Can we just go ahead and admit that bot-screening is failing?
I'm not sure if "SEOification" is officially a word yet, but let's pretend it is. Remember what SEO was in the early days? It was all about trying to game the Google/search engine algorithm. The so-called experts crammed in as many keywords as possible, they buried keywords at the bottom of pages, they randomly updated content (often just changing a word here and there) just so the page would be considered "refreshed" by the crawlers.
We've come a long way. We now know that keyword stuffing is crap (and a tactic used by amateurs). We know unique and useful content is king. User engagement and link sharing is required and updating your site with real updates keeps users coming back. SEO 101.
Yet when it comes to resumes? All the learnings from the last 15 years of content marketing get thrown out thanks to the piss-poor application of resume bots. We're back to SEO 1.0. The wild, wild west. Whoever has the most keywords in a resume "wins." They get the interview. C'mon man! Have we learned nothing?
Forget relevant content. Forget relevant experiences. If the company is looking for someone with B2C experience, you better list B2C on your resume nine different times in order for the bot to move you to the top of the list. Here's an idea: keyword farms on the bottom of resumes!
As a marketer who has spent a large chunk of my career in content...I refuse to play the game. If someday that refusal costs me an interview...so be it. It's a matter of principle: how does a professional content marketer keyword stuff their resume in order to fool the bot...and then sit in an interview and talk about how they are an SEO/content "expert?!" In 2018, if you're keyword stuffing...you're a dinosaur at best. A fraud at worst.
But here we are. In order to get past the bots, we have to bake keywords into each resume and hope that the human that reviews our over-stuffed resume is looking at other over-stuffed resumes and chooses ours.
I have no doubt that the bots (like those on the interwebs) will eventually learn how to analyze content contextually compared to the criteria of the job. We're not there yet.
So, what's a job hunter to do? It's a little give and take, unfortunately.
Create a generic resume. List your previous positions and responsibilities as well as some successes you've had. Resume writing 101, right? But, here's the rub: Keep your descriptions broad. You'll see why next.For each position you want to apply for, browse through the listing to see what phrases are in the "requirements"
section. We're essentially creating a "keyword tree."
Next, identify two to three relevant keywords that are both in the job description and align with your experiences.Update your generic resume to include the phrases from the requirements section; tighten up your broad description to more closely align with what the job posting is outlining.Whatever you do...do not, repeat...do not "keyword stuff." If the job post talks about "branding" there is no need to lace the word "branding" throughout your whole resume. Save this resume with a description of some of the keywords you used in case you can re-use later.
Sound tedious? It is. But until the bots are better at contextually analyzing resumes, we have to write our resumes for both bot and human.
Resumes are content. Eventually, the SEO rules that we utilize online will be applicable to resumes as well. Until that day comes, we do have to play some games, but we don't have to sell out our marketing souls. By bringing in some keywords, without keyword stuffing...we can showcase our relevant skills and get past the bots; all without looking like a scam artist.
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