Never in the history of job search have individual job seekers been so visible. AND never in the history of job search could you blow a job search so easily!

During a rousing discussion between my husband and a group of young men (my two sons and two of their friends) I learned again how easily words can get out of control. My husband, often overly passionate about his political views, reacted to something his sister said on the phone. She told him DISH network dropped FOX.

My husband assumed DISH dropped FOX because of the FOX’s political programming and voiced his displeasure loudly. The discussion ensued about political talk shows and my husband got angry at one of the young men for disagreeing with him. He made a not-so-nice remark targeted at the young man. His words were continuously repeated on Sunday – almost always totally out of context. It became a joke to the young men but  there could have been worse consequences.

Upon checking, the information from my husband’s sister was incorrect. I Googled and learned the dispute has nothing to do with political slants or programming issues, it has to do with rates:

As AustinBusinessJournal explained:

Over the weekend, a fee stalemate between the television service provider and Fox came to a head with Dish deciding to let its contract expire. Nineteen Fox regional sports channels, FX and National Geographic Channel went dark in 18 cities, including Austin.

Dish (Nasdaq: DISH) refused what it said was a more than 50 percent price increase Fox demanded to carry the sports programming.

But the cutting remarks echoed even after my husband told the young men the hard words: “I’m sorry, I was wrong.” The argument began with misinformation (read Rumor or gossip) but, it could have been avoided.

In a job search, networking, or interviewing, you don’t know what anyone thinks about politics, religion, or other volatile subjects. This extends to voicing your angst about former bosses or companies, rants  on political policies, or whines about how life isn’t fair on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or your job search blog. Obviously, your resume or cover letter also need to be free of references to political or religious opinions.

Your best option is to steer clear of those topics completely. The risk of insulting someone who could move your job search forward is too great. Use your energy to show your value, showcase your accomplishments, and define your match to the market place keywords. Leave the debates to the commercials.

Do you know of anyone who blew their chances by voicing their opinion with scorching remarks?

Photo by cambodiaforkids.org

Career professionals, like myself, who have been part of the career world for years take things for granted. We tell people to fill their resumes with key words or we do it for them. But we don’t often take the time to say why.

In Key Words to Nail Your Job Interview, Wendy Enelow of Resume Writing Academy writes:

KeyWord: “The “hot” words associated with a specific industry, profession, or job function… generally a noun, short phrase, abbreviation, or acronym. When used effectively, a KeyWord or KeyWord phrase can communicate an entire message with just a simple word or two.

Keywords in Online Applications

Today many positions rely on online applications at least to start out filling a position. Those applications scan for the keywords to determine if you should move forward in the selection process. If you have carefully selected keywords that first of all fit your particular field, your particular talents, and most importantly, the job description or job posting, you will be more likely to move to the YES group for an interview.

Eliminating Candidates

With the economy as it is, employers are spending more time eliminating candidates than actually interviewing them. Talking with a college Campus Director recently, she said that their human resources department is receiving more than 1,000 applications or resumes weekly.

Becoming the Candidate of Choice

Here’s a smattering of keywords I used in a Sales Manager’s resume:

Sales Forecasting | Territory Management | Cross-Selling | New Product Launches | Pricing & Sales Analysis

You then weave the keywords into the resume accomplishment statements:

Directed an aggressive reorganization and profit performance program for the region. Successfully re-engineered sales and operations, resulting in increased revenue of 55%.

Do you see how keywords play into a successful job search and make you the candidate of choice?

Talk to me, I talk back!