Keyword Resume - Continued

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You should also understand the difference between a simple keyword search and a "concept" search. When a recruiter opens an electronic resume file in MS Word and sends the computer on a search for a single word like marketing which you can do in any word processing program with a few clicks of a mouse or function key or she is performing a keyword search. You are also performing a keyword search when you type a word or combination of words into the command line of a search engine like Yahoo or Excite.

A concept search, on the other hand, can bridge the gap between words by reading entire phrases and then using sophisticated artificial intelligence to interpret what is being said, translating the phrase into a single word, like network, or a combination of words, like project management.

The software that allows scanners to read your paper resume and turn it into an electronic resume is able to do just that. Resumix, one of the most widely used applicant tracking systems, reads the grammar of noun, verb, and adjective combinations and extracts the information for placement on the form that will become your entry in a resume database. Its expert system extraction engine uses a knowledge base of more than 120,000 rules and over ten million resume terms. It even knows the difference between Harvard Graphics (a computer software program) and Harvard (the university) by its placement on the page and its relationship to the header that precedes it (Computer Skills or Education). Aren't computers amazing?

Because of this complicated logic, and because companies and hiring managers have the ability to personalize the search criteria for each job opening, it is impossible to give you a concrete list of the thousands of possible keywords that could be used to search for any one job. For instance, in one high-tech company I interviewed, a keyword search included the following criteria from two different hiring managers for the same job title: