My Love / Hate Relationship With Executive Resume Keywords

Keywords. Keywords. Oh, how I love thee!

Except for those times when I hate thee. Let's get that out of the way first, and then we'll end this Open Letter to Keywords on a good note.

I hate Keywords the most when...

...you're not being a Keyword, you're just being a word that most people think looks good adorning the executive resume. These are Keyword imposters: terms like "dynamic," "dedicated," "strategic," "results-oriented," "proven ability," "commitment to," and "developed" when it's written 14 times on the first page of the resume. None of these have any place on the resume of a nonprofit executive, VP of sales resume, or any C-level presentation

There's more on Keywords and keyword imposters in our webinar, "How To Write A Perfect Resume," I strongly believe in first telling you what's wrong, so you know what to avoid or cut out of your resume. Then in the webinar we move on to what's right.

I also hate Keywords that...

...don't seem to want to be Keywords, rather, you want to be a half-sentence. Keywords are meant to be taken in quickly when the employer or recruiter is glancing at the page. Yet, when you're too hard to digest, it slows the reader down. "Needs Assessment & Solution Selling," "Prospecting & Lead Generation," "Team Building, Coaching, & Mentoring," "Innovative Sales & Marketing Initiatives," and "Process & Performance Improvement," when all on one list, amount to too much. Notice all the "&"s. If there are more than two "&"s in a list of Keywords, that list needs to be broken down further for easy reading. This is particularly true when presenting resume keywords on LinkedIn or other social networking sites.

I additionally hate Keywords that...

...are beneath the candidate. Here's what I mean: when framing the resume of a Chief Financial Officer, and the Keywords are terms like, "General Ledger," "Accounts Payable," "Billing," and "Reconciliation," I immediately think two things: 1) Those skills are so fundamental, why are we wasting time and space talking about them on the resume?; and 2) I don't need a CFO doing this things; I need a CFO to provide strategic counsel to the executive team. The financial department can handle these lesser areas. 

Now, let's flip the script.

I love Keywords when...

...they are tightly relevant to that particular candidate. I recently built an executive resume for a senior level marketing professional. "Marketing" means a lot of things; there are many facets to the field. This candidate, however, specialized in corporate-community relations. Her Keywords included, "Diversity Marketing," "Bilingual Campaigns," "Cause Marketing," and "Corporate Giving Programs."

In the "How To Write A Perfect Resume Webinar," there are several good resume tips regarding how to tightly link your keywords to precisely what you do. All marketing keywords are not the same for every candidate; all human resources keywords are not the same for every candidate, etc.

I also love Keywords that...

...are directly related to the targeted position. One size does not fit all. An attorney came to me needing an executive resume for a particular type of electronic litigation work. His Keywords included, "eDiscovery Litigation," "eDiscovery Strategy," "Computer Forensics," and "Digital Evidence Preservation." These were all terms commonly reflected in the position announcements for jobs which caught his interest.

I mostly love Keywords that...

...translate into money. It doesn't matter what a business / company sells, makes, or does; they're in business because they want to make money. Therefore, the most effective Keywords are the ones that indicate a candidate can deliver top- and bottom-line impact. Here are several I included on a retail executive's resume: "New Business Expansion," "Market Entry Analysis," "P&L Management," and "Turnover Reduction."

Keywords, I normally would be reluctant to put conditions on my love for you, but in this case, please follow my rules. The best resume services stick to these guidelines. That way, we'll get along just fine, and executive resumes will be 101% better.