ATS keywords for a UK CV: how to find them in a job advert and use them truthfully

ATS keywords are the words in a job advert that a recruiter, a search tool or a scoring panel can use to judge your CV: the job title, skills, tools, qualifications and phrases the employer repeats. The safe way to use them is to find the ones that matter in the advert, keep only those you can honestly evidence, use the employer's wording for them, and put each one inside a real line about what you did. Do not repeat words to chase a score, and never hide them.

Careers services in the UK agree on that advice but disagree on how much recruitment software actually ranks or rejects CVs, so this guide shows where the evidence is firm and where it is not. It draws on UK universities, public bodies and employers, listed under Sources.

What ATS keywords are

An applicant tracking system (ATS) is software that stores applications and lets employers sort and search them. A keyword is any term that a search or a person could use to find or judge you. In practice these are:

• The job title. Either the title of the role, or titles of similar roles.
• Skills and duties. For example "handling enquiries" or "data analysis".
• Tools and systems. Software, equipment or processes the job uses.
• Qualifications and licences. Degrees, certificates and checks.
• Criteria. In public sector adverts, the essential and desirable points in the person specification. Here the "keyword" is really a criterion that people score.

The University of Bristol's careers service describes an ATS as turning your CV into fields that a recruiter can search, much as they would use a search engine, with terms such as "problem solving" (Bristol). Prospects, the graduate careers site, says keywords come mainly from the job description and are shaped by hiring managers and recruiters (Prospects).

What an ATS really does with keywords

Three different things get mixed up under the word "ATS", and it helps to separate them.

1. Rules that remove people. Knock-out questions and eligibility rules, such as the right to work, can end an application at once. Bristol says rejection on the content of your CV alone is very unlikely, and that quick rejections are often down to screening questions, a closed vacancy, a duplicate application or eligibility rules (Bristol).
2. Search. A recruiter types terms into a search box and the system shows CVs that contain them. Greenhouse, a US applicant tracking system, says in its help pages that a keyword in a recruiter's search must exactly match the keyword in the application to appear in the results (Greenhouse Support). Reed, a UK job board, says traditional CV search tools rely heavily on exact matches, while its newer search builder uses semantic search that recognises related titles, skills and synonyms (Reed). That is a job board describing its own product.
3. Scoring or ranking. Some tools rank candidates against criteria. UK government guidance says that in most cases such screening tools score candidates using keyword search results, based on criteria the employer defines (GOV.UK). LSE Careers describes a scoring and ranking stage against the job description (LSE).

The sources do not agree on how much of this happens:

• Bristol says an ATS does not score or rank candidates, while LSE describes scoring and ranking as one stage (Bristol, LSE).
• Greenhouse says it never uses AI to rate candidates or auto-reject applications, and that other companies may (Greenhouse). It describes most applications as reviewed by people, while recruiters can still set their own rule-based auto-reject rules, such as for right to work (Greenhouse). This is a vendor describing its own product.
• Prospects, in its own Q and A, says most medium and large-sized employers use an ATS to sort, rank and filter CVs, though humans still make decisions (Prospects).
• The University of Manchester's careers service says that where an employer uses an ATS, it only scans for keywords already in the job description, and that only the largest employers use one (Manchester). That page is undated.
• Prospects quotes a university careers head saying these systems are usually used by large-volume recruiters, with CVs screened for keywords from the job description and sorted into a priority shortlist (Prospects).

On how common they are, the CIPD's 2024 Resourcing and talent planning survey of 1,016 UK HR professionals, run by YouGov in April 2024, found that 26% of organisations used an ATS (CIPD). The report describes adoption of recruitment technology as limited, particularly in smaller organisations and the public sector. We found no UK source that measures how often CVs are rejected on keywords alone, and figures such as "75% of CVs are rejected by an ATS" appear on commercial pages without a source we could trace. Treat them as unproven.

The practical conclusion is that you cannot know which kind of system you are facing, so use the wording that works in all of them: the employer's own terms for the things that are true of you, written where a person can also see the evidence. Our ATS-friendly CV guide covers layout, and our guide to using an AI CV improver safely covers the survey figures on AI screening.

How to find the keywords in a job advert

Work on the advert and, for public sector jobs, the person specification. The National Careers Service suggests looking in the advert for the job description, the essential criteria and the company details, and highlighting the skills you have that they asked for (National Careers Service). LSE Careers suggests highlighting the words and phrases that appear most often in the advert, because they show what the employer is prioritising (LSE). Prospects advises reading the job description and person specification thoroughly and including relevant keywords from them (Prospects).

1. Copy the advert into a document so that you can mark it up.
2. Mark the essential points separately from the desirable ones. Essential points come first.
3. Mark the job title, tools, systems, qualifications and licences. These are the terms most likely to be searched for.
4. Mark repeated words and verbs. If the advert says "bookings" four times, it matters.
5. Check each term against your own experience. Write a line next to each one saying what you did that proves it. If you cannot, it is not a keyword for your CV.

If the advert is thin, look at similar adverts. Kaplan, a training provider, suggests looking at several similar adverts to see which terms recur (Kaplan UK), and the National Careers Service says to use its job profiles to see the skills needed when there is no job description (National Careers Service). For a speculative application, the University of Oxford suggests building a list of the skills an employer is likely to want from sector knowledge and similar adverts (Oxford).

Use only the keywords that are true of you

Sort every term into one of three groups: you have it and can prove it; you have it but never wrote it down; you do not have it. Only the first two belong on your CV. Our guide to skills for a CV and our guide to tailoring a CV to a job description go through this in more detail, and show how to dig out experience you have forgotten to write down.

The employer's wording is not evidence about you. A requirement in the advert tells you what to look for in your own history, not what to claim. A term you cannot back up will not survive an interview, and a job title you never held should never be changed to match the advert. Keep your real titles and dates exactly as they were.

Exact words or synonyms

Because some systems match exactly (Greenhouse) and others recognise related terms (Reed), the safest approach is to mirror the advert's wording for the terms that matter most. LSE gives the example of writing "data analysis" if the advert says that, rather than "data analytics", while noting that newer systems can match meaning too (LSE). The University of York similarly advises including the skills, tools or technologies named in the advert (York).

Mirror the employer's wording for job titles you really held, tools you really used and qualifications you really have, and use the advert's own words for skills and duties wherever they accurately describe what you did. Where they do not, keep your natural wording rather than stretch the truth. One vendor, Greenhouse, says its system uses AI to suggest related keywords and synonyms from the job description for recruiters to search, for example that a job description mentioning JavaScript might suggest React or TypeScript, and that candidates do not need to stuff their application with "magic keywords" (Greenhouse). The matches are still exact, so this does not mean every synonym will be found.

Acronyms and full names

Where a qualification or tool has a common abbreviation, write the full name once with the abbreviation in brackets. LSE gives Project Management Professional (PMP) as an example, so that the record matches whichever form a recruiter searches (LSE). Kaplan makes a similar point about writing qualifications out in full, for example "AAT Qualification (Association of Accounting Technicians)", and optionally naming each level studied (Kaplan UK). LSE also warns that a spelling mistake can mean a keyword is missed.

Where to put keywords on your CV

Put keywords inside evidence, not in a list on their own. Prospects advises embedding key skills in achievement bullets and writing for humans first (Prospects), and the University of Warwick's careers service says to build skills into your education and experience rather than simply listing them (Warwick).

• Profile. One or two of the most important terms, in a sentence about what you do. See our CV personal profile examples.
• Experience lines. The main place. Use a keyword where it describes a real task you did.
• Skills section. A short list of hard skills, such as tools, systems and qualifications, can sit here. Soft skills such as teamwork read as claims unless a line shows them.
• Qualifications. Full names, with abbreviations in brackets.

Warwick also advises using UK English, because English from other countries may be flagged by the system, and avoiding tables and text boxes, which some systems cannot read (Warwick).

How many times, and why not to hide them

We found no research that gives a sensible number of times to use a keyword. Bristol's advice is to use them once or twice where they genuinely describe what you did, and its good example uses the employer's terms, such as customer service and problem-solving, once each inside descriptions of real tasks, set against a poor example that repeats "customer service" in all three bullets (Bristol). Commercial sites quote precise counts but give no evidence for them. A better test is whether each use sits in a line that tells the reader something true.

Hidden keywords, such as white text on a white background, are worse. Bristol says hidden or repeated keywords do not improve your chances and can make a CV harder to read (Bristol). A UK CV writer says recruiters know the trick (Word Dragon), and Resume.io's UK pages list white-text keywords as something not to do (Resume.io UK). Some commercial pages claim that systems automatically detect stuffing or hidden text, but we found no solid evidence, so we do not claim it. The reason to avoid it is simpler: it is not honest, and a person who opens the file can see it. The CIPD also warns employers that screening for specific keywords introduces subjectivity and bias (CIPD). That is advice to employers about fair screening, not a rule for candidates.

NHS and Civil Service jobs: the criteria are the keywords

In many public sector applications, people score you against a published list, so the useful "keywords" are the essential and desirable criteria. We did not find an official source saying that either uses keyword ranking software to do this.

• Civil Service. Civil Service Careers says your CV skills and experience are scored against the essential criteria in the advert (Civil Service Careers). The Civil Service blog advises reviewing the job description and person specification, using language that reflects the job description, and structuring examples with the STAR method (Civil Service blog).
• NHS. NHS Jobs says employers judge how well your application matches the person specification, and that you should use the supporting information to show how you meet it (NHS Jobs). The NHS Business Services Authority's scoring guide for employers describes panel members ticking whether each essential and desirable criterion is evidenced (NHSBSA). One trust says managers score each application against the criteria on the person specification, and that missing essential criteria may mean you are not shortlisted (University Hospitals of Liverpool).
• How to write it. The Royal College of Nursing advises addressing each essential and desirable criterion one by one, in the order of the person specification where possible, with a short real example for each (RCN). The University of Sussex suggests using each point of the person specification as a heading (Sussex).

A worked example

The advert, person and evidence below are invented for illustration.

Fictional advert extract: Bookings Coordinator, a community leisure centre. Essential: experience of handling bookings and enquiries by phone and email; using an online booking system; accurate record keeping; an Emergency First Aid at Work certificate. Desirable: experience of a membership database; experience supporting events.

Fictional candidate: Jo. Jo has worked on gym reception. Jo's evidence sheet says: answered phone and email enquiries; booked members into classes on the gym's online booking system; kept members' contact details up to date on the gym's computer system (Jo is not sure it counts as a "membership database"); helped set up one open day but did not organise it; has no first aid certificate.

Sorting the advert against that evidence gives:

• Use the advert's words: phone and email enquiries, bookings and the online booking system. Jo did all three.
• Use with care: "record keeping". Jo kept members' contact details up to date, so a line can say exactly that. "Accurate" needs evidence Jo has not given. Jo would use "membership database" only after checking that the system really is one.
• Use with care: "events". Jo helped set up one open day, so a line can say that, but "event management" would overclaim.
• Leave out: Emergency First Aid at Work. Jo does not hold it. That is a gap to be honest about, not a wording problem to fix.

The second version uses the advert's terms for what Jo actually did, each inside something Jo can talk about at interview.

Common mistakes

• Copying the whole advert, or its list of skills, into your CV. Prospects advises against copying job descriptions (Prospects).
• Adding a tool, qualification or title you do not have because the advert asks for it.
• Listing keywords with no evidence next to them.
• Repeating a phrase in every bullet.
• Treating a match score as the goal. Clear formatting, and the employer's own wording used where it is true, matter more.
• Forgetting the person. Even where software searches or scores, people read the shortlist.

Check your CV before you send it

Run the free CV scan, which runs in your browser, or try the free CV checker. Both are automated checks, not a verdict from an employer or an ATS.

FAQs

What are ATS keywords?

They are the skills, tools, qualifications, job titles and phrases in a job advert that a recruiter or system can search for or score against. Find the essential and repeated ones, keep those you can honestly evidence, and use the employer's wording for them inside lines that show what you did.

Do I need to copy the exact words from the job advert?

For job titles you really held, tools you really used and qualifications you really have, yes where possible, because some systems match exact wording. For skills and duties, use the advert's wording where it accurately describes what you did, and your own words where it does not. Never add a term you cannot back up, and keep your real job titles and dates unchanged.

How many times should I use a keyword?

No research gives a number. Bristol's careers service advises using a keyword once or twice where it genuinely describes what you did. Put each important term in the line that proves it rather than repeating it, and ignore commercial figures that come without a source.

Is it OK to hide keywords in white text?

No. It is not honest, a person who opens the file can see it, and Bristol says hidden keywords do not improve your chances. We found no solid evidence that systems automatically detect it, so we do not claim that, but the risk to your credibility is reason enough.

How do I match keywords for NHS or Civil Service jobs?

Treat the essential and desirable criteria in the person specification as your keywords, because people score you against them. Answer each one in turn, in the order given where possible, with a short real example for each, and avoid a general statement that could suit any job.

How Evident approaches this

Evident reads your CV and the job advert, then asks up to five targeted questions. It drafts wording only from your answers, and you approve it line by line.