Dear Savvy,

I was laid off in February and am still avidly searching for a new job. Most of my leads have come from job websites and I've been responding to ads and filling out a crazy number of applications, but I haven't even been able to land an interview.

A couple months have gone by so I'm reevaluating my strategy. You keep mentioning that job hunters should include keywords in their resumes, but I'm confused about what you mean exactly when you talk about "keywords." Could you please explain?

Savvy says: There's a simple answer to this question; to see what it is, read more.

Keywords are all the rage in the world of hiring managers these days. They're entering them into systems that filter through the huge stacks of resumes accumulating in their inboxes, which means your resume could be canned before a human eye has seen it.

Specifically, keywords are the words that appear in the job description. When your resume contains words that match exactly, you have a better chance of making it into round two. The odds of your application making it to the top of the stack improve with the more keywords found by the automated scanner.

Keep in mind that hiring managers will look negatively on a resume that has copied and pasted the exact language, line by line, of a job description. The idea is to include words and phrases that appear in the ad without copying the entire posting.

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