Job applications are hard enough without having to faff about with buzzwords, right? Well if you get the hang of these word-boosters, they can really give your job application some impact.
When we talk about buzzwords, we mean two things: one is using positive verbs that showcase various skills and qualities; the other is the words that recruiters will type into job application scanning software to find suitable people for their role.
What are job application buzzwords?
Buzzwords might seem like a minor thing, but by using active, positive verbs you can highlight your proactive input when it comes to showing your skills and qualities.
They can help you emphasise your achievements too. By buzzwords, we mean words like: organised, persuaded, managed, negotiated, taught, supervised, planned, designed, achieved, and improved.
These kinds of words will transform a passive statement that dissociates you from the task to an active statement, showing that you were personally instrumental in making it happen, and thus really emphasising your personal contribution.
However, when it comes to job application buzzwords, there can be too much of a good thing. Don’t try and stuff your job application with too many buzzwords.
Trying to crowbar them into every single sentence will look unnatural and forced. You probably won’t want much more than ten buzzwords in a paragraph, otherwise it will start to look too forced.
You should also echo the buzzwords that the employer uses in the job description and the actual question itself.
For instance, if the job description says they are looking for an organised person, then make sure you’ve got the word ‘organised’ in the job application.
Optimising your job application…
There’s another reason for doing this. Here’s the depressing thing: not all applications are read by human eyes. Some employers use scanning software to search for keywords in job applications and then will only read the applications with those keywords. In particular, this might be the case for large companies that receive thousands of applications.
In that case, it’s important to make sure your application has the right keywords in it, so that they’ll appear in a search. This is not an excuse to litter your application with a random string of buzzwords, but be aware of this when writing your job application.
In this sense, it doesn’t just rely on verbs, but nouns too. So if you were applying for a software development role, then you’d want to make sure you included keywords such as Java or C++ in your job application. Use the niche terms that relate to the kind of role you are applying for.
Even if they don’t use scanning software, many recruiters will simply skim read your application for certain phrases or buzzwords.
The easier you make it for the recruiter to find the skills and qualities they are looking for, the happier they will be and the more likely it’ll be that they’ll ask you for an interview.