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How to Write a CV That Passes the First Screening

On average, an employer first looks at the top third of the first page. If they do not clearly see there what you do and why you are relevant, the rest of the text often does not even get read. That is why a CV should not be a chronology of everything you have done, but a short argument in your favor.

Start with the header: first and last name, the position you are applying for, city, phone, email and, optionally, your LinkedIn profile. Write the title under your name specifically, for example "Frontend developer" or "Accountant with five years of experience in small businesses", instead of a generic "IT expert".

Then comes a short profile of two to three sentences: what you know, where you applied it and what you are looking for. Next is experience with concrete results, then education, skills and languages. References and hobbies come at the end and can be left out if you do not have space.

What to Put in the Work Experience Section

The most common mistake is listing duties: "responsible for communication with clients". That says nothing about how you worked. Instead, write each item as an action and a result, preferably with a number you can confirm.

1. Start with a verb in the first person or impersonally: "introduced", "organized", "reduced", "led".
2. State what you specifically did and with which tool or method.
3. Add a measurable outcome if there is one: number of clients, project scope, deadline, team size.
4. Avoid empty adjectives like "hardworking" and "team player" without an example that backs them up.

Example: instead of "worked on improving sales", write "organized weekly sales reports in Excel and thereby cut the preparation of the monthly report from two days to a few hours". If you do not have an exact number, describe the change in words, but do not invent statistics.

How to Tailor Your CV for ATS and Online Applications

Large companies and job sites often first run the CV through software that extracts text. Such a system does not "see" columns, text in the document header, images or graphic elements, so it happens that a high quality CV is read as a string of disconnected words.

For such applications, choose a simple layout without columns and without a photo, with standard section headings: Experience, Education, Skills, Languages. Take the keywords from the job ad itself and insert them naturally into the job descriptions, because the ATS looks for matching terms. Make the file name clear, for example first-last-name-cv.pdf, not "CV final new 3".

Practical tip: if you are sending the same CV to several job ads, make two versions, one for direct contact with the employer and one "clean" version for the ATS. Keep the same content, but adjust the layout and keywords.

Most Common Mistakes When Building a CV in a Generator

A generator solves the layout, but not the content. The mistakes that come up most often are overly long text, inconsistent date formatting and inconsistent verb tenses. If you described one job in the past tense and another in the present, apply the same rule throughout the document.

Also watch out for the technical details that betray carelessness:

• check that all Serbian characters (č, ć, š, ž, đ) are displayed correctly in the PDF,
• make the date format consistent, for example 03/2022 to 07/2024,
• delete the email and phone from the header if you accidentally left outdated ones,
• check that the links to your portfolio or LinkedIn work,
• send the PDF to yourself by email and open it on your phone, because many recruiters look at it on a small screen first.

When it comes to a larger number of candidates, selection or the systematic organization of applications in a company, EVI Solutions can help with the tools and processes that support it. For an individual application, it is enough that the content is clear, short and accurate.