Copy-pasting keywords from job descriptions into your resume is not lazy. It is how ATS scoring actually works.

Spent some time digging into how ATS systems actually score resumes and ran into something that explains a lot of "you weren't selected" emails.

These systems do not normalize abbreviations. K8s and Kubernetes are two different strings. Same with CI/CD vs continuous integration, React.js vs ReactJS, Postgres vs PostgreSQL. If your resume uses the shorthand and the job description spells it out, the system flags a keyword gap and your score drops before a human reads anything.

It is not a new problem but I had not seen it documented clearly so I wrote it up with some concrete examples:

https://dev.to/ai_utilities_5434e65ac2de/your-resume-says-k8s-the-job-description-says-kubernetes-the-ats-marks-it-as-missing-5h9m

The fix is tedious but simple: read the job description, note exactly how they phrase each tool or technology, and mirror that in your resume. Not paraphrased. Verbatim.

Relevant for anyone wondering why they keep getting filtered out on roles they are clearly qualified for.