Resume keywords are the specific skills, tools, certifications, job titles and industry terms that both ATS software and human recruiters scan for when evaluating whether you match a role. Getting keyword strategy right is often the single highest-leverage change you can make to a resume.
Where to Find the Right Keywords
The job description is your primary source. Read it carefully and extract:
- Hard skills — specific tools, software, programming languages, methodologies (e.g., "Power BI," "Agile," "Python")
- Certifications — required or preferred credentials (e.g., "PMP," "AWS Certified")
- Job title variations — the exact title used, plus common synonyms
- Soft skills mentioned explicitly — "stakeholder management," "cross-functional collaboration"
- Repeated phrases — anything mentioned more than once in the posting is almost always weighted heavily by the ATS
Secondary sources: 3–5 similar job postings for the same role at other companies, and the target company’s own website or LinkedIn page for the terminology they use internally.
Where to Place Keywords
- Skills section — a clean, scannable list of your top matching hard skills
- Professional summary — 2–3 of the most important keywords woven naturally into your opening lines
- Experience bullet points — keywords used in context, describing how you actually applied that skill
Use Both the Acronym and the Full Form
Some ATS systems match exact strings. Write "Search Engine Optimization (SEO)" and "Customer Relationship Management (CRM)" so you’re matched regardless of which form the job description or the ATS query uses.
Avoid Keyword Stuffing
Pasting a long invisible list of keywords in white text or cramming irrelevant terms into your document is easily flagged by modern ATS systems and looks dishonest to a human reviewer. Every keyword you include should be genuinely true and demonstrable in an interview.
Prioritize Keywords by Frequency and Placement
Keywords that appear in the job title, in the first paragraph of the description, or multiple times throughout the posting should be treated as must-have. Keywords mentioned once near the bottom under "nice to have" are lower priority but still worth including if true.