A job post is a list of what the employer will search for. Most people read it once and write a resume from memory. You get better results by mining the post for its words first.
Step 1: Read the requirements before the perks
Look for headings such as Requirements, Qualifications or What you'll need. These words carry the most weight. Anything under Nice to have or Preferred matters less.
Step 2: Mark three kinds of words
- Hard skills and tools: React, SQL, Figma, QuickBooks, Salesforce.
- Job titles and levels: Senior Product Designer, Accounts Payable Specialist.
- Outcomes and methods: stakeholder management, A/B testing, month-end close.
Step 3: Count repeats
A word that appears three times in a short post is the job. A word that appears once may be filler. Skip the generic ones: team, fast-paced, passionate, strong communication skills. They are in every post, so they separate no one.
Step 4: Check each word against your real experience
For each marked word, ask: have I done this? If yes, find the bullet where it belongs. If you did it but never wrote it down, add a bullet. If you have not done it, leave it out. A keyword you cannot defend in an interview costs you more than it earns.
Step 5: Write it into a bullet, with a result
Weak: "Used SQL." Better: "Wrote SQL queries that cut the weekly sales report from 3 hours to 20 minutes." The keyword is there, and a reader sees what it did.
Match both spellings
Write the full term and the short form once each: "Customer Relationship Management (CRM)", "JavaScript (JS)". Systems and recruiters search both.
The ATS scanner on this site automates steps 1 to 3. It also treats "JS" and "JavaScript" as the same word, and tells you if a keyword sits only in your skills list. Step 4 is yours.