Resume Keywords: How to Find the Right Words to Beat the ATS

Your resume is the gateway to a new career and professional advancement. To make sure your resume puts your best foot forward, you’ll need to impress not only hiring managers but application filtering software, too. 

Today, applicant tracking systems are transforming the hiring process in India, helping hiring managers connect with applicants outside their geographic area and saving both time and money. Companies are increasingly incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) into ATS to aid in more effective screening processes and to make the hiring process even better for potential employees. These systems track applicants at every stage of the hiring process, manage applicant pools, and filter applications using keywords.  

Unfortunately, whilst these systems make recruiters’ lives easier, they also make many applicants’ job searches more challenging. Resume keywords are the key to improving your application’s chances of being seen by an employer. Continue reading to explore some effective keywords to incorporate to get your application past the ATS and recruiting management systems (RMS) that many organisations in India use. 

ATS resume keywords

Building a robust understanding of the systems that scan your resume and how they do so can help empower you to use keywords more dynamically on your resume. 

What are an ATS and RMS? 

An ATS is a workflow efficiency tool hiring managers use to keep track of job applications across numerous platforms during every stage of the hiring process.

Many companies complement their ATS with an RMS, which allows recruiters to manage hiring activities, such as creating talent pools and scheduling interviews. In effect, these systems help employers ease the burden of managing and sifting through large applicant pools through automation. 

How does an ATS work? 

ATS and RMS both filter applicants by specified criteria, such as a specific credential or keyword. After turning your resume into plain text, the system finds this information and scans it for the stated criteria. Afterwards, it compares your document to others and ranks it according to the search query. When this occurs, the system highlights some resumes and effectively hides others.  

Knowing the exact criteria a hiring manager will use to filter resumes is only sometimes possible. Some may focus on specific skills, like project management, whilst others might concentrate on particular credentials, such as a bachelor’s degree. Some might pick something else entirely. That’s where ATS resume keywords come in.

Why do you need ATS resume keywords?

Putting ATS keywords on your resume is vital because these systems use them to rank your job application. 

Remember, the ATS turns your resume into plain text to scan it and identify keywords that match its search intent. In effect, the system simply reduces your resume to a collection of words and focuses only on keywords that match its criteria. 

Some standard filters that recruiters use to rank applications include the following:

• Education 

• Qualifications

• Job title

• Technical skills 

Get your resume ATS ready

When an ATS or RMS turns your resume into plain text, some elements may not transfer and effectively hide them from view. 

To make sure your resume is ready for an ATS, career experts advise that you do the following [1]: 

• Use a simple resume design and format

• Avoid using graphics or unusual fonts

• Clearly label resume sections with bold text

• Submit your resume using standard formatting like .doc or .pdf. 

• Consider testing your resume using an online ATS tool like Firstnaukri. 

How to use (and find) resume keywords

The original job posting itself is the best place to find the critical keywords to include on your resume. Typically, recruiters use job description wording to filter job applications. 

That said, don’t simply stuff your resume with keywords. Instead, you should mirror the phrasing used in the job description to describe the skills and experience you already possess in a natural way.  Read on to find out how you can do it yourself. 

1. Scan a job posting for keywords.

The first step is to look at a job listing that interests you and identify the skills and experience that match your own. To keep track of your matches, copy-paste the job description into a separate document and highlight it so you can easily reference it later.   

For example, consider the following qualifications from a real job listing advertising a data analyst position. To identify relevant keywords and phrases, the applicant might go through the job description and bold the skills and experience that match their own. 

(Note: Whilst this example only focuses on the qualifications section, you should do this for the whole job description. Often, employers include other key details elsewhere in a job posting.)  

Basic qualifications:

• 3+ years of experience working with databases, writing SQL, Excel, and Salesforce

• Demonstrated experience synthesising data and building reports

• Experience in a technology industry or comparable fast-paced industry

• Demonstrated experience in a commercial team focusing on clients and partner needs

Preferred qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in areas like finance, statistics, economics, data analytics, business

• Experience with R, Python notebooks and Google Sheets is a plus

• Expertise in any or all of these areas is a huge plus: technology (ex. computer science), business (ex. marketing, finance), and health (ex. patient care, pharma)

• Systems thinker who can figure out how data flows today and how to configure it to optimise its usefulness for business partners

2. Divide keywords into skills and experience.

Now that you have identified the skills and experience in the job description that match your own, you should copy-paste them into a list organised by “work experience” and “skills.” The purpose is to create a list that includes the exact phrasing used in the job description because the system will likely search for matching terms using the same language. 

For example, the data analyst from the last section might create a chart that looks like this: 

3. Tailor your resume. 

Once you have organised your work experience and skills, you can begin tailoring your resume using the resume keywords you identified. During this phase, you want to update your resume to include the exact phrasing used in the job description to describe the skills and experience you already possess. 

For example, the data analyst applying for the job mentioned above might update their resume to emphasise the skills and experience they have that match the job description. 

Skills keywords

An excellent way to make skills-based keywords visible is to include them in the skills section of your resume. This section can be divided into technical skills (“hard skills”) and people skills (“soft skills”) to emphasise your suitability for the position. Prioritise your technical skill set on your resume because it is more likely to be searched and prioritised by the ATS than more abstract people skills like “teamwork.”

Experience keywords

A good way to emphasise your matching work experience is to use the key phrases you have already identified in the “work experience” section of your resume. Remember, the purpose here is not to lie on your resume about the experience you don’t possess but to update your resume with phrasing that matches the job description. 

For example, the aforementioned data analyst might note that in one prior job, they “managed a commercial team with a focus on clients and partner needs” to help the ATS and RMS more easily match with them. 

Resume keywords elsewhere on your application

In addition to the “work experience” and “skills” section of your resume, you should also include keywords in your cover letter and resume summary. That said, use only keywords and phrases when they make sense rather than repeatedly or forcibly. Indiscriminate keyword stuffing can lead some systems to avoid your resume. 

For example, the data analyst from our example might write the following resume summary to emphasise their suitability for the position to the ATS: 

“Data analyst with a bachelor’s degree in business and 2+ years of experience working with databases, synthesising data, building reports, and managing a commercial team focused on client and partner needs. Experience in SQL, Excel, Salesforce, and Python notebooks.”

Tip: Tailor your title. 

Occasionally, different businesses use different titles for the same position. If you are applying for a job that uses a different title for a position that is the same or similar to one you’ve held, consider changing the title of your previous position to that for which you are applying. This could help the ATS better match your resume.

For example, someone applying to be a “market manager” who was previously called a “community manager” in a similar position should consider changing their previous title to “market manager” to improve their chances of not being filtered out by the system. 

That said, don’t inflate your title to a position with responsibilities you didn’t hold, such as changing your title from a “sales associate” to a “sales manager.”

4. Apply and repeat for other job postings. 

Once you have finished tailoring your resume and everything is in order, you only need to hit “submit” to apply. Congratulations!

As you are applying to other positions, make sure you repeat the process of identifying keywords based on job descriptions and tailoring each resume and cover letter to their respective jobs. 

Next steps

Keywords can transform your resume into a dynamic document that will pass ATS and RMS filters, helping you advance in your endeavours. As you search for a new job, consider obtaining a Professional Certificate to get job-ready by building in-demand skills. Coursera offers 4,000+ courses in a wide range of subjects from more than 200 world-class universities and organisations, such as Google, Stanford, and the University of Michigan.