Build a CV with AI

How your CV actually gets read

Before a person reads your CV, it usually goes through two filters.

1. Software: the applicant tracking system (ATS). Most medium and large employers, and almost every recruitment agency, receive applications through an ATS: Workday, Greenhouse, Lever, SmartRecruiters, iCIMS, BambooHR and many others. When you upload your CV, the ATS reads the text out of it and files it into fields: name, phone, email, job titles, employers, dates, education, skills. Recruiters then search those fields, for example "Excel" and "Lagos" and "customer service", and the system lists the matching candidates.

That's what matters about ATS. You may have heard that "robots reject 75% of CVs". That figure has no real source, and most systems don't reject anyone on their own. The real risks are simpler:

• If the ATS can't read your CV (because of tables, columns, text boxes or images), your details land in the wrong fields or go missing, and you don't appear in searches.
• If your CV doesn't use the words in the job advert, a recruiter searching for those words won't find you.

2. A person, in under a minute. When a recruiter opens your CV, the first look is quick. They check your most recent job title, where you worked, when, and whether you have what the advert asked for. A clear layout lets them find it.

Good news: the CV that works for the software is the same one that works for the person. Simple, clear and specific.

What an ATS-friendly CV looks like

Here is a complete one-page CV for a recent graduate applying for a junior data analyst role. It's fictional, but everything in it is the kind of thing a real graduate can write.

TOLULOPE ADEYEMI
Ikeja, Lagos | 0803 456 7812 | tolu.adeyemi@gmail.com | linkedin.com/in/tolu-adeyemi

PROFILE
Economics graduate with hands-on experience cleaning and reporting sales data in
Excel and SQL. Built a weekly sales dashboard that cut a 3-hour manual report to
20 minutes during NYSC. Looking for a junior data analyst role in Lagos.

SKILLS
Excel (pivot tables, XLOOKUP, SUMIFS, Power Query) | SQL | Power BI
Data cleaning | Reporting | Google Sheets | Presenting findings

EXPERIENCE
Sales Data Assistant (NYSC), Kolanut Distribution Ltd, Lagos      Mar 2025 - Feb 2026
- Built a weekly sales dashboard in Excel, cutting report preparation from 3 hours
  to 20 minutes.
- Cleaned and merged customer lists from 3 branches, removing 140 duplicate records.
- Answered 15-20 ad hoc data requests a month from the sales and finance teams.

Customer Service Intern (SIWES), Crestline Bank, Ibadan           Jun 2023 - Nov 2023
- Resolved 30+ customer enquiries a day at the help desk, keeping wait times under
  10 minutes.
- Logged and categorised complaints in a shared spreadsheet, which the branch used
  to spot the 3 most common issues.

EDUCATION
B.Sc. Economics (Second Class Upper), University of Ibadan            2019 - 2024

CERTIFICATIONS
SQL for Data Analysis, CloudTech Academy (2025)
Excel for Data Analysis, CloudTech Academy (2025)

Notice what it does:

• One column, plain headings. PROFILE, SKILLS, EXPERIENCE, EDUCATION. An ATS recognises standard headings; "My Journey" or "What I Bring" may not be filed correctly.
• Contact details in the body, not in the page header or footer, where some systems don't look.
• Job title, employer, place and dates on one line for each role, most recent first.
• Skills spelled the way adverts spell them: "Excel", "SQL", "Power BI", not "spreadsheet wizardry".
• Bullets that show results, with numbers.
• No photo, no date of birth, no state of origin, no religion, no marital status. Leave them off unless the employer specifically asks.

The CV that breaks it. Now picture the popular template version of the same CV: a dark sidebar on the left holding contact details and "skill bars" (Excel ●●●●○), a photo at the top, icons instead of the words "phone" and "email", the experience in a two-column table, and the name in a decorative font inside a text box. It can look impressive, but an ATS reading it may merge the two columns into nonsense, miss the contact details in the text box, and file nothing under skills, because a skill bar is a picture, not words. A human reader still can't tell what "4 out of 5" in Excel means.

File format. If the advert says which format to use, use it. Otherwise a Word document (.docx) or a PDF saved from Word or Google Docs (not a scan or photo) both work in modern systems. Name it clearly: Tolulope-Adeyemi-CV.pdf.

Turn duties into achievements

The bullets under each job are where most CVs are weakest. A duty says what you were supposed to do. An achievement says what you did and what changed because of it.

A reliable formula: action verb + what you did + a result, ideally with a number.

Strong verbs to start with: built, cut, grew, increased, reduced, resolved, organised, trained, led, launched, analysed, created, improved, managed, delivered.

Where do the numbers come from? Things you can count or estimate honestly: how many customers a day, how many people you trained, how big the list was, how much time something took before and after. "About 30 a day" is fine if it's true. A number you can't explain in an interview is worse than no number.

Use AI to improve it, not to invent it

AI assistants like ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini are good at rewording and comparing. They're dangerous at making things up, and a CV is the worst place for that. So give them the facts, and tell them the rules.

Prompt 1: rewrite bullets, honestly

I'm updating my CV. Rewrite these bullet points as achievements: start each
with a strong action verb, keep each under 25 words, and use plain English.
Do not invent numbers or results. Where a number would make it stronger,
write [number?] so I can fill in the real figure.

- Responsible for stock taking at the pharmacy
- Helped customers choose products
- Trained new staff

A good answer looks like this:

- Carried out monthly stock counts across [number?] product lines, keeping
  records accurate for reordering.
- Advised [number?] customers a day on choosing products, explaining
  differences in price and use.
- Trained [number?] new staff members on the till, stock system and
  customer service standards.

Now you fill in the real numbers, or delete the gap if you don't know.

Prompt 2: tailor to a job advert

Here is a job advert and my CV. List the 6 most important skills or
requirements in the advert, in the advert's own words. For each one, tell
me whether my CV shows it clearly, partly, or not at all, and suggest a
truthful change if it's unclear. Don't add anything I haven't done.

[paste the job advert]
[paste your CV]

Then update your profile and the most relevant bullets, using the advert's words where they're true for you. If the advert says "stakeholder management" and you regularly updated three department heads, say "stakeholder management" in that bullet.

Check it before you send it

• Every line is true, and you could talk about it for a minute in an interview.
• Read it aloud. Replace words you'd never say, like "spearheaded", "synergy" or "dynamic go-getter".
• One or two pages. One page is usual for graduates.
• Same format throughout: dates in one style, consistent bullets, no spelling mistakes in names of employers or tools.
• Passes the copy-paste test, and the file name has your name in it.

Try it

Do these three tasks here. They check your work against what recruiters and ATS look for, and then show you a model answer to compare with.

Here's part of a real-style job advert. Use it for the last task.

JUNIOR DATA ANALYST - Lagos (Hybrid)
We're looking for a junior data analyst to support our sales and operations
teams. You will build weekly reports and dashboards, clean and validate data
from several systems, and present findings to managers.
Requirements: strong Excel (pivot tables, lookups); working knowledge of SQL;
experience with Power BI or a similar BI tool; attention to detail; clear
written and verbal communication. NYSC completed.