The resume keywords that actually matter

Most job postings are written for two readers at once: a hiring manager, and the applicant tracking system that screens the resume before a person ever sees it. The keywords that matter are the ones the second reader is actually checking for — and that list is narrower than the posting makes it look.

Start with the requirements section, not the "nice to have" list further down. A posting that says "5+ years of project management, PMP preferred" is telling you the screening system is almost certainly checking for the phrase "project management" and possibly "PMP" specifically — not synonyms, not implied experience. If your resume says "led cross-functional initiatives" instead, a keyword match can miss it entirely.

The fix isn't stuffing the resume with every term from the posting. It's mirroring the specific phrasing the posting already uses for the skills you genuinely have, in the same words, somewhere a scan will find it — usually the experience bullets, not just a skills list at the bottom, since some systems weight where a term appears.

Buzzwords with no posting-specific backing — "detail-oriented," "team player" — are the ones safe to cut. They rarely match a specific screening rule, and the space they take up is better spent on a phrase the posting actually named.