JobTabs Job Search & Resume

If action verbs are the subtleties of selling yourself, nouns are the over-bearing, in-your-face, loud mouths.  The right verbs are there to help people see you as an action oriented person.  The right nouns are there to help machines see you as a candidate.  You need killer nouns to have a winning job search.

Allow us to illustrate.  Let’s say someone in HR is looking for a self-starter, capable of working independently for an engineering project.  If they typed in “self-starter” and “works independently” they would belabor themselves with sifting through the resumes of every former nursery school teacher, grounds keeper, sous-chef, and Phd candidate who would describe themselves in the same way.  However, if they were to use the nouns which would unmistakably confine them to the genre of professional they were looking for – which is exactly what they do – then they would have much more pertinent results.

Nouns that describe job titles work well.
Integrated Circuit (IC) Design Engineer
Quality Assurance Engineer

Nouns that describe constraints work very well.
“. . . in compliance with MIL-STD-9858 and MIL-SPEC-2207.”
“. . . in compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley.”

Nouns that have acronyms as well as the acronym spelled out.
“Designed Printed Circuit Boards (PCB) to modulate . . . .”
“Designed Unmanned Vehicle System (UVS) to explore . . .”

Nouns that describe tools.
“Developed solution using MS Visual Studio C# to . . .”
“Utilized the Fabius GS, and Narkomed 6400 gas machines in operating room . . . .”

Not only do you need killer nouns you need lots of them.  Once the search engine finds the keyword it will typically sort resumes in order of relevance.  Computers qualify poorly, but quantify magnificently.  This means they can’t read, but they can count.  Therefore, which ever resume has the highest number of keywords is the most qualified candidate for the search terms.  That seems like a pretty inefficient way to find the best person for the job, however that is how it is done and until something better comes along this is the constraint you have to work within.

To make the best of the situation, do what you can to have plenty of the right words in your resume without ruining ease with which it can be read by people.  One way to do this is to summarize keywords at the bottom of your employment period with each employer.  You can do this by listing the tools you used, the technology you were exposed to, or the constraints you were in compliance with.  Again, the emphasis here is to move your resume higher in the search results so that they will look at you more closely.  Just make the information you summarize pertinent so as not to bore the reader or waste valuable space where you can sell your accomplishments.

This is a resourceful way of making sure you get enough of the keywords to make you a more relevant candidate.  Another way of doing this is to simply have a summary of keywords at the end of your resume for the explicit purpose of making it easy for search engines to find you.  Be careful.  Some recruiters will strip these lists out under the impression that you are trying to game their system.

In closing, the right nouns are there to raise your visibility.  Above all else your resumes need to show you doing your job and doing your job well.  The final piece in our five part series is the importance of bringing your resume to life.

John Coffey is the President of JobTabs, LLC.  Through JobTabs Job Search & Resume Builder, thousands of job seekers have taken control of their destiny in finding new and fulfilling careers. JobTabs Job Search & Resume Builder motivates job seekers by making the job search easier by a huge order of magnitude.  John Coffey can be reached via his website at JobTabs Job Search & Resume Builder, by email via jpcoffey at jobtabs.com, and by phone at 404-255-0248.