What Happens to Your Online CV?

The new world of CV data management
If you are applying for jobs online you may have noticed that your CV may end up looking quite different to the one you initially submitted. All that hard work and energy spent on perfecting the layout and design could be a complete waste of time when job seeking today.

A shift in recruitment technology
Larger recruiters and hiring companies receive thousands of CVs every week, so they're understandably put off when they have to wade through and decode CV created with clunky old formats that use antiquated CV writing techniques.

Nowadays, the CV is processed before anyone in a decision-making role even sees it. The key information contained in the CV is extracted, reformatted and placed in a database where it can more easily be searched and accessed by recruiters. Everything but the raw information is discarded.

Advances in technology mean that recruiters are now able to save time by scanning, extracting and storing online CV data into appropriate database fields. This means that profiles can be searched, retrieved and printed in seconds when the agency or HR department is looking for a suitable candidate for a job opening.

It also means that you need to think differently about how you put together your CV, in order to sell your skill sets more effectively. Although the new technology is intelligent enough to extract most information from most CVs, it’s important to remember that now you may be submitting your document initially to a computer, rather than a person.

While the rules about honest and compelling CV writing still apply in the digital world, the art of getting your CV noticed has moved away beautiful designs and special effects. Clarity and standardised formatting are now more important than ever before. If your online CV template was created with a complex layout or unusual font that the system cannot decipher, the information it retrieves may contain errors and omissions.

How to put together a machine-readable CV
Searchable CV data fields typically include these basic elements: name, address, phone number, skills, experience, qualifications, work based achievements and salary history and requirements.

It is therefore preferable to make your CV clearly segmented and labelled so that this information can be extracted without errors from your CV by the software. Spend more time on the content of your CV and less time on the design. Employers rated work experience, work based achievements and the list of the jobseekers' previous jobs and positions as the most important parts of the CV. Work based achievements were defined as specific accomplishments that could be attributed to the candidate, rather than generic responsibilities

Standard CV formats
Since CVs don't have a standardised CV template and keep changing with the trends, it's difficult to feed the information into the CV database and candidates’ CV data is often prone to errors and incompleteness.

To prevent these kinds of errors, it’s best to use a simple and straightforward format with no fancy lettering or detail. There are also standard online formats you can use which the software is able to recognise.

Some online CVs are fully integrated into recruiter and HR databases. iProfile is one of the companies which enables you to add, delete or edit your information to reflect your current status. Recruiters instantly have access to the new and improved you. As a job seeker, you still have interview, but making your CV data searchable to the most recruiters will certainly increase the odds for getting that dream job.