How it works
Paste the posting. Read the list. Place the words.
Paste the posting or its link.
The finder reads the full text, including requirements, qualifications and the nice-to-have list.
Get required vs preferred.
Skills, tools, certifications and role terms, each marked hard or soft, sorted by how often the posting repeats them.
Place them where they count.
Title line, summary, skills block and bullets with an outcome. A keyword with proof beats a keyword in a list.
A list you can act on, not a word cloud.
Required first.
Terms from the requirements section and terms the posting repeats come first. Cover those before spending a line on the preferred ones.
Hard and soft, told apart.
A hard keyword is a tool or method a bullet can prove. A soft one is a trait recruiters read for. The marker tells you which kind of sentence each needs.
Then check the resume.
Run the resume keyword scanner with your file to see which of these terms it already covers and where the gaps are.
Beyond the list
Beyond the keyword list — meet the workspace.
A keyword list tells you what one posting asks for. CVSmith gives you the whole application. Save a job and the AI tailors your resume, drafts the cover letter, runs the ATS check, and tracks it from saved to offer. One list becomes a whole job hunt, handled.
How we compare
More than a keyword extractor.
Keyword finder tools hand you a list and stop. Reading the posting by hand takes half an hour per application. CVSmith reads the posting, checks your resume against it, tailors the fixes and tracks the application, so the list is one step, not the job.
| Capability | CVSmith | Keyword finder tools | Reading by hand |
|---|---|---|---|
| Keywords from a posting, free | 3 / day | limited | 30–40 min |
| Required vs preferred, hard vs soft | flat list | ||
| Checks which terms your resume covers | keyword scanner | some | |
| Tailors the resume + drafts the cover letter | |||
| Tracks applications, saved → offer |
A keyword finder stops at “here are the words.” CVSmith puts them where the proof goes — then turns the fix into a tracked application.
FAQ
Job description keyword questions.
Read the requirements and qualifications first: the tools, skills, certifications and role titles named there are the required keywords. Terms that repeat, sit in the title, or appear in the first paragraph matter most. Culture language and generic adjectives are not keywords. The finder does that read for you and splits the result into required and preferred.
No. The finder reads the posting only. When you want to see which of these keywords your resume already covers, run the resume keyword scanner with your file.
Yes. Three lookups a day, no account and no card. A free CVSmith account adds the resume check, tailoring and application tracking on top.
Required keywords come from the requirements or qualifications section, or repeat across the posting. Preferred ones sit in a nice-to-have list or appear once in passing. Cover every required term you can honestly claim before spending words on the preferred ones.
Hard marks a tool, technology, method or certification a resume bullet can prove with an outcome. Soft marks a trait such as communication or ownership. Hard keywords carry the ATS match; soft ones read best inside a bullet, not in a skills list.
Yes. Recruiters search inside the ATS by the exact terms the posting uses, and match scores are built on them. The parser reads the words, the recruiter reads the proof, so add a keyword only where your experience backs it.
Every required keyword you can back with real experience, placed in the summary, the skills block or a bullet with an outcome. Ten to fifteen well-placed terms beat forty stuffed ones: parsers dedupe repeats and recruiters skip lists that read as spam.
Yes. Paste the posting URL and the finder reads the page for you. Postings behind a login cannot be read, so switch to Paste JD and paste the text in that case.
Yes. Keywords come from the posting, not the document type, so the list is the same for a CV or a resume. Use the exact spelling the employer uses, including British variants.