Resume Keywords by Job Title (2026)

Roles

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Each page ranks the keywords for that role, shows which ones resumes miss most, and how they change with seniority and over time. New roles are added as the data grows, and every page is refreshed each quarter.

Engineering

Software Engineer resume keywords

From 31,939 job postings

Coding 61%
Testing 53%
Java 49%

Data & Analytics

Data Analyst resume keywords

From 31,011 job postings

SQL 71%
Business Intelligence 54%
Dashboarding 52%

Data Scientist resume keywords

From 8,584 job postings

Python 82%
Machine Learning 69%
SQL 64%

Business & Strategy

Business Analyst resume keywords

From 12,695 job postings

Testing 40%
Microsoft Excel 38%
Business Requirements 36%

Project & Program Management

Project Manager resume keywords

From 7,516 job postings

Budgeting 55%
Project Planning 39%
Finance 32%

Across every role

2026 top skills, from every job description we've scanned

Across the roles on these pages: the share of their job descriptions that ask for each skill, weighted by how many each role has.

2026 top skills across 5 roles

The share of all 91,745 job postings on these pages that ask for each skill, weighted by how many job postings each role has.

1 SQL 4 of 5 roles
44%
2 Python 4 of 5 roles
40%
3 Testing 5 of 5 roles
34%
4 Coding 3 of 5 roles
27%
5 Database 4 of 5 roles
27%
6 Programming 3 of 5 roles
24%
7 Business Intelligence 3 of 5 roles
23%
8 Dashboarding 4 of 5 roles
23%
9 Microsoft Excel 3 of 5 roles
22%
10 Finance 5 of 5 roles
21%
11 Power BI 3 of 5 roles
18%
12 Tableau 3 of 5 roles
18%

Source: skillsyncer.com/resume-keywords · CC BY 4.0

Resume keyword questions

What are resume keywords?

The skills, tools and qualifications a job posting asks for. An applicant tracking system searches your resume for them, and so does a recruiter skimming it. The ones that matter are the ones in the job you are applying to.

Where does this data come from?

From privatized resume data. People scan their resumes against real job postings with our scanner, and before anything is counted we remove every personal detail, company name and date, keeping only the skills. Each job posting counts once, however many people scanned it, and each candidate counts once per role.

Why is my job title missing?

New titles are added as the data grows, and every page is refreshed each quarter.

Which keywords is your resume missing?

Scan your resume against the job you want.

Scan my resume free Keyword finder