Is your CV machine ready?
A CV is the face of an applicant. It is really important to have a good résumé to make the initial cut in a job screening process. First impressions matter and the first impression that a recruiter will have of you, will depend on how good your résumé is. This is a known fact and you spend days, maybe weeks working on your CV to make it highly presentable for your aspired job. Then a recruiter looks at your résumé for mere seconds and goes on to the next one. The thought was that recruiters spend at least 5 minutes but researches show that an average time spent on a résumé by a recruiter is not more than 8–10 seconds.
This is when it was considered a visually appealing résumé would attract recruiter’s attention. Like Highlighting key points, putting in some graphs. The aesthetic improvements, just so that the recruiter notices those key attributes in the few seconds they obtain. Well, it might make a difference but initial screening is still a big point to be worried about. A lot of factors can affect the initial screening of CV by recruiters. Such as,
- Recruiters might miss out on crucial information which actually matter for the job.
- Some recruiters like a particular format of CV presentation and so, they might have a biased opinion about a prospective employee.
- Parse through 100s of profiles for a single job.
These factors have pushed a lot of organisations to use a Résumé Parser which are sometimes integrated into some kind of Application Tracking Systems (ATS). A CV Parser is a tool used to extract relevant information from the résumé accurately; subsequently converting it into structured data. Parsing a résumé helps avoid any biases that may cause recruiters to favour one applicant over another.
Typically CV parsers take a second or two to parse and extract information out of a résumé. So effectively they are faster than humans and also guarantee a complete look through of the CV. Thus said, there are certain downsides to the job seekers whose résumés are not machine ready!
So what is a machine ready CV?
For effective information retrieval from a résumé, it is crucial for the Résumé parsers (a machine) to understand every fact mentioned in the document. Anything from the file format chosen to whether or not there are images can impact how well a Résumé Parser parses the CV.
There are some key points to be noted for a résumé to be parsed accurately.
Prefer Word files rather than PDF
Most of the parsers struggle reading through a Portable Document Format (PDF). Sometimes PDFs inherently store the text differently than what is actually seen while the file is opened normally. So for best results, it is good to have your résumé in ‘.doc’, ‘.rtf’ formats.
Structure the content well
Firstly, keep the formatting simple. Divide the content of your CV into multiple sections. Have a general flow and mention relevant details in the intended section. Usage of commonly occurring statements will make keyword extraction a lot easier to the parsers. Most Résumé parsers run on Natural Language Processing (NLP) engines. By using sentences instead of phrases, parsers get the context of the sentence and extract information accurately.
Use commonly known Section Headers
Do not complicate the section headers by being too creative. Keep them as simple as possible. It is so much better to say ‘Experience’ rather than using terms like ‘Employment Highlights’ or ‘Executive Summary’. Also it is best to not use more than 8 sections in your résumé.
Avoid usage of Images and Tables
- Images
Do not scan and upload images. It is crucial to have text on your résumé. Additionally, avoid usage of any graphs to convey information. Almost always these graphs are not even considered when the CV is read.
- Tables
You might think the usage of tables is safe as the information is structured and organised. But typically, most files are read line by line from left to right and top to bottom.
This above table would be read as “Company Designation Duration Alpha Data Analyst 3 years Beta Senior Data Analyst 2 years” which won’t make any sense to the machine. Usage of well structured sentences conveying all the key points is effective.
Avoid usage of Headers and Footers
Headers and Footers might come in between the actual content. This will result in bad information extraction.
Job description specific keywords
Lately, a lot of Résumé Parsers are integrated into Application Tracking Systems directly. These systems create a candidate profile by extracting information out of the résumé. Once the information is extracted, it is matched with job descriptions. It becomes very important to mention those job specific keywords to make the cut.
More than half of candidates are eliminated from the online job search by Applicant Tracking Systems
-TopResume
Résumé Parser is a great tool in the recruitment space. At the same time, it is equally important for applicants to adapt to this tool. If your résumé can’t be fully parsed by the parser in ATS, your profile will be incomplete. While matching profiles for the job, you might not reflect as a good match even if you were a perfect match for the job. Making sure your résumé is Machine-friendly is a huge step. It can make the difference- between getting noticed and slipping through the cracks.
