How to find ATS keywords in a job description

You do not have to guess which keywords an applicant tracking system is looking for. Whoever wrote the job description already told you. The skill is in reading it like a checklist and reflecting it back honestly.

The job description is the answer key

The system scores your CV partly on how well it matches the posting. So the posting is the source of truth. Copy the job description into a blank document and mark it up: which words describe the role, which name specific skills or tools, and which appear more than once.

What to extract

• The job title, in the exact wording used, plus common variants.
• Hard skills and tools named in the ad (the software, methods and qualifications).
• Repeated phrases. If a term appears two or three times, it matters to them, so make sure it appears on your CV.
• The must-haves, usually in the “requirements” or “essential” section. These are non-negotiable filters.

Mirror the wording, in context

Systems often match fairly literally, so use the employer’s phrasing where it is true. If they say “financial modelling”, do not only write “built models”. And put the terms inside real achievements, not a keyword dump: “Rebuilt the financial model that the board used for the Series B” beats a lonely bullet reading “financial modelling”.

The honesty line

Only mirror what is genuinely true of you. Keyword-matching gets you past the filter, but a human reads next, and the interview after that. Claiming a skill you do not have to beat the ATS just moves the rejection a few steps later, and costs you more.

The free Standout CV builder does this matching for you: tell it the role and paste your history, and it works the right keywords into a clean CV where they actually fit.