Sending out your CV and hearing absolutely nothing back is one of the most demoralising parts of job hunting.
The trouble is that, in many cases, your CV never even reaches a human pair of eyes. Most large employers now use software to sift through applications before a recruiter ever gets involved, and if your CV doesn’t tick the right boxes, it gets quietly weeded out. Here’s how to make sure yours actually makes it through, or at least increase your chances of that happening.
CVs are flagged and discarded for a variety of reasons.
Loads of companies now use something called an applicant tracking system, often shortened to ATS, to handle the flood of applications they receive. The software scans hundreds of CVs and ranks them based on certain keywords the employer has flagged as important.
Only the ones that score high enough get passed on to the actual recruiter or hiring manager, so if your CV doesn’t include the right phrases, it could be a great application and still never be seen by a real person. Once you understand that’s how the system works, you can start writing your CV in a way that gets you past the first hurdle.
What are ATS keywords, and how can they be used?
Keywords are simply the specific words or phrases the employer is looking out for. They might be tied to qualifications, hard skills, software, job titles or industry terms. If the role asks for someone with experience in a particular system or qualification, those exact terms are likely on the list.
The closer your CV matches the language used in the job advert, the higher you’ll rank in the software’s eyes. It’s not necessarily a way of gaming the system, but it’s about making sure the points you genuinely tick are clearly visible. The recruiter can’t pick you out of the pile if the software has already filtered you out.
Start by reading the job advert properly.
This sounds obvious, but plenty of people skim the advert and then write a generic CV. The smart move is to read it slowly and pick out the specific words the employer has used in the sections about duties, qualifications and preferred experience. Those are usually the exact keywords the system will be hunting for. Once you’ve spotted them, weave them into your CV wherever they genuinely apply to you.
Each job you apply for will likely need a slightly different tweak, which is more effort than firing off the same CV everywhere, but it makes an enormous difference to your hit rate.
Always include the role title and company name.
Two of the most important keywords are simply the exact job title you’re applying for and the name of the company. Pop them into your summary statement or personal profile at the top of the CV. It feels almost too simple, but it’s one of the easiest ways to tell the software that your application is genuinely for that role.
Also, make sure any qualifications relevant to the position are spelled out clearly, in the same wording the advert uses. Hard skills, meaning the technical or practical abilities the role needs, should be listed in plain language rather than buried inside paragraphs of waffle.
Sprinkle in some industry keywords too.
Beyond the keywords from the advert itself, it’s worth knowing the language of the industry you’re applying to. A quick search along the lines of “best CV keywords for [your industry]” usually throws up plenty of common terms. If any of them genuinely match your experience, work them in.
These are often the words recruiters and the software both expect to see, so leaving them out can quietly cost you. Done well, this is the kind of detail that makes a CV feel like it’s been written by someone who really knows the field, rather than someone scattering applications everywhere.
Put your keywords where they count.
Where you place keywords matters almost as much as which ones you choose. The summary or personal statement right at the top is prime real estate, so put your strongest, most relevant terms there. Inside the experience section, pepper in the role-specific keywords from the responsibilities section of the advert, showing where you’ve actually done those things.
Your skills section should have both your hard skills, the technical ones, and your soft skills, the people-focused ones, both clearly listed. Your cover letter is worth doing the same with, since plenty of systems scan that too. Spread the keywords naturally throughout, rather than cramming them into one paragraph.
Get the small details right.
The software is fussier than you might expect about little things. Make sure every keyword is spelled exactly the way the job advert spells it because the system won’t always recognise variations. If the advert uses an abbreviation, include both the abbreviation and the full version in your CV to cover all bases.
If numbers are spelled out as words in the description, do the same in your CV. These tiny matches add up, and they’re the difference between sailing through the filter and falling at the first fence. A quick proofread with the advert open beside you is well worth the few minutes it takes.
Don’t forget the human reading it.
While it’s important to get past the software, your CV still has to impress an actual person once it does. Stuffing it full of keywords until it reads like a robot wrote it is a quick way to put a hiring manager off. Every keyword you include needs to match your real education, experience, or skills; otherwise, you’ll get caught out the moment someone asks about it at an interview.
Lying on a CV is also one of the easiest ways to get sacked further down the line, so it’s genuinely not worth it. The trick is balance, hitting the keywords naturally while still writing something that reads well to a person.
Get the format right, too.
The way your CV is saved and laid out has a real impact on whether the software can even read it. PDFs look nicely consistent on any device, but they aren’t always friendly to applicant tracking systems. If the application form doesn’t specifically accept PDF, save your CV as a DOC, DOCX or plain text file instead.
Avoid using images, fancy graphics, and the like because the software often can’t read them at all. A clean, simple layout with clear headings and ordinary fonts is much more likely to make it through. Looking pretty matters less than being readable to both the software and the eventual reader.
Skip the tired cliches.
Keywords matter, but worn-out phrases really don’t. Calling yourself a “hard worker” or a “self-starter” or a “team player” adds almost nothing to your CV because every other applicant has put the same thing. Hiring managers have read those phrases thousands of times and they’ve lost all meaning.
Instead, show those traits through specific examples of what you’ve actually done. Saying you “managed a team of eight and grew sales by 15%” speaks far louder than calling yourself a leader. Real evidence will always beat a generic compliment about yourself, and it gives the reader something concrete to remember you by.
One last thing worth remembering
The applicants who get the most interviews aren’t necessarily the most qualified ones, they’re often just the ones who’ve figured out the game. A bit of effort tailoring each application, choosing your keywords thoughtfully, and writing for both the software and the human on the other side genuinely tips the odds in your favour.
It might feel like extra work the first few times you do it, but it gets quicker once you’ve got the hang of it. The next time you send a CV off and hear nothing back, it’s worth wondering whether it ever made it past the first filter, and what you could tweak so the next one does.
