CV keywords are a vital component of a strong CV. With the right keywords, you’ll ensure that your CV is found in recruiter searches and impress the reader with your skills and abilities. But what are the best CV keywords and how can you incorporate them naturally throughout your CV?
In this article, we explore how to find out which CV keywords will make your CV stand out, suggest some dynamic verbs to include and explain how to weave keywords into your CV in a way that showcases your suitability for the role.
Finding appropriate keywords for your CV
There are several ways of identifying appropriate CV keywords.
Job adverts provide plenty of clues, but you can use your own knowledge to supplement your research too.
Use the job advert
One of the best ways to identify the keywords you need to include in your CV is by analysing the job advert. Locate the Person Specification or Requirements section of the advert and highlight words and phrases that the role demands. These are the critical keywords you’ll need to include in your CV
For example, let’s take a look at this advert:
The CV keywords to include would be:
- Qualified Teacher Status (QTS)
- SENCO qualification
- Students with special educational needs
- SEN legislation, policies and best practice
- Communication
- Interpersonal skills
- Positive relationships
- Work collaboratively
- Multidisciplinary team
Create a word cloud
If you don’t have a particular job in mind at this stage, you can still pull together a master CV that you can simply
tweak to fit the job requirements as you apply. In that case, pull together some adverts of roles in the general area that you’re interested in. You can either take the long route, by picking out the keywords from every advert, or you can copy and paste the relevant sections of the adverts into a word cloud generator to see what words and phrases are coming up time and time again.
Leverage your own knowledge
As well as using the information provided in the advert, you can also rely on your own knowledge of the role and the industry. Which words and phrases would a recruiter or hiring manager expect to see on your CV? That’s not to say that you should cram your document with jargon and acronyms – quite the opposite. Remember that the first person to read your CV may not have direct experience of the role themselves – for example it may be reviewed by someone in the HR department. But you should certainly show an understanding of the role by carefully selecting the words you use on your CV. A Project Manager, for example, would be expected to use words such as risk management, timelines, budgets, planning and so on.
Add dynamic verbs
It’s important when writing a CV that you show the value you bring to a business. That means choosing verbs that show how you’ve contributed. When you’re pulling together your responsibilities and
achievements, don’t make the common mistake of repeating the same tired phrases. Starting every bullet point with “managed” or “responsible for” or “helped” doesn’t make your CV interesting or engaging to read. Instead, show what you’ve achieved by using more dynamic verbs such as:
- Increased
- Reduced
- Saved
- Delivered
- Won
- Transformed
- Spearheaded
- Drove
- Resolved
- Streamlined
Incorporating CV keywords naturally
Now you know which words you need, but what’s the best way to add them?
Adding dynamic verbs to your CV
The high-impact verbs are easy to add to your CV. Within your Achievements section for each role, list your accomplishments in bullet points. Every bullet point should start with a verb, which will immediately show your contribution. If you can quantify that contribution, even better! For example:
- Reduced raw material costs by £10,000 per month by negotiating with suppliers
- Won “Team Leader of the Month” twice in one year
- Streamlined end-of-month accounting processes to save 2 working days per month
Adding keywords from adverts to your CV
Keywords from adverts can be a bit trickier to include, but the good news is that there’s a lot of flexibility in where to put them. Let’s look at some options:
In the Profile section
The
profile is the best place to include the most in-demand skills. Using the advert above, the profile could start:
- A Secondary English Teacher with a SENCO qualification and a strong background in supporting students with special educational needs.
This opener states exactly what the person does, includes two vital keywords and aligns their experience and knowledge perfectly with the requirements of the role.
In the Skills section
When compiling your
Skills section, the focus should be on hard skills, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t include a few soft skills too. Be guided by the content of the adverts and terminology that you know is expected for the role and industry. Using the same advert, the Skills section could look like this:
- Teaching and Learning | Special Educational Needs | SEN Legislation | SEN Policies | Multidisciplinary Teamwork | Assessment | Inclusion | Progress Tracking | Curriculum Development
In the Professional Experience section
The Professional Experience section is where you have the opportunity to expand on your previous roles, so you’ll certainly be able to incorporate plenty of CV keywords here. For example:
- Improved safeguarding across the school as a member of a multidisciplinary team
- Built positive relationships with colleagues, parents and students
- Implemented SEN best practice to ensure that every individual felt safe and supported and made progress in line with their abilities
In the Qualifications and Professional Development sections
The keywords that you can include in this section are limited by the
qualifications you have and the courses you’ve completed. While you won’t want to go into much depth here (unless you’re a recent graduate or
year ), you can expand on topics covered in your courses if they’d add keywords that you can’t crowbar in elsewhere on your CV. For example, if you’ve identified Advocacy as a keyword but only have theoretical knowledge of the subject, you can present it as follows:
- BA (Hons) degree in Communications and Public Relations (modules included Advocacy, Crisis Management and Speech Writing)
What NOT to do
We’ve discussed how to add CV keywords naturally, but what should you NOT do? There are plenty of dodgy CV hacks out there on the internet, but it’s wise to steer clear of them. In particular:
Don’t hide keywords in white text
While some less-than-ethical commentators advise hiding CV keywords in white text, this is definitely not recommended. Firstly, if you’re wise to the trick then recruiters, who spend their days reviewing CVs, are most certainly wise to it. You’re not fooling anyone. Secondly, if your CV is scanned into an HR system, the text will likely be standardised in black anyway, which will result in you looking rather silly. Thirdly, if you can’t incorporate the keywords naturally into your CV, it’s likely that you aren’t the right person for the job. Even if you get called for an interview, your lack of experience and credible examples will easily be spotted and you will have wasted everyone’s time. All things considered, this isn’t a hack worth pursuing.
Don’t be less than truthful
If you genuinely don’t have the experience to include every single keyword in your CV, that’s fine! Very few people tick every single box. Don’t be tempted to be flexible with the truth, or even include an outright lie, for any reason – least of all to cram an extra keyword in. Apart from being unethical, if you’re caught out it’s really not a good look.
Don’t keyword cram
It’s important that your CV reads easily and naturally. Cramming the document from margin to margin with keywords is not recommended. Instead, using keywords in context and presenting a concise and approachable document is the way forward. Your CV will be evaluated by a human, despite plenty of online fearmongering about “the bots” that will reject your CV, so by making your reader’s job easier you’re doing yourself a favour.
CV keywords can elevate your job search!
After all that, you’re in a strong position to create a CV that naturally shows off your suitability for the role and presents your skills, experience and qualifications in a compelling, persuasive way. If you’d like an expert opinion on your CV before you send it out, or even if you’d like to outsource the entire task, CV Shed is here to help. With
services and prices for every budget, why not see how I can help you?
