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Your CV Should Work for You: How CV Parsing Shapes Hiring
Modern hiring is automated — your CV needs to speak both to the machine and the manager. Here's how parsing really works and what to optimise.
Ge
GetToWork Team
·
Apr 17, 2026
How parsing actually works
When you upload a CV, the ATS extracts structured fields: name, email, employment history, skills. Poorly formatted CVs get fields mis-parsed — your last role might end up in 'Education'.
What the parser looks for
- Named sections: 'Work Experience', 'Skills', 'Education'.
- Date consistency:
Jan 2021 – Present(not '2021-current'). - Linear reading order: single column, no wrapped text boxes.
How to test your CV
- Copy the CV's text into a plain-text editor.
- If the order / flow makes sense and all sections are readable, the ATS will parse it well.
- If headers are jumbled or text wraps oddly, restructure.
After parsing: the ranking
Parsed data feeds a keyword-match score. High-relevance candidates (usually top 10%) are surfaced to recruiters first. Everyone else relies on a recruiter manually running a search.