What happens before a person sees it

Most applications to a large employer are read by software before they are read by anyone. The system is usually looking for something narrow — whether particular words appear, whether dates parse, whether the file opens cleanly. It is not judging you. It is reducing four thousand files to four hundred.

The practical consequences are dull and worth following. Submit a plain document unless told otherwise, with no text hidden in images, headers or tables that a parser will drop. Use the ordinary section headings — Experience, Education, Skills — rather than clever ones. Use the words the advertisement uses rather than a synonym you prefer. None of this makes a weak CV strong. It stops a strong one being discarded for a reason nobody will ever tell you.