Resume keywords

Resume keywords are the exact terms —job titles, skills, tools and certifications— an ATS looks for in your resume to decide whether you pass the first filter. You don't choose them: each job description dictates them, which is why resume keywords change with every application.

Where they come from

The source is the posting itself. Read it closely and mark:

• The job title exactly as the company writes it ("Senior Data Analyst", not just "analyst").
• Technical skills and tools: software, methodologies, languages, certifications.
• Soft skills the posting repeats: leadership, negotiation, working with commercial teams.
• Acronyms plus their full version: write "KPI (key performance indicator)" to cover both searches.

If a term shows up two or three times in the posting, the recruiter almost certainly set it as a filter.

How to use them without stuffing

The classic mistake is keyword soup: a list of terms with no context that a recruiter spots in seconds. Keywords work when they live inside achievements: "Cut the monthly close by automating reports in Power BI" is worth more than "Power BI" sitting alone in a list. Spread them across your professional title, your opening summary and your experience bullets — the three places both the ATS and the human read first. And keep them literal: if the posting asks for "project management", "handling initiatives" doesn't count.

How Ingenium works on this

Ingenium's 22-point diagnostic detects whether your resume uses your industry's terms or generic descriptions. In the Career Accelerator, resume optimization includes mapping the keywords of the roles you're targeting together with your Career Coach, so every application goes out with a tailored document.