You have designed experiments that generated publishable findings, maintained standards that kept laboratory operations compliant, and built technical expertise that is genuinely difficult to acquire. But the ATS reviewing your application does not evaluate scientific rigour — it checks whether your specific techniques, instruments, and compliance credentials appear as named keywords.
Science job postings — whether in pharma, biotech, food science, materials, or academic research — have highly specific ATS keyword profiles. The same analytical chemistry capability described differently scores very differently against a posting built around specific instrument and technique names.
Laboratory techniques must be named individually: PCR (and variants: qPCR, RT-PCR, ddPCR), ELISA, Western blot, flow cytometry, CRISPR-Cas9, cell culture, chromatography (HPLC, LC-MS, GC-MS), spectroscopy (NMR, UV-Vis, IR), microscopy (confocal, electron). Each is a separate ATS keyword.
Instrument names matter: HPLC, LC-MS/MS, GC-MS, ICP-MS, NMR spectrometer, plate reader, flow cytometer. Software tools: GraphPad Prism, MATLAB, R/RStudio, SPSS, Python (SciPy/NumPy), ImageJ, FlowJo, SnapGene. Name every piece of equipment and software in your technical stack.
Are your lab techniques and instrument names listed individually?
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Regulatory and quality vocabulary is a hard filter in pharma, food, and clinical research: GLP (Good Laboratory Practice), GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice), GCP (Good Clinical Practice), ICH guidelines, FDA 21 CFR Part 11, ISO 17025, COSHH, risk assessment, SOP (Standard Operating Procedure). These must appear if the role requires them.
Research vocabulary signals seniority: principal investigator, co-investigator, grant writing, peer-reviewed publications, first author, patent, technology transfer, DOE (Design of Experiments), statistical analysis, literature review. Include publication count and grant values if applicable.
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A scientist who names every technique, every instrument, and every compliance credential they hold will consistently outperform one who describes their research in narrative terms without the keyword anchors ATS systems look for.
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The most common cause is technique category language ("molecular biology techniques") instead of specific names (PCR, qPCR, Western blot). Each technique is a separate ATS keyword — the category matches none of them.
Yes — they are different ATS keyword searches. Also list ddPCR and RT-PCR if you have used them. Each variant represents a distinct skill set that postings filter for independently.
State it explicitly: "All work conducted under GLP (Good Laboratory Practice) guidelines" or "GLP-compliant laboratory environment." Include any GLP/GMP training certifications with dates.
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