Resume Keyword Match
The honest core of ATS checking: exactly which of the posting's terms your resume covers, which it misses, and no invented pass scores on top.
- 100% free
- No signup
- Runs in your browser
- Nothing uploaded
Against a fictional analyst posting: Coverage 64%. Covered: sql, data analysis, reporting, communication. Missing: tableau (2 mentions, tooling), python (2, tooling), stakeholder management (2, soft). The candidate actually knew Tableau; it simply never appeared in the resume. That is the gap this tool exists to catch.
How it works
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Paste both texts
Your resume as plain text on the left, the target posting on the right.
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Read coverage and gaps
A percentage, the covered list, and the missing list ranked by the posting’s emphasis.
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Close honest gaps
Add missing terms that are true of you, inside real bullets. Prep stories for the rest.
What this tool does and does not do
It does
- Extracts the posting’s ranked terms and checks each against your resume
- Tolerates plurals and verb forms; treats synonyms as missing, like real filters do
- Ranks missing terms by the posting’s own repetition, grouped by type
- Runs entirely in your browser; nothing is uploaded or stored
It does not
- Print fake "ATS pass probability" scores; no outside tool can know that
- Match synonyms or read your mind; it shows what literal matching sees
- Encourage stuffing; the honesty rule is stated where the results appear
- Keep either document after you close the page
What is a resume keyword match?
A literal comparison between two documents that were written to meet each other and usually miss. The posting encodes what the employer thinks the job is; your resume encodes what you think your career is. Recruiters and screening tools connect them by searching terms. The match shows you that search's result before anyone else runs it, while you can still edit.
Why do qualified people fail keyword screens?
Vocabulary drift, mostly. You wrote "built management dashboards", the posting says "data visualization"; you say "client retention", they say "customer success". Both true, zero overlap. The fix is not dishonesty, it is translation: describe the same true work in the posting's dialect. The missing list is your translation glossary, pre-sorted by importance.
Working the missing list, term by term
Each missing term gets one of three honest treatments:
- True and absent: add it properly. Not to a keyword pile, but inside an accomplishment: tool, action, number. These are the free points, and most resumes have several.
- Adjacent: translate carefully. You did the thing under another name. Use the posting's term with your specifics attached, so both a filter and a skeptical human land on the same truth.
- Genuinely missing: prepare, don't pretend. A top repeated term you lack becomes an interview answer ("I haven't run X; here's the nearest thing I've done and how I'd close the gap") or, honestly faced, a fit signal worth heeding.
Where "ATS rejection" folklore ends and this tool begins
The internet's favorite scare, "75% of resumes are auto-rejected by robots", does not survive contact with how screening tools actually work: they mostly parse, index and let humans search and filter. The real risk is quieter: your true skills, described in the wrong vocabulary, never surfacing in those searches. That risk is exactly measurable, and it is the one thing this page measures. The full myth-busting, with sources, lives in our resume and ATS basics guide; the profile-side version of the same discipline is the profile scorer's keywords dimension.
Frequently asked questions
How do I check if my resume matches a job description?
Paste both texts above. The tool extracts the posting’s ranked terms, checks each against your resume (tolerating plural and verb-form differences), and returns a coverage percentage with covered and missing lists. The missing list, sorted by how often the posting repeats each term, is your edit list, filtered by honesty.
Is this the same as an ATS resume checker?
It is the honest core of one. Term overlap between resume and posting is the checkable substance behind most "ATS score" products; the dressing on top (invented pass probabilities, panic scores) is theater we refuse to ship. What a term-match can know, this shows. What no external tool can know, which terms a specific company’s setup actually filters, we say plainly instead of simulating.
What coverage percentage should I aim for?
There is no magic threshold, and beware tools that print one. Read the missing list qualitatively: missing terms that are TRUE of you are quick wins to add; missing terms you genuinely lack are interview prep or a signal about fit. A 60% coverage with the top-repeated terms all present beats 85% achieved by stuffing.
Does the matcher handle word variations?
Light ones, deliberately: plurals and common verb forms match (dashboard covers dashboards, managing covers managed). Synonyms do not: if the posting says "customer success" and your resume only says "client happiness", it counts as missing, because a literal-minded screening search would miss it too. That conservatism is a feature: it shows your resume as software sees it.
Should I add every missing keyword to my resume?
Only the true ones, phrased inside real accomplishment lines rather than dumped in a skills paragraph. One honest bullet using the posting’s language ("built Tableau dashboards for 3 sales teams") outperforms a keyword block, for humans and filters alike. The resume bullet generator turns raw duties into exactly those lines.
Where does my resume text go when I paste it?
Nowhere. The comparison runs in your browser; neither text is uploaded, logged or stored, and closing the tab erases everything. Verify with your network tab. The same is true of the JD keyword finder, which is this tool’s single-input sibling.
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