When hiring managers search their collections of electronic résumés, they use keywords as search terms. A résumé's relevancy score increases when it has more of the desired keywords. This means that it will appear higher on the list of résumés returned by the search and its chances of being reviewed by a human are increased. Keywords used in electronic searches tend to be nouns, while traditional résumés tend to emphasize action verbs.

Environmental job announcements were culled from ten issues of The Boston Sunday Globe from early 2000. Keywords were counted and tabulated below; terms often found with keywords as phrases are included in parentheses. To create a list more specific to your needs, write down the keywords you find in newspaper vacancy announcements that interest you.