Software engineering postings screen almost entirely on exact-string tech-stack matches — a job asking for "React" won't credit "modern JavaScript frameworks," and "AWS" won't credit "cloud experience." The trap is being vague to sound broad; the fix is naming the specific language, framework, and infrastructure you actually shipped with, then showing the scale or impact next to it.
These are exact-match terms — not synonyms — that recruiters commonly build screening filters around for this role. If you genuinely have the experience, make sure the specific term appears in your CV, not just a paraphrase of it.
Example 1
Worked on backend features for the company's main product.
Built and shipped 6 REST API endpoints in Node.js/TypeScript powering the checkout flow, reducing average response time from 480ms to 120ms under a 3x traffic increase.
Example 2
Helped improve deployment process.
Migrated the CI/CD pipeline from Jenkins to GitHub Actions and containerized 4 services with Kubernetes, cutting deploy time from 40 minutes to 6 and eliminating 2 recurring manual rollback steps.
Should I list every language and framework I've ever touched?
No — list what you can speak to in an interview and what appears in the posting's exact wording. A CV padded with 20 technologies you used once for a class project reads as unfocused to a human reviewer even if it passes the initial ATS filter, and it will show up fast in a follow-up technical screen.
How specific should I get about system design or architecture experience?
Name the actual pattern (microservices, event-driven, monolith-to-service migration) and the actual tool (Kafka, RabbitMQ, GraphQL) rather than writing "designed scalable systems" — ATS filters and technical recruiters both search on the specific noun, not the adjective around it.
I'm a generalist who's touched many stacks lightly — how do I keyword this honestly?
Group by what you can defend under questioning: languages you've shipped production code in vs. tools you've only prototyped with. List both, but don't blur the line — an interviewer's follow-up question about a keyword you can't back up hurts more than the ATS pass helped.
More role-specific CV guides