Guides

How to Find the Right Keywords for an ATS Resume

Applicant tracking systems let recruiters search and sort resumes by the words in them. The right keywords come from the job posting itself, and they only help when they're true and placed where a person will read them.

The keywords are already in the posting

There's no secret list. Recruiters search for the job title, the tools, the certifications, and the skills they wrote in the job description. Your job is to find those and use the same words.

How to pull them out in 5 minutes

1. Copy the posting into a blank document.
2. Highlight hard skills and tools: software, methods, certifications, licenses (Salesforce, SQL, HubSpot, CDL, Lean, GAAP).
3. Highlight the job title and close variants ("customer success manager", "account manager").
4. Highlight repeated phrases. If "onboarding" shows up three times, it matters.
5. Cross off soft fluff like "fast-paced" and "self-starter". Nobody searches for those.

Use their exact wording

If the posting says "customer onboarding" and your resume says "helped new clients get started", a keyword search can miss you. Same fact, their words:

Where to put keywords

• In your bullets, attached to something you did. This is where they carry the most weight with a human reader.
• In a short Skills section, for tools and certifications you really have.
• In your summary, once, using the job title if it fits your experience.

What not to do

• Don't paste the posting in white text. Recruiters see the parsed text, and it looks bad.
• Don't list tools you've never used. It can fall apart in the first interview.
• Don't repeat one keyword ten times. Once or twice, in context, is enough.

Keep the format readable

Use one column, standard section headings, and plain text for your contact details. Tables, text boxes, and graphics can scramble when the system reads them.