Quick check
Guess first, no penalty. A job post asks for "project management". Your resume (the document that lists your work) says "managed projects". Will a recruiter (the person who screens applicants) searching that phrase find you?
You send out resumes and get no reply, even for jobs that fit you well. Often the cause is simple: your resume doesn't use the words the employer and the ATS are searching for. Those words are keywords.
Where the keywords live
Start with the job title. If the post says "Regional Sales Manager", that phrase is a keyword on its own, and so are the close versions an employer might type into a search box. Then mark these spots:
| Spot in the job post | What to look for |
|---|---|
| Required skills | Hard skills like forecasting, bookkeeping, SQL |
| Tools and software | Named products like Salesforce, Excel, SAP |
| Certifications | PMP, CPA, ITIL, Google Analytics |
| Phrases that repeat | Anything said three times or more |
| Must have vs nice to have | Which list the keyword sits in |
A keyword under "must have" carries more weight than the same word under "nice to have".
Copy the exact wording
Many ATS searches match words, not meaning:
| Job post says | Wording that will not match |
|---|---|
| project management | managing projects |
| accounts receivable | collecting customer payments |
| customer relationship management (CRM) | talking to customers in a system |
That CRM row is the pattern for acronyms: write them both ways once, like "Search Engine Optimization (SEO)" the first time and SEO after that. Your resume then matches a search for either version.
A customer support post lists "ticket triage", "Zendesk" and "service level agreement (SLA)". If true for you, use that wording:
- Ran ticket triage in Zendesk and met our service level agreement (SLA) targetsFill the gaps
Fill the gaps with the employer's exact words.
Bullet
- Ran in and met our targets
Try it
Your steps, about 2 minutes
- 1.Take the job post you copied earlier. Mark its title, skills, tools, certifications and repeated phrases, and note which sit under "must have".2 min