ATS keywords list by industry: real data, not a guess

Search "ATS keywords list by industry" and most of what comes back is the same pattern: a blog post with a few hundred words under each industry heading, generic terms like "communication" and "teamwork," and no indication of where any of it actually came from. That is not a keyword list. It is a guess dressed up as a resource. This one is built from a different source: O*NET, the free, US Department of Labor sponsored database that is the actual reference standard behind most job descriptions, the technology skills, tools, and core competencies employers list against every occupation in the country, standardised and publicly searchable.

The position worth stating early: this matters because of where job ads actually come from. HR teams and hiring managers writing a job description for an Accountant or a Registered Nurse role very often start from, or are directly informed by, standardised occupational data like ONET's, which means the terms ONET lists against an occupation are disproportionately likely to show up in the job ad itself, and by extension in the keyword search a recruiter runs against their applicant database. Our guide to finding keywords in a specific job ad covers how to extract terms from one posting in front of you. This piece is the companion: a reference list across six common industries, sourced from the same standardised data employers are drawing from, for when you want to check your resume's baseline vocabulary before you have a specific ad to work from.

Healthcare: Registered Nurse

Technology skills listed against Registered Nurses in O*NET's occupational database include named electronic health record systems (Epic Systems, MEDITECH software, eClinicalWorks EHR software), workforce and scheduling tools (Kronos Workforce Timekeeper), and standard office software (Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook, SharePoint).

Core skills most heavily weighted for the occupation: active listening, critical thinking, speaking, reading comprehension, monitoring, writing, and active learning.

If your resume currently lists "patient care" and nothing else, naming the specific EHR system you actually used, Epic, MEDITECH, or another named platform, is a far more searchable, specific term than the generic phrase, and it is one a nurse recruiter's ATS filter is genuinely likely to search against directly.

Finance: Accountant or Auditor

Technology skills: accounting and ERP software by name (Intuit QuickBooks, Sage 50 Accounting, SAP software, SAP Concur), database and reporting tools (Oracle Database, Microsoft SQL Server), and business intelligence platforms (Tableau, Alteryx, IBM SPSS Statistics, SAS).

Core skills: reading comprehension, active listening, critical thinking, writing, mathematics, speaking, active learning, and monitoring, plus transferable skills including complex problem solving, judgment and decision making, and time management, alongside work-style traits O*NET tracks separately: attention to detail, integrity, and dependability.

Notice how specific the technology list is compared to a generic "proficient in accounting software" line. "SAP Concur" and "Sage 50 Accounting" are searchable terms a recruiter's filter can match directly. "Accounting software" is not.

Technology: Software Developer

Technology skills: this is the occupation with the widest named list, spanning programming languages and frameworks (React, TypeScript, Spring Boot), cloud and infrastructure tools (AWS CloudFormation, Terraform), databases (PostgreSQL, Oracle Database), and collaboration and delivery tools (Git, Jenkins CI, Jira, GitLab).

Core skills: critical thinking, active learning, reading comprehension, active listening, writing, speaking, and monitoring, plus transferable skills including programming, systems analysis, complex problem solving, systems evaluation, and technology design.

For software roles specifically, the named-technology list matters more than almost any other category here, because an ATS keyword search against a technical role is very often a literal search for a specific tool or language name, not a general skill phrase.

Marketing: Marketing Manager

Technology skills: CRM and marketing automation platforms (Salesforce software, HubSpot software, Marketo Marketing Automation), analytics tools (Google Analytics, Google Looker Analytics, Tableau), and content and collaboration software (Adobe Creative Cloud, Canva, Asana, Slack).

Core skills: active listening, speaking, critical thinking, active learning, monitoring, plus transferable skills including persuasion, negotiation, and personnel management.

A resume that says "managed marketing campaigns" without naming Salesforce, HubSpot, or Google Analytics specifically is leaving the exact terms a marketing recruiter's filter is built to search for sitting unwritten.

Retail: Retail Salesperson

Technology skills: point of sale systems by name (iQmetrix RQ4 Retail Management System, Plexis POS), CRM software (Microsoft Dynamics, Salesforce software), and standard office and inventory tools (Microsoft Excel, Access, Outlook).

Core skills: active listening, speaking, critical thinking, active learning, and transferable skills including persuasion, service orientation, and negotiation.

Retail is a useful example of a category people rarely think to add technology keywords to at all, "worked on the sales floor" is the default phrasing, when the occupation's own standardised data lists specific POS and CRM systems as genuine, searchable technology skills.

Warehouse and logistics: Laborers and Material Movers

Technology skills: warehouse management and inventory software (materials requirements planning and logistics supply chain software), enterprise resource planning tools (SAP-class ERP software), and database and query tools for inventory tracking.

O*NET records only one skill meeting its minimum weighting threshold for this occupation, coordination, reflecting that the role's standardised profile leans heavily on physical and process capability rather than the software-and-soft-skill mix seen in office occupations. That does not mean the technology terms do not matter. If your actual warehouse role involved a named warehouse management system, inventory software, or ERP platform, listing it by name is a meaningfully stronger keyword than "warehouse experience" alone, precisely because so few warehouse resumes think to include it.

A worked example: turning the list into a resume line

Take the Accountant list above and a real, common resume weakness: a duty-only bullet with no named tools and no outcome attached.

Before: "Responsible for month-end close and financial reporting using accounting software."

After: "Managed month-end close and financial reporting for a $12M portfolio using SAP and Sage 50 Accounting, reducing close time from 6 days to 4 through a revised reconciliation process built in Tableau."

The rewrite pulls three named terms directly from the O*NET list above, SAP, Sage 50 Accounting, and Tableau, and pairs them with a quantified outcome using the same formula covered in our guide to quantifying resume achievements: action, context, measurable result. The keywords alone are not the whole fix. A named tool with no outcome attached is still a weaker bullet than the same tool named alongside a real, specific result.

A short routine to build your own list

1. Find your exact occupation on O*NET OnLine (onetonline.org), searching by job title rather than a broad category. The database uses standardised occupation titles, so search a few close variants of your actual title if the first search does not return a close match.
2. Copy every named technology and tool listed against your occupation that you have genuinely used, not the full list regardless of relevance. A keyword you cannot back up in an interview is a liability, not an asset.
3. Cross-reference against the specific job ad you are applying to, using our guide to finding keywords in a job ad, since the O*NET list gives you an occupation-wide baseline, while the specific ad tells you which of those terms, plus any employer-specific ones, actually matter for this one application.
4. Attach every keyword to a real, quantified line, never a standalone skills-list dump. A tool name sitting in a bullet with a measurable outcome does more work than the same tool name sitting in an unattached list at the bottom of the page.
5. Update your list when your tools change. O*NET's technology lists are refreshed periodically as an occupation's standard toolset shifts, and your own resume should track the same drift rather than listing a system you have not touched in years.

Common questions

What is the best source for ATS keywords by industry?

O*NET OnLine, the US Department of Labor's free occupational database, lists standardised technology skills and core competencies against essentially every occupation, and is one of the few sources for this kind of list that is genuinely traceable to an official, structured dataset rather than an unsourced blog estimate.

Are ATS keywords the same as resume skills?

Related but not identical. An ATS keyword is any specific term, a tool name, certification, job title, or skill phrase, that a recruiter's applicant tracking system searches for directly. A resume skill is a broader category that may or may not be phrased in the exact searchable form a filter is looking for.

How many keywords should I include on my resume for ATS purposes?

There is no fixed target number, and stuffing a resume with every possible keyword regardless of relevance tends to read as unfocused to a human reviewer even if it passes a keyword filter. Include every genuine, specific tool, certification, and skill term you actually possess, attached to real, quantified achievements, rather than optimising for a count.

Do different industries really need different ATS keywords?

Yes, meaningfully. A software developer's searchable technology list, programming languages, cloud platforms, frameworks, has almost no overlap with a retail salesperson's, point of sale systems, CRM software, inventory tools, and using the wrong industry's keyword set signals a mismatch as clearly to a human reader as it does to a filter.

Can I use ATS keywords I don't actually have experience with, just to pass a filter?

No. A keyword that gets a resume past an initial filter but cannot be defended in an interview creates a worse outcome than not including it at all, since it surfaces as a gap the moment a hiring manager asks a direct follow-up question about it.

Is this list a guarantee my resume will pass an ATS?

No, and be wary of anything that claims a guarantee. No mainstream applicant tracking system issues a pass or fail score visible to any third-party source, and keyword matching is one input among several a recruiter uses, not a binary gate. Our guide to what actually happens when an ATS reads a resume covers what these systems genuinely do and do not do.

Where ResumeProofed fits, and where it doesn't

ResumeProofed cannot tell you which O*NET-listed tools you have genuinely used, that has to come from you. What it can do is take the specific, verified tools and skills you confirm in your profile and match them automatically against a job ad's actual language each time you apply, rather than you manually cross-referencing an occupation-wide list against every new posting by hand. It will not add a keyword you have not confirmed you actually possess, which is the same discipline this list depends on to be useful rather than just search-friendly.

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