What are good keywords for a resume?

Good keywords for a resume are the skills-related words listed in the job description. Here’s why:

1. If the hiring manager doesn’t see the hard and soft skills keywords from their job ad on your resume, they’ll pass over your application in favor of a candidate who did include those keywords
2. Many companies use applicant tracking systems (ATS) to filter out resumes that don’t include keywords from the job ad

If you’re writing a resume to upload to a job board or distribute at a job fair, you can still find good resume keywords. Here’s how:

1. Read several job ads for the type of position you want
2. Identify commonly required skills for that position
3. List the skills (or “keywords”) you have on your resume

Here’s an example of a resume introduction with bolded resume keywords:

Friendly and efficient customer service professional with 5+ years of experience handling inbound/outbound phone calls, emails, and live chats. Earned a 95%+ customer satisfaction rating over five consecutive quarters and developed an 80+ WPM typing speed. Excited to provide energetic customer support to help your company reach its goals.