Anyone know why this query is so slow? It the nature of a left join just slow? Any suggestions on how to write it better? Thanks in advance for the help.

NOTES: All tables have a unique, auto-incremented, primary key.


SELECT res_id, resumes.location_id, locations.location_id, locations.location_name, resumes.priority, users.first_name, users.last_name, DATE_FORMAT(`posted_date`, '%m.%d.%y') AS posted_date, resumes.job_title, resumes.experience
FROM resumes, users
LEFT JOIN locations ON resumes.location_id = locations.location_id
WHERE locations.location_name LIKE 'US' and resumes.keywords LIKE '%assistant%' and users.username = resumes.username
ORDER BY resumes.priority, posted_date DESC
LIMIT $from, $max_results

make sure you have indexes on resumes.username, users.username, resumes.location_id, locations.location_id, and locations.location_name

an index on resumes.keyword may not help because of the way you're searching it

but at least the joins will be efficient