ATS Keyword Research: How to Find the Right Terms for Your Tech Resume

Most advice about ATS keywords tells you to "include relevant keywords" without explaining how to actually find them. Keyword research for your tech resume is a learnable skill, and doing it well gives you a measurable advantage over candidates who guess or rely on generic lists.

The Job Description Analysis Method

Start with the job description itself. Read it carefully three times. On the first pass, highlight every technical skill, tool, and technology mentioned. On the second pass, note every soft skill and competency described. On the third pass, look for the language used to describe the problems the role is meant to solve — this language often contains high-value phrases that many candidates miss.

Create a simple spreadsheet with three columns: "Keywords Found," "Appears in My Resume," and "Can I Add This Truthfully?" Work through every keyword systematically. For any term that appears in the job description but not in your resume, determine whether you genuinely have experience with it and can speak to it in an interview. If yes, add it with context. If no, leave it out — misrepresenting your skills creates problems later.

Expanding Your Research Beyond One Job Description

Single-job analysis gives you a narrow view. For a more complete keyword picture, analyze five to ten similar job descriptions for the same role:

• Collect listings from LinkedIn, Indeed, and company career pages for your target role and seniority level
• Identify terms that appear across multiple listings — these are the highest-priority keywords for that role type
• Note any terms that appear in senior or adjacent roles you aspire to — include these where you can demonstrate genuine experience
• Check LinkedIn profiles of people currently in your target role and note common skill endorsements and keywords in their summaries
• Review the "People Also Searched For" and related job suggestions on LinkedIn to surface adjacent terms

Tools to Accelerate Your Research

Several tools can speed up the research process. Jobscan compares your resume directly against a job description and scores your keyword match rate. LinkedIn's Skills section suggests related skills based on your existing profile. Google's "related searches" for specific technologies surfaces terminology variations you might have missed.

Use ApplyGlide's job description analysis feature to automatically extract high-priority keywords and surface gaps between the posting and your current resume. Combining automated analysis with your own careful reading gives you the most complete and accurate keyword strategy for each application.