A CV that gets past the screening software
Most CVs from experienced people are rejected by a program, not a person. Here is how the program reads, and how to write for it without lying about anything.
Who reads your CV first
At most mid-sized and large employers, and at every recruitment agency, your CV is read first by an applicant tracking system (ATS). It parses the document into fields, scores it against the advert, and ranks it. A recruiter looks at the top of the ranking and rarely further. If you are not getting interviews, the likeliest reason is that a program never put you in front of a person.
The program is not clever. It cannot see a two-column layout, a text box or a table. It cannot read a PDF made from a scan. It matches words. Write for it.
The format that parses
- One column. Headings in plain text, in the order the program expects: Profile, Experience, Qualifications, Skills.
- Word or a text-based PDF. Save as .docx unless the advert asks for PDF. If PDF, export from Word, never scan.
- No tables, text boxes, headers or footers. Your name and contact details go in the body at the top, not in the header.
- Standard fonts, 11 point or larger. Arial, Calibri, Georgia. No icons, no graphics, no photo.
- Dates as "Mar 2019 to Oct 2026". Month and year for every role. A gap is fine; an unexplained gap is not.
Match the words in the advert
Print the advert. Underline every noun and every skill. Those words, in that spelling, go into your CV where they are true. "CDM 2015" and "Construction (Design and Management) Regulations" are two different strings to a program. Use both. If they say "programme management" and you say "project planning", you score zero on that line.
Put the exact job title you are applying for in your profile line, if it is true of what you have done: "Project Director with 25 years delivering industrial and food-manufacturing projects to £30m."
The first three lines
A recruiter who does see your CV spends about eight seconds on it. The first three lines decide everything:
- Your name and the title you are applying for.
- One sentence of what you do and the scale you do it at, in the employer's words.
- Three proof points with numbers: "Delivered a £28m food factory on programme; held a 30-month zero-RIDDOR record across three sites; led a team of 14 including four project managers."
Length and history
Two pages. Full detail on the last ten to fifteen years. Before that, one line per role: title, employer, dates. Nothing from before 2000 needs a paragraph. Leave out graduation years and the dates of early qualifications; keep the qualification itself.
This is not hiding anything. It is the same editing anyone with a long career does. The Equality Act 2010 says age may not be used against you; the CV simply gives the program and the recruiter nothing to be lazy with.
Words to stop using
"Seasoned", "veteran", "mature", "extensive experience", "over 30 years". Each one is a flag and none of them says anything a number does not say better. Say what you did and what it was worth.
Before you send it
- Paste the whole CV into a plain-text editor. If it still reads in the right order, the program will parse it.
- Read the advert once more and tick every underlined word that appears in your CV.
- Send the file named "Firstname-Surname-CV.docx", nothing else.
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