Evidence against keywords: what recruiters actually count

A CV can only be judged on what it shows. A keyword is the bare word. Evidence is a line that says where a skill was used, what you did, what came of it and why it fits this role. Two CVs that name the same skills can be worth very different amounts to a reader, because only one of them backs the words up.

The rest of this piece walks one word up from keyword to evidence, sets out what makes the last step count, and ends with a check you can run on your own skills section.

From keyword to evidence, one word at a time

Take a single skill and watch what each version of it gives a reader. Here is an invented ladder for one word, written for this article and not taken from any real CV.

As a keyword, "Python" sits in a skills list. It shows the word is present and nothing else.

As a claim, "Proficient in Python" says you can do it. The page gives a reader nothing to check it against.

As experience, "Used Python to process sign up data for a student club" says you used it, and on what.

As evidence, "Wrote a Python script that counted how often each recipe was requested on a student cooking club's sign up sheet, so the club could decide what to teach next" says where it was used, what you did, and what it was for.

The word is the same in all four. What changes is how much a reader can verify. This is the ladder how the Interview Score works describes, shown here for a single word.

What makes the last step count

Four things separate evidence from the earlier steps.

Where and how it was used

A skill counts more when it sits inside a piece of work. The project, the task or the problem is what turns a word into something a reader can picture.

What you did, specifically

"Worked on" and "involved in" leave the reader guessing about your part. A verb that says what you did, such as wrote, built or analysed, tells them what they can ask you about.

What came of it

An outcome gives a reader something to check. It does not have to be large: something changed, something was understood, or someone used it. Where nothing followed, say plainly what the work did.

Whether it fits this role

A recruiter reads against one posting. Evidence for a skill the posting does not ask for is worth less than evidence for one it does, so the strongest lines belong to the asks in the posting.

What does not count

Repetition does not add evidence. The fifth mention of a tool carries no more proof than the first, and a skills list that repeats words from the posting shows only that the words appear.

A claim with nothing behind it does not count either. "Skilled in data analysis" gives a reader nothing to weigh, however many times it is repeated.

Where keywords still fit

Keywords are not useless. Naming a skill you genuinely have is reasonable, and this piece is about what makes that skill count once it is named. For the difference between a CV being found and a CV being convincing, see why a CV passes the ATS and is still rejected.

A five minute self check

Take the skills section of your own CV and ask three questions of each skill in it.

• Does a line elsewhere say what you did with it?
• Does that line say what came of it?
• Is it a skill this posting actually asks for?

A skill with no yes among the three is only a keyword. Either attach it to real work, or ask whether it belongs on this CV at all.

To see which requirements in a posting your CV may not yet reflect, the CV keyword checker compares your CV with a job description. For how a recruiter reads a CV against a posting, see how a recruiter evaluates your CV.