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Create ResumeATS keywords are the specific skills, job titles, qualifications, tools, licences, industry terms, and experience signals that help your resume match an Australian job ad. But they are not magic words. An applicant tracking system may help sort or search applications, but a human still decides whether your resume makes sense. The best ATS keywords for an Australian resume are pulled directly from the job ad, matched honestly to your experience, and placed naturally in your profile, skills section, work history, and achievements.
The mistake I see far too often is candidates treating ATS keywords like seasoning. They sprinkle them everywhere and hope the system likes the flavour. That is not how good recruitment works. The goal is not to trick software. The goal is to make it painfully easy for the recruiter and hiring manager to see that you fit the role.
ATS keywords are the words and phrases employers use to describe what they need in a candidate. They often come from the job description, position title, selection criteria, industry requirements, and internal hiring brief.
In Australia, these keywords commonly include:
Job titles such as Project Manager, Registered Nurse, Accounts Payable Officer, Business Analyst, HR Advisor, or Electrician
Technical skills such as Excel, Power BI, MYOB, Xero, SAP, Salesforce, JavaScript, AutoCAD, or SQL
Qualifications such as Bachelor of Nursing, CPA, CA, Diploma of Human Resource Management, or Certificate III in Early Childhood Education
Licences and checks such as White Card, Working with Children Check, NDIS Worker Screening Check, Australian driver licence, or Forklift licence
Industry language such as , , , , , , , or
A lot of candidates imagine the ATS as a brutal robot sitting at the front door rejecting resumes because they did not include one perfect phrase. Sometimes recruitment technology is clumsy, yes. But in most Australian hiring processes, the ATS is more like a filing cabinet, search tool, workflow tracker, and communication system.
Recruiters use applicant tracking systems to:
Store applications
Search resumes by keyword
Filter candidates by location, availability, visa status, qualifications, or answers to screening questions
Track interview stages
Share resumes with hiring managers
Manage compliance and communication
Some systems can rank or parse resumes, but recruiters still use judgement. And that is where candidates get this wrong. They obsess over “beating the ATS” when they should be making the resume clear enough for both the system and the human reading it at speed.
Employment conditions such as hybrid, full time, contract, FIFO, site based, customer facing, or shift work
The important thing is this: ATS keywords are not only hard skills. They also include context. A hiring manager does not just want someone who has “communication skills”. They want someone who has communicated with patients, clients, suppliers, executives, site teams, regulators, families, or vulnerable customers. The keyword matters, but the setting around it matters even more.
Here is the hiring reality: if I search for Payroll Officer and your resume only says finance administration, you may not appear in the search even if you have payroll experience. But if your resume says Payroll Officer fifteen times and gives no evidence of payroll processing, awards interpretation, reconciliations, or employee queries, I will still move on.
ATS visibility gets you found. Evidence gets you shortlisted.
ATS keywords matter because recruiters often work under pressure, especially in high application markets. For some roles, there may be hundreds of applicants. For others, the recruiter may be sourcing from a database of thousands of previous candidates.
When I search inside a database, I am usually looking for practical proof points. I might search for:
NDIS
case management
Xero
stakeholder engagement
CPA
contract administration
aged care
Power BI
White Card
Australian payroll
That search is not personal. It is not a judgement on your worth. It is a way of finding relevant experience quickly. If your resume uses vague wording, you make yourself harder to find.
A candidate might write:
“I supported business operations and completed administrative tasks across different departments.”
That sounds polished, but it tells me almost nothing. Another candidate might write:
“Managed purchase orders, supplier invoices, expense reconciliation, and weekly reporting using Xero and Excel.”
Now I know what they actually did. The second version contains stronger ATS keywords, but it also gives the recruiter useful context. That is the sweet spot.
The job ad is your first keyword map. Do not overcomplicate this. Before you touch your resume, read the ad like a recruiter reads a hiring brief.
Look for repeated language, required skills, tools, qualifications, and responsibilities. Then separate the keywords into three groups.
These are the non negotiables. If the ad says the candidate must have a Working with Children Check, CPA qualification, Australian payroll experience, MR licence, or registered nurse AHPRA registration, those terms need to appear clearly in your resume if you have them.
Do not hide them in a paragraph. Do not assume the recruiter will infer them. Make them easy to see.
These are the everyday responsibilities and skills connected to the job. They might include stakeholder management, budget tracking, customer service, rostering, case notes, incident reporting, policy interpretation, month end close, or campaign reporting.
These keywords belong in your work history, not just your skills section. A skills section can show relevance, but your work history proves it.
These are useful extras that may strengthen your application but are not the core reason you will be shortlisted. They might include exposure to a certain software, industry, reporting tool, customer type, or methodology.
Nice to have keywords can help when the shortlist is competitive. But they should never crowd out the must haves.
ATS keywords should appear naturally across the resume. The strongest resumes do not dump keywords into one section. They distribute them where a recruiter expects to find them.
Your summary should include your target role, industry context, seniority, and strongest matching keywords. Keep it direct. This is not the place for fluffy personal branding.
Weak Example
“Motivated and hardworking professional with excellent communication skills and a passion for achieving results.”
This says almost nothing. It could belong to a receptionist, engineer, nurse, accountant, or retail manager. That is the problem.
Good Example
“Accounts Payable Officer with experience in invoice processing, supplier reconciliations, purchase orders, payment runs, and month end support using SAP and Excel across high volume finance environments.”
This works because it tells me the role, the function, the systems, the work type, and the environment. It is keyword rich without sounding fake.
A skills section is useful for ATS matching, especially when it includes hard skills, tools, licences, and industry terms. But it should not become a random keyword garage.
Group skills in a clean way:
Technical skills: Excel, Power BI, SQL, Salesforce, SAP
Finance skills: reconciliations, accounts payable, month end reporting, payroll support
Compliance: risk assessment, incident reporting, audit preparation, policy implementation
Licences: White Card, forklift licence, Australian driver licence
This is much clearer than a long messy list of every skill you have ever touched since 2012.
This is where keywords become believable. If a keyword matters, show it in action.
Instead of writing:
“Responsible for stakeholder management.”
Write:
“Coordinated weekly updates with internal stakeholders, external suppliers, and project leads to resolve delivery issues and maintain project timelines.”
The second version still includes the keyword, but it also explains the level of responsibility. Hiring managers care about that. They want to know whether you used the skill lightly, regularly, independently, or at a senior level.
Australian employers can be very specific about qualifications, checks, registrations, and licences. These should be written clearly and with standard names.
For example:
AHPRA registration
CPA Australia
CA ANZ
Working with Children Check
National Police Check
NDIS Worker Screening Check
White Card
Certificate IV in Training and Assessment
Responsible Service of Alcohol
Do not abbreviate everything unless the abbreviation is widely recognised. If space allows, include both the full term and the abbreviation, especially when the job ad uses one version and your resume uses another.
Keyword stuffing is when a candidate forces repeated words into the resume to manipulate the system. It usually reads badly, and recruiters notice it quickly.
I have seen resumes with a skills section that looks like this:
“Leadership, leadership skills, team leadership, strong leadership, people leadership, leadership experience, leadership development.”
That does not make the candidate look more qualified. It makes the resume look desperate and poorly written.
A better approach is to use the keyword once in the skills section and then prove it in the work experience section.
Weak Example
“Excellent leadership skills with strong leadership experience leading teams and providing leadership across leadership activities.”
This is the resume equivalent of shouting the same word into a void.
Good Example
“Led a team of eight customer service consultants, improving first response times by 22 percent through clearer escalation processes, coaching, and daily workload planning.”
That gives the recruiter something to believe.
The rule is simple: use the language from the job ad, but write like a human. The ATS may find the keyword, but the recruiter decides whether it means anything.
Different roles need different keyword strategies. A strong resume for an accountant will not use the same keyword logic as a disability support worker, project coordinator, software developer, or sales manager.
For administration roles, employers often search for reliability, systems experience, communication, document handling, scheduling, and office coordination.
Useful ATS keywords may include:
diary management
inbox management
data entry
document control
meeting coordination
travel booking
CRM
Microsoft Office
records management
stakeholder communication
reception
office administration
The recruiter question behind these keywords is usually: can this person keep things organised without creating more work for everyone else?
Finance resumes need precision. Generic phrases like “good with numbers” do not help. Employers want to see systems, reporting cycles, compliance, reconciliations, and transactional accuracy.
Useful ATS keywords may include:
accounts payable
accounts receivable
payroll
BAS
GST
reconciliations
month end
financial reporting
management accounts
audit support
The hiring reality here is that finance managers want evidence of accuracy, deadlines, and system familiarity. A keyword gets attention, but numbers and context build trust.
Healthcare and care sector resumes often need registration, compliance, patient or client care language, documentation, and risk related terms.
Useful ATS keywords may include:
AHPRA
clinical care
care plans
medication management
progress notes
case management
NDIS
aged care
mental health
disability support
For these roles, recruiters are not just looking for kindness. They are looking for safe, compliant, documented practice. That sounds less warm, but it is the truth. Caring work still needs evidence.
IT resumes need strong keyword alignment because recruiters often search for exact tools, languages, frameworks, cloud platforms, and methodologies.
Useful ATS keywords may include:
JavaScript
Python
SQL
React
Node.js
AWS
Azure
cyber security
data analysis
API integration
The trap in IT resumes is listing every tool ever touched. Hiring managers can tell the difference between genuine capability and a keyword buffet. Be clear about what you have used professionally, what you have supported, and what you have only been exposed to.
Sales and customer service resumes should include customer type, sales cycle, targets, CRM systems, product or service category, and performance outcomes.
Useful ATS keywords may include:
business development
account management
customer retention
inbound sales
outbound sales
lead generation
pipeline management
Salesforce
CRM
customer enquiries
For these roles, keywords without results are weak. If you mention sales targets, revenue, conversion, retention, or customer satisfaction, back it up where possible.
For trades and construction roles, employers often care about licences, tickets, safety, site exposure, equipment, project type, and availability.
Useful ATS keywords may include:
White Card
EWP
forklift licence
working at heights
confined spaces
site safety
maintenance
fault finding
installation
civil construction
In these roles, do not bury licences at the bottom. Recruiters often need to confirm them quickly. If a ticket is essential, it should be obvious within seconds.
Once your resume appears relevant, the recruiter is not just counting keywords. They are asking practical questions.
They are thinking:
Does this person actually have the experience the ad requires?
Is the experience recent enough?
Have they used the required tools in a similar environment?
Are they at the right level for the role?
Do the job titles and responsibilities line up?
Are there unexplained gaps or confusing career moves?
Is the resume clear enough to send to a hiring manager?
That last point matters more than candidates realise. Recruiters often need to present your resume to a hiring manager. If your resume is messy, vague, or full of disconnected keywords, it becomes harder to advocate for you.
A recruiter may understand your potential, but they still need evidence. Hiring managers rarely approve candidates based on potential alone unless the role is designed for training. In most Australian hiring processes, especially when budgets are tight, they want a clean match.
Most ATS keyword problems come from candidates either under explaining or over engineering their resume.
Words like hardworking, reliable, motivated, team player, and excellent communicator are not useless as qualities, but they are weak as ATS keywords.
A recruiter is much more likely to search for case management, payroll, Power BI, rostering, procurement, SAP, clinical documentation, or stakeholder engagement.
Generic traits do not tell the system or the recruiter what you can do.
Some candidates paste job ad language directly into their resume with almost no adaptation. This can create a surface match, but it falls apart when the work history does not support it.
Recruiters notice when every phrase sounds borrowed. A good resume uses relevant language from the job ad, but it connects that language to real experience.
If your licences, systems, tools, or qualifications are buried inside long paragraphs, they may be missed by both the ATS and the recruiter.
Use clean sections and simple formatting. Fancy design does not help if the reader cannot find the evidence.
This is a common issue for internationally experienced candidates. Different countries use different terminology. In Australia, employers usually expect resume, not always CV, although both are understood. They expect familiar job titles, local compliance language, and clear explanation of overseas qualifications where needed.
For example, if your overseas role title does not translate clearly, add context. A recruiter should not have to decode your entire career history like a badly labelled pantry.
A resume should be targeted, not swollen. If you include too many unrelated keywords, you dilute your positioning.
A project coordinator applying for project support roles does not need to include a giant list of marketing, HR, finance, operations, sales, admin, procurement, and IT keywords unless those are genuinely relevant to the target role. Breadth can be useful, but lack of focus makes recruiters unsure where to place you.
A strong ATS keyword strategy is simple, but it requires judgement.
Start by choosing the role type you are targeting. Not “anything admin related”. Not “a better job”. Be specific. For example, Accounts Payable Officer, HR Coordinator, Project Administrator, Registered Nurse, Customer Success Manager, or Business Analyst.
Then collect three to five Australian job ads for that role. Look for repeated phrases. If the same terms appear across multiple ads, they are probably important keywords for that job market.
Pay attention to:
Required systems
Qualifications
Licences
Industry terms
Main responsibilities
Compliance requirements
Reporting lines
Customer or stakeholder types
Seniority level
Employment type
Then compare those keywords with your actual experience. This is where honesty matters. If the ad asks for Power BI and you used it once in a training module, do not present yourself as a Power BI specialist. You can mention exposure, but do not oversell it.
Strong keyword matching is not about pretending to be the perfect candidate. It is about making your real fit visible.
You do not need to match every keyword in a job ad. Very few candidates do. Hiring managers often write wish lists and then act surprised when unicorns remain fictional. Lovely little recruitment tradition.
The question is whether you match the critical requirements.
If you are missing a must have qualification, licence, registration, or legal requirement, your chances may be low. If you are missing a nice to have tool or industry exposure, you may still be competitive if your core experience is strong.
When you do not have a keyword, do not fake it. Use transferable language carefully.
For example, if the role asks for Salesforce and you have used HubSpot, you might write:
“Managed customer records, sales activity, pipeline updates, and reporting through HubSpot CRM, with strong ability to adapt to similar CRM systems such as Salesforce.”
That is honest. It gives the recruiter a bridge.
If the role asks for stakeholder management and your experience is mostly customer service, you might write:
“Managed daily communication with customers, internal teams, and external service providers to resolve enquiries, coordinate updates, and prevent escalation.”
That shows the behaviour behind the keyword, even if your title was not corporate sounding.
Keywords help, but formatting affects whether the system can read your resume properly. Keep your resume clean, simple, and easy to scan.
Use:
Standard headings such as Professional Summary, Skills, Work Experience, Education, Certifications, and Licences
Clear job titles, employer names, locations, and dates
Simple bullet points under each role
Standard fonts
Word document or PDF format unless the employer requests something specific
Avoid:
Text boxes
Images
Icons used instead of words
Tables that break the resume structure
Graphics showing skill levels
Hidden white text stuffed with keywords
Overdesigned templates that look nice but read badly
A resume is not a brochure. It is an evidence document. Design should support clarity, not fight it.
Before you submit your resume, check whether it clearly includes the right keyword signals.
Use this checklist:
Does your resume include the exact target job title or a close, honest variation?
Have you included the main tools, systems, licences, and qualifications from the job ad?
Are your strongest keywords visible in the top third of the resume?
Do your work experience bullets prove the keywords with real tasks and outcomes?
Have you used Australian terminology where appropriate?
Have you removed irrelevant keywords that distract from your target role?
Is your resume readable by both an ATS and a busy recruiter?
Have you avoided copying large chunks of the job ad?
Are your keywords honest, current, and supported by evidence?
Would a hiring manager understand your fit within thirty seconds?
That final question is the real test. Not whether your resume looks impressive to you. Whether the person hiring can see the match quickly.
The best ATS keyword resumes do two things at once. They match the language of the job ad, and they explain the candidate’s real value in practical terms.
Candidates often ask, “What keywords should I use?” The better question is, “What evidence does this employer need to trust that I can do the job?”
That shift changes the whole resume.
A weak resume says:
“I have strong stakeholder management, communication, leadership, problem solving, and time management skills.”
A stronger resume says:
“Managed competing requests from clients, suppliers, and internal teams, resolving scheduling issues and reducing delayed service calls through clearer escalation and follow up processes.”
The second version still has keywords, but it also shows judgement, pressure, communication, and business impact. That is what gets a recruiter interested.
In real hiring, the ATS may help your resume get seen. But the human reader is still asking whether your experience reduces risk. Hiring is risk management disguised as opportunity. Employers want someone who can step into the role, understand the environment, and solve the problems they are tired of dealing with.
Your keywords should help them see that.
Written by Simar Malhi, a recruiter and headhunter with international recruitment experience. I write about CVs, job applications, hiring decisions, and the reality behind recruitment processes. My goal is to help candidates understand more honestly how employers, recruiters, and hiring managers actually select candidates.
Xero
MYOB
SAP
Oracle
Excel
CPA
CA
safeguarding
incident reporting
infection control
manual handling
Working with Children Check
National Police Check
Agile
Scrum
DevOps
software testing
Power BI
Jira
Git
complaint resolution
revenue growth
territory management
stakeholder relationships
commercial construction
residential construction
FIFO
toolbox talks
SWMS
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