• Job titles
  Make a list of all job titles that you want to produce “hits” on your resume in a resume bank. This should include titles that you might not have held, but which are applicable to your target job. 

As an example, a senior finance professional might include the following keywords: Financial Executive, VP Finance, Finance Director, Senior Financial Manager.

• Skills, experiences & achievements
  Highlight words that capture all skills, experiences and achievements. Convert these from verb phrases to nouns and noun phrases. 

As an example, a sales and marketing director extracted the following bullet point from his resume:

Other keywords for this candidate included:

• Industries, markets, buzzwords, jargon, hot topics
  Include the industries/markets, in which your skills might be employed. Add any buzzwords, jargon or hot topics that would be of potential interest to employers. 

For instance, a manufacturing professional added the following to his keyword summary: chemical, oil and gas, petro-chemical, multinational organization, international, Latin American markets, Asian markets, Pacific market, TQM, Six Sigma, SPC, JIT, ISO 9000, ISO 9002.

• Personal qualities and qualifications
  Include keywords that define the personal qualities you have to offer, including those demanded of someone in your field.  Include abbreviations and the full description of your qualifications.

As an example, bilingual, Spanish, strategic thinker, analytical, leadership, creative, self-starter, negotiation skills, presentations, platform skills, computer literate: Macintosh, IBM, Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Internet, American Chemical Society, ACS, BS Degree, bachelors, chemistry.

• Geographical preference
  Include keywords that indicate your geographic preference. This is an important part of your summary. If you have always lived and worked in the suburbs of a major city, or you are targeting other parts of the country, your resume will not be retrieved in a text search, unless the name of the city is included.

Such as: Cleveland, Northeast Ohio, nationwide, willing to relocate, willing to travel, international opportunities, overseas assignments.

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Keyword Examples