Ever hear the saying, “You need to add key words to your resume for the jobs you are looking for so that recruiters can find you?” I hear it and see it all the time from various sources on the web. But, has anyone really ever taught you how to identify the key words? And, in looking at your own resume, do you know what key words are standing out and represent you? Shoot, do I have a bomb-diggity trick for you which will make your head spin as it is super easy.
To start, let me introduce you to a website called “Wordle” (www.wordle.net). “Wordle” is a website dedicated to making word clouds. As stated on the site, word clouds “give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source of text” provided. That’s right, it takes the guessing game out of you trying to analytically identify the most significant words found within a given text. How cool is that? Its bad-ass, if you ask me!
So now that we know of this site, copy the text found on your resume and paste it into the form box found on Wordle.net. Hit ‘Go’ and sit back and watch the magic unfold. Print the word cloud. As you study your printed word cloud, this is your brand, your visual image of your talents and expertise. What do you think? I will share with you what I thought when I first did this? “CRAP-O-LA!”. By trade, experience, etc. I am a training and development guru. I have years of experience in organizational development, managing instructional design projects, and I am a heart and soul leader who inspires greatness. As I looked at my word cloud, I was surprised at how my visual brand measured up. It was clear to me, I had some re-work to do on my resume, but first, I wanted to ensure my word cloud and resume would line up with the key jobs I was looking for.
Knowing you are curious about this too, here’s what you do. Search the web and locate the top five opportunities that would rock your world. These are the opportunities that would wake you up in the morning before your alarm goes off. It’s the opportunities in which you are willing to drink your coffee on the way to work instead of sitting down and watching the news. It’s the opportunity that your co-workers have to come to you at the end of the day and tell you its time to go home. You know the one’s I am talking about. Go find five of them and copy them all into one word document and then copy and paste that entire text into Wordle. What does your new word cloud represent? Greatness, right? Your dream job, no doubt. Compare your new word cloud to your first word cloud (i.e. the one driven from your resume) and what do you see? You should be seeing opportunities where you can enhance your resume to ensure its aligned with the specific skills, experience and education recruiters and employers are looking for.
Word of caution here; I am not advocating you stretch your talents and experiences to fit those opportunities as that will get you fired from your new job faster than you were hired. If there are legit gaps in your experience, you just now discovered improvement opportunities for you to work towards. If you are laid off, find a volunteer opportunity so you can start gaining those skills. If you are working, look for projects within your current company to help you gain those skills. Your dream job is waiting on you…get busy.
As always, I am wishing the best for each and every person who is in the hunt for their next ‘WOW’ job.
