The exact resume keywords employers search for by industry

Our latest Thinkopolis report, Thinkopolis V: Education Nation, takes an in-depth look at the state of education in Canada – based on analysis of the millions of resumes in the Workopolis database – and the relationship between that education and employment.

The findings show that, while we’re spending more time in school, this isn’t what matters most to the people who do the hiring. Employers look at 16,000 resumes a day in the Workopolis resume database to find candidates, and the vast majority of their searches are keyword based. Only one per cent of those keyword searches are related to degree type or specific education.

This leaves the question: what are they searching for then?

Our analysis broke down those keywords by industry.

Scan these lists and then see how many of the relevant industry keywords you have in your own resume.

Note: We have pulled the phrase “Project management” out of the result, because it appears in the top ten keyword searches for every industry except for hospitality. Therefore workers with project management skills and experience are among the most in demand right now.

Also, in the Finance industry particularly, the names of all of the big banks are heavily searched keywords – possibly indicating that employers are out to poach their competitors’ employees. If you work in finance and for a major institution, make sure your information is up to date.