Steve’s a pretty regular guy – wife, 4 kids in their blended family, 12+ years of engineering experience, a degree, mortgage, car payments, some debt… and feeling depressed because he waited to look till end. Last time he transitioned was 5 years ago for more money and he liked some of people and it was simple…this time he’s heard some in his professional association have been looking for almost a year...and they weren’t lightweights. No wonder he’s sweating.

Steve’s wife can’t figure out why he’s so moody and angry…she doesn’t understand that Steve has feelings of rejection from a company he had been loyal to for 5 years. He had poured heart and soul into his projects. Even though he didn’t always agree with his manager’s direction, on a project he shepherded, he had been recognized for achievement. Gosh, only 2 years in and already a rising “star”.

In hindsight, Steve saw he had subtly butted heads on how team was treated by management and that he made suggestions that “his bosses’ way” was backward. Things began to slip. It was more real when he didn’t get a merit raise. He didn’t fathom basic tenet that consistent values with management are fundamental to longevity. You see, Steve made an “easy” choice to compromise his work ethics and principles because he thought he was on upside of lots of growth (money).

Choice #1 – Choose based on values – not only on personalities in organization.

Now that his desk was cleared out, a few weeks to wind down was in order before he could mount energy to start looking. After all, he deserved a break, didn’t he? It gave him time to think over what went wrong…to concentrate, to brood over calamity that landed on him because others hadn’t done their jobs. It simply wasn’t fair…Jesse, their 6 year old, couldn’t understand why “daddy just sits in den and won’t play with me anymore…”

Choice #2 – You have power to choose your reaction to difficulty. It was business, not personal, and even if it was personal, so what, get some support, get some direction, get some help to tackle this bump in road and get on with life.

Employers and recruiters increasingly rely on electronic resumes, resume posting boards and job banks to find job candidates. Resumes are either being scanned or input directly into keyword-searchable databases, and accessed when an employer inputs a keyword list of requirements that best describe position they are seeking to fill.

The database searches for keywords describing job titles, responsibilities and descriptions, degree requirements, computer knowledge as well as personality traits. This software scans through thousands of resumes and identifies those that most closely match imputed keywords. The more keywords or "hits" software finds in a resume, more likely it will be read by a HR professional. Keywords are most important element of a scannable resume.

What exactly are keywords? Keywords are nouns or noun phrases that identify skills unique to a specific profession or industry. Although active verbs have long been essential for building a successful resume, now noun or noun phrase that follows an active verb is equally important. For example: - Self-motivated IT manager with a strong work ethic and problem solving abilities - Talented Graphic Designer of 4-color direct mail catalogs and corporate web site design - Accomplished in Microsoft Office software applications, Excel, Word and PowerPoint - Nominated by New York Times for Pulitzer Prize in news photography

Keyword nouns are experience and skills that are specific terminology used in your job and are still relevant to your job search. Other sources for identifying keywords are job descriptions, job titles, software requirements, educational degrees, college names, company names, professional organizations, awards you’ve won and personality traits. Words that are repeatedly used in trade journals and classified ads in association with job title you are seeking are also keywords.

Whatever your final word choices are, your keywords should accurately describe your skills, talents, and experience. As a word only needs to be used once for it to be considered a "hit" in a keyword search, use synonyms wherever possible to broaden your number of hits.

The Summary area of your resume should consist of several short statements that highlight your most important qualities, achievements and abilities. By tailoring every word in "Summary” to your targeted goal, you can make this area keyword rich.