Sending the same CV to every ad is easy, but it is often the least effective approach. The ad describes what the employer wants in its own words; if your CV describes the same thing in different words, both the human reader and the applicant tracking system can miss it.
1. Read the ad carefully, once
Note the required qualifications ("at least 3 years", "Excel", "driving licence") separately from the nice-to-haves. Words that repeat show the employer's priorities. Read the requirements and duties, not the company blurb.
2. Match what you have to the ad's language
If an experience of yours meets a requirement, describe it with the ad's own word. If the ad says "stakeholder management" and you wrote "liaising with departments", and the work you did is genuinely the same, use the ad's wording.
A simple rule: never add a skill or experience just because the ad mentions it. Nothing should be on your CV that you couldn't explain in an interview.
3. See what's missing
Paste the ad into the job matcher in CV Maker's Analysis tab. It pulls out the ad's keywords and shows which appear in your CV and which don't. Word forms are matched by stem, so "managed" and "management" are treated alike. It all runs on your device; neither the ad nor your CV is sent to a server.
- Add the missing keywords you genuinely have to your CV.
- Don't add ones you don't have; say honestly in a cover letter that you are keen to learn.
- Use a keyword once, in context, within the relevant bullet rather than repeating it.
4. Tailoring with AI (Pro)
The "Tailor to a job ad" feature in CV Maker's AI tab reads the ad together with your CV's experience and skills text and proposes a summary and bullet rewrites. Nothing overwrites your original: the suggestions you pick are applied to a separate copy of your CV.
Two safeguards guard against invention: a suggestion containing a number that isn't in your CV is rejected, and any tool or concept that isn't in your CV is flagged for you. When the AI can't find something, it asks you rather than making it up.
Your name, email, phone, address and photo are never sent to the AI — only experience, education and skills text. You can see exactly what is sent in the interface.
CV Maker — Paste the ad, see the missing keywords and adjust a copy of your CV to it.
5. Keep a copy per application
CV Maker stores up to 12 CVs on your device. Keep your master CV intact and create a copy for each application, named after the company or role, so you can find which version went where.
6. Final checks before sending
- Consistency: The Analysis tab flags clear errors such as overlapping dates.
- ATS X-ray: See how hiring systems read your PDF: is your name the first line, are your email and phone recognised, are the headings understood?
- Page count: If the CV spills onto a second page, "Fit to one page" can bring it back to one.