistics, for instance, might search for "top logistics keywords" or "top ATS [or applicant-tracking system] keywords" by your industry, Ms. Pollak says.

DON'T: Forget The Unexpected

Companies sometimes look for keywords that won't be easy to deduce from corporate sites or googling. Recruiters may have their applicant-tracking system scan resumes for specific company or brand names, for instance -- because they want to poach people from certain companies or snap up people who have worked on certain products.

So, be sure to include knowledge of technologies like those in the Microsoft suite or coding languages such as Python. If you've worked on projects for major brands or companies, mention how you have interacted with them. "Knowledge of competitor companies, or of larger companies in the same industry or an adjacent industry, can be particularly valuable," says Ms. Pollak. "If you've worked for or with any -- whether as an employee, consultant, or vendor -- show it off."

A job seeker's location can be an important keyword, too. If jobs are hybrid or in-person only, or if the job requires local or regional knowledge, listing a metro or state location on the resume will be critical.

DO: Be Honest

Job seekers have come up with some ingenious tricks to fool AIs. But there is a big risk of getting caught -- and losing a potential job.

Ms. Pollak, for instance, has seen people cut and paste an entire job description into their resumes. Doing that will likely get a lot of keyword matches from an AI, she says. On the other hand, copying a description is a known bad practice, and some AIs have been programmed to catch it.

But even if the cutting and pasting gets a resume past the AI gatekeeper, a human will see it next -- and probably dislike it. Hiring managers don't want to see tricks, Ms. Pollak says. "They want specific quantifiable descriptions of your skills and competencies."

Some people take the cut-and-paste idea even further and put the job listing into their resume using a white font color. So, an AI can scan the text, but a human eye won't see the words that have been dropped in.

Once again, an AI might not spot the trick. But many human recruiters are savvy to this strategy -- and if they find somebody using it, the consequences can be harsh. A candidate could get disqualified immediately and possibly even blackballed.

"It's a sign of gaming, and hiring managers don't want gamers," says Ms. Pollak. "They want trust and consistency -- that matters more than any hard skill."

DON'T: Just List Keywords

Some applicant-tracking software doesn't only look for keywords -- it gives extra points for resumes that put words around keywords, says Julie Schweber, a senior knowledge adviser with the Society for Human Resource Management. That means writing sentences or phrases about a job experience is far better than simply listing keywords in bullet points.

Surround keywords "with strong verbs like 'designed,' 'developed,' 'built,' 'wrote,' 'grew,' 'led,'" says Ms. Pollak. "Our CEO always says to write like a cave man, with clear, crisp, strong language." You might also pile up more keywords that way -- if the AI is trained to look for "leader," for instance, then using the verb "lead" could be a close match.

At the same time, look at ways to describe your work that add potential keywords but also click with a hiring manager. For instance, Ms. Enelow says, "'Worked as a teacher' can be transformed into 'Designed and taught classes, created instructional tools and advanced educational innovations.' Then, when a hiring manager looks at your resume, you will look like an experienced person that could fit the job in question."

DO: Use Synonyms and Acronyms

Because different applicant-tracking systems will search for different keywords, job seekers should consider using varied words for the same skill or title. "You don't know if the system will be searching for 'CFO' or 'Chief Financial Officer,' so depending on how I'm using it, in a title versus something else, I will make sure to get both of those terms in there," says Ms. Enelow.

Including a headline or objective is one way to cram keywords into the top of a resume, experts say. In the case of a chief financial officer looking for another CFO or executive vice president job, says Ms. Enelow, "I would have a headline like, 'corporate finance and global business partner' and underneath that say, 'Fortune 500, joint ventures, mergers' . . . all of which are nouns describing what any CFO does. I put them up at the top because that way she is instantly saying, 'I'm doing this work, and at this level.'"

DO: List Your Objectives

Putting an objective at the top of a resume can be a big help if someone is transitioning to another industry. It is an old-school style but provides an opportunity to use keywords suited to the job they want -- instead of relying on keywords related to the industry they left.

"A marketing person looking for a job in training and development could write: 'Objective: Opportunity to leverage my corporate-leadership skills in training and development, organizational-needs assessment and talent-pipeline development and management,' as long as the job-seeker has experience in those areas," Ms. Enelow says. "Look at all those keywords."

The rest of the document can incorporate relevant keywords that show what you have done in the past and why your skills transfer. "If you were the team leader for safety and won an award for that, put that on your resume if it's relevant," says Ms. Schweber. Terms like "lead" and "safety" and "team" may very well be keywords for the job you want." [1]

1. The New Workplace (A Special Report) --- The Keywords to Put on a Resume: An AI tool may read it first. Here's how to make sure it passes muster.
Mitchell, Heidi. 
Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 18 May 2022: R.1.