Why Your CV Needs to Speak Two Languages: Human and Machine

Applicant Tracking Systems have been introduced in the market, which have evolved the hiring process. First, the CVs undergo the ATS trackers and are then ranked for the humans to get the top-matched candidates. You need to write your resume for both humans and ATS scanners. This blog will guide you on why you need to optimize your resume for two audiences.

The modern CV is not just read by humans, but it is scanned, parsed, and then ranked based on the job posting. Humans then now read it, and if it passes, you can reach the interview stage. Your resume must be optimized for both audiences to achieve your desired success and reach your goal.

The advancements in technology have introduced Applicant Tracking System (ATS) machines, which have increased the audience of the CV from single to double. Whether you are using graduate resume writing websites, understand that you now have two audiences to read and scan your resume. Let’s dive into both to understand them.

The human recruiters are emotional and intuitive judges of your CV. They look at them with their cultural fit and the personality of an applicant. Their focus is on career progression and storytelling of the applicant, along with clarity and readability.

The ATS machines are built with logic and rules-based filtering. Their role is to scan the CV according to the job descriptions. They look for the: 

• Formatting and consistency
• Keywords and phrases
• Job relevance scoring

The CV undergoes the process of ATS tracking and is then scanned by the human recruiters before coming to the interview process. To reach the stage of interviewing, you need to focus on both and not ignore a single one. Individuals often ignore one of them.

Optimizing your CV for human recruiters will make it look creative, but it will not be ready for the ATS scanners. You can miss the keywords, so your resume may get ignored. Using overdesigned formatting can break the parsing. This is a common trap for candidates who download highly graphic resume templates that look beautiful to the eye but turn into unreadable gibberish when scanned by a machine. Ensure you use a resume template that have this in mind and are designed to pass both ATS and recruiters.

Preparing your CV solely for the ATS may lead to keyword stuffing as you focus more on keyword usage. It might take on a more robotic tone to get approved by the ATS, but it may fail to engage human recruiters. Professional CV writing help can guide you with keyword usage to use them correctly.

When hiring managers submit your CV to ATS scanners, the parsing process begins, converting and extracting data such as skills, contact information, experience, and other required information into a structured format. It uses AI and Natural Language Processing (NLP) to extract the keywords and screen, rank, and store the candidates according to the match based on the job description.

There are common mistakes people often make when creating their resumes.

• Avoid too many graphics and images and keep it simple.
• Avoid using unusual fonts and layouts.
• Prevent the misuse of headers and footers.
• Ensure to include the correct standard section titles.

The first and foremost requirement for a machine-friendly CV is to naturally include relevant, job-specific keywords. You need to understand the mirror job description language, which means incorporating the exact keywords, skills, and terminology from the job posting into your resume and cover letter. Must add these sections to your CV:

• Experience
• Education
• Skills
• Certifications
• Tools/Technologies

Place your keywords smartly using:

• Job title variations
• Action verbs
• Industry buzzwords

Along with the ATS, you need to write a CV for humans, also. People often highlight their duties in their resumes, but now hiring managers are focusing on their accomplishments. Add your achievements in experiences instead of just telling about what you have achieved. Use numbers, achievements, and results.

Example:

Not “Responsible for managing Social media.”

Write “Increased audience engagement by 45% through targeted campaigns.”

Make your resume that is easy to scan and readable for humans through

• Using the bullet points.
• Keep your sentences concise.
• Highlight your achievements.
• Add white space effectively.

Balancing your CV for humans and ATS is crucial to enhance clarity and optimization. You need to maintain the readability while embedding the keywords. For the hybrid CV approach, use:

• Clean and ATS-friendly format
• Achievement-driven content
• Strategic keywords usage
• Consistent structure

Before submitting your CV, you must review the checklist to ensure not miss any of the points. Here is a quick checklist:

• Is your CV readable in plain text?
• Does it match the job posting?
• Have you included the keywords naturally?

You can also check your CV through the tools like

• ATS simulators
• Resume scanners

ATS is an advanced device used widely by companies for the hiring process. Managers use it for filtering out the resumes and ranking them before humans see them.

The number of keywords does not matter as much as the quality. Pick the relevant keywords from the job description and naturally place them in your CV.

It is recommended and suggested to use .docx or .PDF for an ATS-friendly resume that can also be easily accessible for humans. Must check the job posting for the required file format.

After optimizing your CV to suit humans and ATS, you should go back to it regularly. To make it relevant, add new knowledge and achievements, certification, and experiences. Recent growth and achievements are preferred in the profile of a candidate by employers and ATS systems.

Each job advertisement is unique. Customize your resume to fit the job you are applying to by adding keywords that are relevant and focusing on achievements that are the most important. This makes your CV go through the ATS scanning and at the same time attractive to human recruiters.

Do not use too much graphics or complicated layouts that confuse machines or divert human beings. Consistent fonts, clear section headings, and short bullet points should be used. Clean CV assists in parsing the ATS as well as human readability.

Keywords analyzers, resume simulators, and ATS aid in assessing the effectiveness of your CV. These tools focus on the keywords that are being missed, the problems with readability, and the parsing errors, which keep your CV competitive.

The human component is important even in ATS optimization. Measure success, emphasize outcomes and keep the professional account. A well-balanced CV that is both logical (to machines) and a story (to humans) is well-liked in the recruitment process.

To have a dual-focused CV, it is necessary to take care of and update it on a regular basis. You show professionalism, flexibility, and preparedness, which are the values all recruiters appreciate by ensuring that your document is up-to-date, contains keywords, and is easy to read.

Although most candidates attempt to develop their CVs on their own, professional advice could be of great essence in the current competitive job market. Professional CV writers know how to strike a balance between ATS criteria and human skills so that your resume has the correct keywords, design and impressive accomplishments in it. They also assist in eradicating the typical errors of bad formatting, poor wording, or missing major sections. Otherwise, graduate CV writing assistance or hiring a resume writer can be obtained by the graduates or entry-level candidates to enhance clarity and presentability. When you invest into professional support, you not only will spend less time, but also have better chances of passing ATS filters and impressing the recruiters to your favor.

Your CV is not just a document but also a data file that includes your personal contact information and professional abilities, and achievements. The audience of your resume has increased to two with the advancement of technology in ATS scanners. Companies now use ATS systems to scan CVs before humans, filtering and ranking candidates.

Ignoring anyone in the audience can reduce the chances of getting interviewed. Your CV must be optimized for ATS and human recruiters. ATS scans the resume and looks for the relevant keywords according to the job descriptions and ranks it where it matches the most. Avoid the common mistakes of graphics, images, layouts, and sections.Craft your CV for both recruiters, using the keywords for the ATS and a clean layout for the humans, making the perfect balance. Go through the quick checklist and review the simulators and scanners. Balance your CV by embedding logic and storytelling to achieve success.