Recruiter resume keywords
Most recruiter applications are screened by software before a person reads them: the ATS ranks resumes by how many of the posting's words they contain. The lists below are the terms that show up most in recruiter job ads. Use the ones that are true for you, with the same spelling the ad uses.
Hard skills and ATS keywords
- Full-cycle recruiting
- Sourcing (LinkedIn Recruiter)
- Interviewing
- ATS (Greenhouse)
- Offer negotiation
- Employer branding
- Hiring manager partnership
- Recruiting metrics
- Full-cycle recruiting
- Sourcing
- Boolean search
- LinkedIn Recruiter
- ATS (Greenhouse / Lever)
- Candidate screening
- Offer negotiation
- Employer branding
- Time to fill
- Diversity hiring
Soft skills recruiters look for
- Relationship building
- Persuasion
- Organisation
- Communication
- Resilience
Soft skills only count when a bullet proves them. "Team player" is ignored; "Filled 180 roles across engineering, sales and operations in 5 years." shows it.
Action verbs to start your bullets
- Hired
- Sourced
- Reduced
- Filled
- Built
- Placed
- Negotiated
- Improved
How to use these keywords
- Mirror the job ad: if it says "Full-cycle recruiting", do not write a synonym.
- Put the top 6–8 in a skills section and repeat the key ones inside experience bullets with a number.
- Never list a skill you cannot talk about in an interview.
- Keep the file text-based (no skills inside images or tables), or the ATS cannot read it.
Which ones is your resume missing?
Every posting is different. Paste your resume and the job ad — free ATS Match Score Score your resume free (0-100)
No signup. It lists the keywords from the ad that your resume does not contain.
Need the resume itself? See the recruiter resume example and generate one free from rough notes.