How It Works

A complete guide to optimizing your CV for ATS systems

Built for international applicants targeting remote, US, and EU roles. Works just as well for domestic candidates.

Step-by-Step Process

1

Paste Your CV

Copy your entire CV as plain text. We analyze the raw content, not formatting — exactly how ATS systems read your resume.

2

Add the Job Description

Paste the full job posting. Our system extracts the keywords, skills, and requirements the employer is looking for.

3

Review Your ATS Score

See your match score, which keywords are missing, and which formatting issues are silently breaking your resume in ATS parsers.

4

Generate Optimized Version (Pro)

Our AI rewrites your CV to integrate missing keywords naturally, fix structural problems, and strengthen weak phrasing. Pick Precision Mode for almost every situation, or Stretch Mode for reach roles.

5

Review and Apply

Read through the optimized version, make any final edits, and run it through the analyzer once more to confirm your score improved. Then submit your application with confidence.

⚠️ Important: Always Review AI Output

The AI optimization is a starting point, not a final product. You should:

  • Verify all information is accurate and truthful
  • Remove any skills or experience you don't actually have
  • Check that dates, titles, and company names are correct
  • Confirm metrics and numbers reflect reality
  • Run the corrected version through the analyzer again

Optimization Modes

Precision Mode

Recommended

Our flagship engine. Performs deep structural analysis of your CV, integrates missing keywords naturally into your existing experience, fixes ATS-breaking formatting, and rewrites weak phrasing into recruiter-friendly language — all while preserving the truth of your background. This is the right choice for the overwhelming majority of applications.

Stretch Mode

A separate mode designed for one specific situation: applying to a role that's genuinely a reach for your current experience. Stretch Mode infers adjacent skills more liberally to maximize keyword density when you need every advantage. Use sparingly — for most applications, Precision Mode produces a stronger result.

What ATS Systems Catch

Modern ATS parsers reject resumes for reasons most candidates never see. Here are the broad categories of issues we detect — the specific fixes are applied automatically when you optimize.

  • Hidden character issues — invisible formatting that confuses parsers and causes silent rejection
  • Structural traps — common layout choices that look professional to humans but are unreadable to ATS
  • Section header mismatches — naming conventions that prevent your experience from being indexed correctly
  • Contact metadata — placement and format issues that strip your contact details from the parsed output
  • File compatibility — formats and naming patterns that affect how your resume is processed
  • Keyword integration — missing terms from the job description, and where to integrate them naturally

Each of these has dozens of specific failure modes. Our analyzer scans for them all in seconds — the optimizer fixes them automatically.

For international applicants

If you're applying from outside the US — to remote roles, to companies that sponsor visas, or to EU positions where the conventions differ — your resume can get filtered for reasons most career advice never covers. Five issues come up most often:

Address format

“Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina” tells a recruiter you're outside their country. For remote roles, leading with “Remote (CET timezone)” or “Open to relocation” makes your remote-readiness obvious in the first scan. Some recruiters filter by location before reading the resume — give them a reason not to.

Phone number

Use international format with country code (e.g., +387 62 135 431). Local-only formats can read as missing data to ATS systems and make you uncontactable to recruiters who don't recognize the area code.

Foreign credentials

A degree from a university the parser doesn't recognize gets indexed but not weighted. One short context line — “BSc Electrical Engineering, University of Sarajevo (EU-recognized degree)” — adds weight without changing the truth.

Visa status

Many candidates omit work authorization and get filtered as “needs sponsorship” by default. If you have authorization, say so. If you need sponsorship, say so. Both are honest, and both let recruiters route your application to the right pile.

Phrasing

Resumes written in non-native English often have small phrasing patterns that read as off to native-English recruiters — over-formal verbs (“commenced” instead of “started”), unusual prepositions, sentence structures that translate well from another language but feel slightly stiff in English. The fix isn't writing in someone else's voice; it's making sure the resume reads naturally to the audience reviewing it.