AI in Recruitment – How Do Algorithms Read Your Resume?

One of the most common problems in resumes is overly general descriptions of work experience. Candidates write that they were responsible for business development, client relations, marketing activities, or sales support. The problem is that such phrasing says practically nothing about the actual scope of their work.
If you handled B2B sales, acquired new clients, negotiated commercial terms, and developed specific markets, it’s worth stating this explicitly. The system won’t always correctly interpret that “client support” actually means key account management, or that “sales development” included prospecting, lead generation, and negotiations.
The more precisely you describe your experience, the easier it is for both the system and the recruiter to understand what you actually did.

Job postings very often list specific skills, tools, and areas of responsibility. If a company is looking for someone with experience in B2B sales, CRM, negotiations, and acquiring new customers, and the candidate possesses these skills, they should also be included in their resume.
However, this doesn’t mean copying entire sections of the job posting or artificially stuffing in keywords. It’s much more important to use terminology that’s actually used in the industry and accurately describes your experience.
If you’ve worked with Salesforce, HubSpot, or SAP, or if you’ve been involved in SEO, procurement, or supply chain management, listing specific names is far more effective than using general terms like “tool management” or “process support.”
A good resume should be precise, not flashy at all costs.

For years, many guides have encouraged job seekers to make their resumes stand out visually. Colors, icons, competency charts, two-column layouts, and elaborate templates were all meant to catch a recruiter’s attention.
Today, it’s best to approach this with caution. The more complex the document’s layout, the greater the risk that some information will be misread by the system. Data presented exclusively in graphics, unusual tables, overly elaborate visual sections, or unclear headings can be particularly problematic.
This doesn’t mean your resume has to look bad. It simply needs to be easy to read. A recruiter needs to quickly find the job title, company, employment period, job responsibilities, achievements, and key competencies.
If the format starts to hinder understanding of the content, it ceases to be an asset.

Many resumes look like a rewritten list of job duties. Candidates write that they handled client relations, developed campaigns, supported sales, or participated in projects.
This information is necessary, but without context, it has little value.
A description that highlights the scope of your responsibilities and the results you achieved is much more effective. Instead of writing that you were responsible for international clients, you can specify that you expanded the B2B client portfolio in European markets, conducted commercial negotiations, and secured new contracts.
If you can include numbers, even better. Information about sales growth, the value of the client portfolio you managed, the number of clients, or the size of the team immediately demonstrates the scope of your experience.
A recruiter shouldn’t have to wonder exactly what your job responsibilities entailed. A good resume provides the answer right away.

Sending the same resume to dozens of different positions is convenient, but it’s rarely the best strategy. While individual roles may require similar experience, companies focus on different aspects.
For a Business Development Manager, acquiring new clients and market development may be more important. For a Key Account Manager, relationships with existing clients and negotiation skills may be key. As an Export Manager, experience in specific markets and knowledge of international trade will be more important.
This doesn’t mean you have to rewrite your resume from scratch every time. Often, it’s enough to rearrange your most relevant experiences, update your professional summary, and emphasize the skills that are most important for the position in question.
Your resume shouldn’t be a complete history of your career. It should show why you’re a good fit for a specific role.

You can find a lot of advice online about how to get around ATS systems. Some people recommend adding hidden keywords, copying entire job postings, or listing skills just because they appear in the ad.
This is a very poor strategy.
Even if your resume makes it past the first stage, the next step is usually an interview with a human recruiter. If your resume mentions SQL, team management, business negotiations, or a specific tool, the recruiter may ask you about it.
Every word you include in your resume can become a topic of conversation. That’s why it’s much better to base your resume on real-world experience rather than trying to tailor it to the system at all costs.

Artificial intelligence can speed up the review of applications, make it easier to identify skills, and organize a large number of applications. However, it won’t solve the problem of a poorly written resume.
If your experience is described in general terms, your achievements are hidden behind empty phrases, and your most important skills are hard to find, technology won’t be able to extract anything from the document that isn’t already there.
That’s why a good resume today should meet two criteria. It must be understandable to a system and, at the same time, convincing to a human.
The best rule is simple: be specific, use the language of your industry, showcase results, and don’t make anyone guess what you’re really capable of.
Because no matter how advanced recruitment systems become, the candidate who can clearly demonstrate their value will still come out on top.