As children we often used to read stories where magical words can open caves filled with treasures or magicians using words like abracadabra... sim sim.. and magically things appear out of thin air.

Resume Keywords are the magic carpet that carry your application to the shortlisted files. It is especially important when thousands of resumes are recieved by the HR and the entire process is digitised. The sorting and shortlisting from a digitised data bank is done through keywords.

So what are the keywords and how does an electronic data bank work? Technology enables the data banks are searchable by inputting a particular word or key phrase to select suitable resumes from the huge resume data banks. The employers use specific keywords, traits or phrases which best describes the position they are seeking to fill. The search will electronically sort through the resumes and select bio data or curriculum vitae which have a high density of the keywords that match the keywords searched for by employers.

Successful use of keywords require that your resumes are rich in nouns specific to your profession or careers. You can get a fair idea of the employers use of keywords by looking at their job descriptions in the advertisement.

The broad or major keywords could be the position itself. Positions like Accounts, Finance, HR, Human Resources Management, Customer Relations, CRM, Customer Care, Marketing, Sales, Information Technology, IT, Software Development, Production Management, CEO, CEO, Profit Center Head may be the headline of the job advertisement and a good bet as an appropriate keyword.

Within these broad categories there would be further searches with more detailed keywords. For illustration a search within HR or Human Resources Management may include keywords such as: Software recruiter,TQM, Compensation and benefits, HR policies, labour relations, Labour laws, trainer, needs assessment, performance management, performance appraisal, contracts, applicant screening.

So make your resume rich in keywords. Here you have to do a little bit of work. You need to research keywords specific to your career or profession. A good place to start is to collect all the advertisements and job posting online for positions similar to yours. Make a list of all the job descriptions, industry jargon, qualifications, expertise required, product knowledge and related terminology.

You have built up a list of keywords specific to your indusatry. Now all you need to do is pick up the appropriate keywords that goes with your own profile and sprinkle them liberally throughour the Resume.

While keywords are searched throughout the resume, it is still better to have a higher density in your opening Summary or Objectives. It is suggested by experts that about 25 to 30 keywords in a resume is sufficient to get shortlisted for human scanning.

Use this powerful technical secret to get more interviews. As in most things in life it is a numbers game. More the number of interviews, better the chances of landing your dream job.