The Secret to The Perfect CV: Why You Should Use a Resume Checker

This article is part of the 30 Day Challenge - an event that will prepare you to find a job in 30 days. Sign up here to receive daily content with career advice and answer quiz questions to get a certificate. At the end of the event, we will choose 3 certificate holders who will win a free CV review by an expert from CV Maker!

The job market is more competitive than ever nowadays. We need to put in a lot of effort in order to stand out and make sure a potential employer picks us out of the sea of other candidates. There are many ways to increase your chances of getting employed, and one of them is to ensure your CV is spotless.

Okay, but… where do I get my resume reviewed? After all, not all of us are friends with someone who can do it professionally, or can pay for a session with a career coach. H

aving a friend who happens to be a grammar Nazi is sometimes not enough to write a winning CV. There are many factors involved in creating the perfect resume, and it’s in your best interest to make sure every single one of them is ticked off your list. 

How to check if your resume is good?

Luckily, there is a way that won’t cost you an arm and a leg, at the same time providing you with high-quality service. All you need to do is find a resume checker software that you trust, and take advantage of its user-friendliness to guide you through the process of creating and perfecting your CV. The one we recommend is our reliable partner CV Maker.

Why resume is very important? Do employers check resumes?

The first question we must answer before moving on to the benefits of using a resume checker is: why should you care? After all, isn’t a CV just a piece of paper recruiters look at for only a moment? Why should you spend hours crafting a document the hiring manager will set down after 6 seconds?

Allow us to reply to your question with one of our own: What other choice do you have?

A resume is your only opportunity to let a potential employer get to know you. In the first stage of the recruitment process, before the interview, there is nothing else that can give a recruiter any indication of who you are. And yes, they do actually read your resume - even if briefly, but they do read it.

A CV is literally you on a piece of paper. That one page needs to fit all your professional history and present it in a way that will impress your future boss. You may be the most qualified and outgoing applicant out there and can easily prove it during the interview. But if you don’t get it across using your resume, this interview won’t even take place, and you will lose your chance to shine. 

Asking a candidate to present their entire professional life on a single page is a bit harsh, but until someone comes up with a better way, we all need to play by the existing rules. Hopefully, the next time you start to question the importance of your resume, these arguments will motivate you to write an eye-catching CV.

What is the applicant tracking system?

Before we move on to the advantages of using a resume checker, there is one more thing that requires an explanation. We have already established that writing a resume that will catch the human eye is difficult enough. But unfortunately, there might be one more stage to combat before our CV even falls into human hands.

Implementing the Applicant Tracking System (ATS) into the recruitment process made things easier for companies, but a bit more difficult for the candidates. ATS is screening software that employers use to scan resumes for relevance. Such programs usually look for keywords related to a particular job offer and automatically reject those that don’t include a satisfying number of such keywords. 

How do we know what types of keywords an ATS is looking for?

That all depends on the position you’re applying for, but in brief, it is always recommended to carefully go through the job description. Highlight any words that are connected to special technical or soft skills required for the role. They might be anything like teamwork, time management, communication, knowledge of a specific programme or tools commonly used in the job, etc.

Once you have identified the key terms, make sure to include them in your resume in various sections: “about me”, skills, and work experience. Most likely, you will have used a majority of them by default - when applying for a job, we are mostly aware of what requirements go with it and will instinctively want to prove that we have them. 

While we should avoid keyword stuffing (using too many keywords, to the point it will look unnatural), we also want to make sure we have enough of them. Therefore, we recommend making a list of all terms you think are crucial in the job description and trying to include as many of them as possible in your resume. 

Now that we’re all aware of why a CV is important and what challenges it may face along the way, let’s move on to the main topic of this article.

The benefits of using a resume checker

1. Support from start to end

2. Spell check

3. A variety of templates to choose from

4. Professional advice and helpful tips

5. Check for plagiarism

6. Keyword analysis

7. Personalised job recommendations

1. Support from the start to the end

A professional resume checker will not only provide you with tools to rate a CV that is already written, but it will also help you create one from scratch. Depending on which stage of CV writing you’re starting from, you will find a service that will allow you to move on with the process. 

This is beneficial because we all expect something else from resume-checking software - some of us are totally lost and need support from the very beginning. In such cases, we can count on advice on choosing the right template, correctly building the sections, and even adjusting the character of the CV to the job you’re applying for. 

Those who do not like their hand being held throughout the entire journey will also be happy knowing that they can submit a ready-made resume and receive valuable feedback. Once you know which areas to improve, you will be able to choose from a range of tools to polish your CV.

2. Spell check

Few things turn recruiters off more than typos and bad grammar. In fact, it’s not uncommon that a very picky one might discard a perfectly fine CV in terms of qualifications on the grounds of too many mistakes. 

It’s not even the case of them being grammar Nazis. The reason why hiring managers hate to see misspelt words and poorly constructed sentences is that it hints at clumsiness.

Imagine claiming you’re detail-oriented, yet having several typos scattered throughout your CV. This would completely contradict your point, and even make you come off as dishonest.

A good resume is not just about what it says - it’s about how it’s said. The form matters, and grammar is usually the first technical aspect recruiters pay attention to. Careless phrasing and multiple mistakes might suggest the candidate’s inaccuracy, or even laziness. 

Your task is to prove that you want the job and have taken the time to apply for it. Sending a CV full of typos and bad grammar can lead to a conclusion that you obviously didn’t care enough to perform a spell check, and don’t respect the future employer enough to provide them with a spotless CV. That doesn’t necessarily scream “ideal employee”.

Worry not, because the resume spell checker service offered by most types of software is there to help you! Only a lucky few were born with the inner talent to write perfectly, and even the biggest language purists are bound to make mistakes sometimes.

Your resume doesn’t need to be perfect from the get-go, but it’s your responsibility to use the tools available in order to make it so.

3. A variety of templates to choose from

A CV can come in different forms. Some sectors are more liberal in terms of what a resume can look like than others, and if you’re not sure where your industry stands on this, a resume checker tool will help you with that as well.

The general rule is that those in the creative field (marketing, graphic design, art, etc.) are freer to experiment with their resume formats. Excluding drastic examples such as printing your CV out on a t-shirt, it is generally more common to see brighter colours and unconventional templates used by creatives. In that case, a CV can be a statement of their personality and proof of creativity.

Sectors such as finance, IT, administration, HR, and similar are more likely to require more conservative CV designs. Professionals applying for such positions are discouraged from experimenting with unordinary templates and using bright colours. A classic, discreet, and toned-down resume will be the way to go here.

However, if you don’t want to risk crossing the line with your CV, but would still want to ensure its originality and add a bit of character to it, resume checkers provide a range of templates to choose from. They are usually grouped into categories (creative, modern, classic, etc.) to make it easier for everyone to choose one according to their position and avoid the risk of committing a faux pas. 

4. Professional advice and helpful tips

An online resume checker can be smart enough to even provide you with suggestions as you write your CV. Imagine you have made a repetition and are writing about the same task for the second time - this would be a waste of space.

A good resume checker will be able to detect it and point it out for you. You can then use this valuable spot you’ve gained to mention something else. In such a short document where literally every word matters, it could be a game changer!

Other common CV mistakes include being too vague while describing your duties in the previous roles, not including enough action words or forgetting to analyse the learning outcomes of completed tasks.

Choosing the proper register is also important, so if you happen to use colloquial terms such as “cool” or “awesome”, a resume checker and corrector should highlight it and suggest a more appropriate, formal equivalent. 

Of course, we still advise you to show your resume to an actual human being you know and trust once it’s ready. Even the best CV checker is only based on Artificial Intelligence. It can provide lots of helpful tips, but not an actual commentary on how a living, breathing person perceives your resume.

However, if you perform a resume quality check first before asking someone to read the document, it will result in less work for the person doing you the favour, so definitely take advantage of a resume-checking software!

5. Check for plagiarism

It is extremely unlikely that your educational background and professional experience will perfectly line up with someone else’s. But, unfortunately, it is not so unlikely for candidates to lie in their CVs.

For that reason, other than using ATS to scan resumes for keywords, companies often also check the documents they receive for plagiarism. Even if you were 100% honest in your CV and have written it yourself from scratch, other people may have not.

It's always a good idea to check for plagiarism before submitting. When we create accounts on various job boards and actively engage in job search, our CVs often become public.

The main reason behind uploading your resume to your profile is, of course, to increase the document’s chances of finding its way to the right person. The bigger your visibility online, the better, but there are two sides to every coin. 

Someone less honest than you might have stumbled upon your CV, or even LinkedIn profile, and, impressed by your strong candidate’s profile, decided to copy a part or two. Copying is the highest form of flattery - but not necessarily in this case.

The anti-plagiarism tool built into some of the best resume checkers will help you avoid unpleasant situations during the recruitment process, and also make you aware of a potential copycat preying on your hard work out there. 

6. Keyword analysis

Depending on the resume checker you’ve decided to use, this function might be included in the suggestions that pop up as you write, or might come as an entirely separate tool. 

We have already explained why using keywords in your resume is so important. We have also given you a little tip about where to find the terms sought-after by employers. However, if you would still rather receive professional assistance in this area, some resume checkers do offer that as part of their service.

Some software is smart enough to check your resume for keywords if you include the position you’re applying for. Certain online resume checkers even make it their main focus to help prepare your CV for a rendez-vous with an ATS and ensure that it passes the test with flying colours. 

Again, the tool is there to help you, not do everything for you. We still recommend carefully reading the job description a couple of times and extracting the keywords you believe may be important. Compare them with some of the terms you’ve come up with on your own, add a balanced mix of them to your CV, and then use a resume keyword checker to improve your keyword game even more. 

7. Personalised job recommendations

This may come as a surprise - after all, a resume checker is not a job board. But yes, some of them, including CV Maker, do offer their users the option to receive customised job matches based on their resumes. 

You may be tired of the string of job alerts flooding your inbox every day if you’re intensely looking for a job. But the truth is, the quicker you are employed, the sooner you will be able to unsubscribe from those newsletters. And the more resources you use in your job hunt, the higher the chances of that happening. 

Some job boards only allow you to subscribe for alerts related to a certain keyword. Job matches based on a thorough analysis of your CV might be more accurate and better tailored to your needs than general ones.

Rather than just the name of the position you’re looking for, they will take into account your experience, level of seniority, and skills. This will limit the amount of irrelevant job offers piling on your email and let you save precious time. 

***

Your CV is your ticket to your dream job. It’s in your best interest to invest in it. Luckily, resume checkers are out there to help you, but you will still need to make sure that you use a full range of the tools they offer in order to maximise your chances of getting hired. 

Remember that you still need to put your own effort into writing your resume - the software is there to help you - not do all the work for you. Just like in other areas of life, we should maintain common sense when using technology and don’t let it override our own judgement. But when used responsibly, an online resume checker is definitely a huge advantage in crafting the perfect CV.

Feeling inspired? Visit our blog for more career advice! How can you be sure the information we provide is top-notch? We are a group of professionals working with recruiters, career coaches, and HR specialists from all over the world! 

Trust our experience and let us help you find a new job in Europe!