If you want your resume to actually be a marketing document for you, and get a recruiter's or a hiring manager's attention, you must pack that resume with the keywords that are relevant to the career area you want. Recruiters, hiring managers, and Human Resource departments use computer searches and applicant tracking systems to flag resumes worth looking at, and that means they use keywords to search for the ones they'll be interested in looking at further.
But what if you're new to the area and don't have much experience? Well, then you have to be a little more creative in your mission. That does NOT mean you should lie on your resume. That's always a bad idea, and you're sure to be found out eventually. What I mean is that you should highlight what is relevant to the potential employer.
So, for example, if you want a job in medical sales, medical device sales, laboratory sales, biotechnology sales, or other health care sales area, here's a few ideas for you:
* If you're in real estate, but you sold to a group of doctors, you might want to list them as one of the accounts you sold to.
* If you sold copiers, maybe you sold to clinics, day surgery offices, etc. Not only does it help with the keyword count in your resume, it lets us know that at least you've been in the environment.
* By all means, go ahead and join professional organizations. So for a laboratory sales rep job, you could join AACC (American Association of Clinical Chemistry), CLMA (Clinical Lab Manager's Association), or various other organizations where you'd find people in that profession. Then you can put them on your resume, and elaborate on your association with them, which gives you more keywords for your resume.
* Carefully read job descriptions and ads to see what keywords they use; then see which ones you could legitimately incorporate into your resume.
* Don't forget keywords for sales skills.
Need some more resume help? Research resume writing skills using keywords online, or check out the Extreme Sales Resume Makeover Kit available from Career Confidential.
Peggy McKee is the Medical Sales Recruiter. She has been placing top talent in all areas of medical sales for the last 10 years as the owner and chief recruiter for PHC Consulting. She offers hundreds of articles on how to get a medical sales job on her blog, that you can reach from her website=> http://www.phcconsulting.com. Check out what's available in medical sales today!
Peggy McKee is also the Sales Recruiter from Career Confidential. Job search techniques that work in medical sales also work for any sales arena. There are proven, powerful tools, tips, and advice for jobseekers who want to stand out in the interview process available at => http://www.career-confidential.com