Getting the Biggest Bang From Monster.

If you've received poor response from your online career site submissions, you'll soon change all that because here's a secret that most folks don't even know about. Today, we're going to use a Recruiter's Secret and use specific, pre-selected keywords. Were going to build a more effective online profile that will draw far more responses from Monster ® and other online sites.

So, lets get started.

Once you register on Monster®, choose: "Build Your Resume Online".

They allow you to set up 5 different resumes or profiles. Let's just set one up for now. There are only 5 major areas that we will be concerned with here:

1. Target Job Title

2. Objective

3. Resume Title

4. Job Title

5. Work Experience

Tip: every one of these fields has keyword capability, so you must use each of these areas to the fullest extent by including as many keywords as are relevant, for example:

Target Job Title: 2,880 character limit. That's almost 4/5's of a page, if you were to fill it up! List as many different job titles as you can imagine for this role. List other closely allied titles that the searcher may be searching on. For instance, "Java Programmer" might also be titled as "Software Engineer", "Application Developer", or "Software Developer" within even the same corporation, not to mention other companies. How many different but similar titles can you come up with? Put them all here.

Objective: This is your stated job goal and has a 2,000 character limit. Just as we talked about in yesterday's lesson, transfer that keyword-rich objective from your revised resume to here. You should have a decent short paragraph that showcases and combines your current skills and your future goals. Remember, you want to stay away from standard cliches such as "Challenging opportunity as a (title) where I can effectively use my (managing and sales, etc.) skills in my ongoing effort to help grow an organization, blah, blah" This is not only boring, its also highly ineffective. Instead try something like:

"Solid Java Developer with strong (skill#1), (skill#2), and (skill#3) to make major programming contributions to remote server projects while growing to project lead role. The difference is each of the above underlined terms is now searchable. Use each section in your resume to answer one question only. By putting several keyword phrases under each section, you tighten up your focus and make your profile work for you by getting search engine hits when employers run database searches.

Resume Title: Not much to work with here as only 70 characters are allowed. Make it a key term that is most relevant and searchable.

Job Title: This (these) is (are) your current and past job titles and has a 5,831 character limit. That's 1&1/2 pages!! Put as many relevant titles as you can think of here that you have held in your past work progression. There is a huge amount of space here, so you may want to include specific job skill-sets that each of those titles required.

Don't be bashful.

Work Experience: 3,000 character limit. Here is where you make sure to include every relevant skill-set that you possess. Keep to the bare facts. Almost every word you put here should be a searchable term. You want them to find you and here is your catchall chance to do it. Also, since many employers are looking for people who have, or are working for certain companies or organizations, make sure that you list every corporation that you have not only worked for but also have done business with as a client.

Summary Dont rush this process. The online resume-builder will act as both a resume and as a screening tool. This will gain you the edge as a screen-in tool rather that a screen-out tool.

Your objective is the same in all these online resume posting sites.

Make it keyword-rich and you will definitely get more hits. More hits will generate more calls.