Most people don't know why their CV isn't getting responses. They assume it's their experience. Or the market. Or bad luck. Often, it's something much more fixable: the CV was never read by a human in the first place. Here's what actually happens when you apply online: Your CV goes through an ATS (Applicant Tracking System) before any recruiter sees it. The system scans for keywords from the job description and scores your CV against them. If the score falls below a threshold — automatic rejection. No feedback. No explanation. Just silence. A few things that help: → Mirror the exact language in the job posting, not paraphrases of it. "Project management" and "managed projects" don't score the same. → Use a clean single-column layout. Multi-column CV templates look great as PDFs but most ATS systems read them incorrectly. → Put your contact details in the body of the document, not the header or footer. Many parsers skip headers entirely. → Quantify achievements wherever possible. Numbers give the algorithm — and the recruiter — something concrete to hold onto. YourCVPilot lets you paste your CV and job description and shows your ATS score and exactly what's missing. The gap between an unoptimised and optimised CV is consistently larger than I expected. If you're job hunting or know someone who is, it's worth understanding how these filters work before sending another application. Disclosure: Darrel Technologies is an affiliate partner of YourCVPilot. We only recommend tools we've assessed and believe are genuinely useful.
