Your résumé is  spit-shined, polished, lightly buffed and glistening in all its glory. You've run it through keyword tests, tailored it to specific employers, focused on results you've achieved, and even printed it on coffee-scented paper stock (one can never be too prepared, right?).

But when it comes to that darn objective, you're never sure what to write. Will you sound too generic? If you get too creative, will it turn the employer off? Yet the truth is that the objective -- at least in the traditional sense -- is dead.

Just in case you haven't heard it enough: It's tough to get a job these days. So tough, in fact, that it's not unlikely for a job seeker to spend six months or longer looking for a job before getting one. Although it's common for today's job search to take awhile, there are ways to increase your chances of getting noticed quickly. So if you're starting to get frustrated with how long it's taking to find a job, you may want revamp your job search, starting with that all-important document: your résumé.

After years of job-hunting without success, Adrienne Rodney decided that perhaps her master's in journalism was to blame: Maybe employers were considering her overqualified or at risk of jumping ship the moment the market improved.
So, she removed it from her résumé.

"It felt dishonest, so I asked the hiring manager how he felt about people who do that. He says that it was the conversation that got his attention, not whether I have a degree or not," she says.

Ready to launch a new career, but no one seems interested in interviewing you? Your résumé -- and its lack of keywords -- may be to blame.

Keywords are terms or phrases that are specific to a particular industry or profession, and they're an essential element in the résumé-scanning process. Today, employers and recruiters are increasingly searching résumés electronically for keywords to help them weed out candidates whose résumés do not reflect the skills, qualifications or credentials they're seeking.

This stage of the job search can be problematic if you're trying to break into a new industry or profession.

Duncan Mathison, co-author of "Unlock the Hidden Job Market: Six Steps to a Successful Job Search When Times Are Tough," recalls working with an ex-Navy SEAL who was trying to land a civilian job.

"He realized that most people thought his skills consisted of landing on beaches and blowing things up. Impressive skills, but not really needed in the business world," Mathison says. "As a result, we reframed his experience to highlight his abilities to lead small teams as well as creative problem solving and planning in the face of uncertainty."