Glossary of CV formatting and recruitment terms

#The terms people look up most

#Recruitment terms

ATS (Applicant Tracking System) Software that manages candidates through the hiring process — storing records, tracking applications and holding CVs. Bullhorn, Vincere, JobAdder and Mercury are examples. RemakeCV integrates with an ATS rather than replacing it.

Blind recruitment A hiring process in which identifying details are removed from candidate CVs before a hiring manager sees them, to reduce bias. Also called anonymous or blind hiring. See auto-anonymisation.

Candidate submission The act of sending a formatted candidate CV to a client, usually with a covering message explaining the fit.

CRM (Candidate Relationship Management) Software for managing ongoing relationships with candidates and clients. In recruitment the terms CRM and ATS are often used interchangeably.

Preferred supplier agreement (PSA) An arrangement in which a client works with a defined list of agencies. PSAs frequently specify the CV template submissions must use, which is why template variants exist.

Shortlist The set of candidates an agency puts forward for a role. Consistency across a shortlist is a common reason to use bulk formatting.

#CV formatting terms

Anonymisation Removing or replacing identifying information in a CV — name, contact details, employers, institutions — while keeping the substance. Note that anonymised CVs may still be personal data under GDPR if the person remains identifiable.

Extraction Pulling raw text out of a document. The first stage of formatting, before any structure is identified.

First-person neutralisation Rewriting a CV written as "I managed a team" into neutral ("Managed a team") or third-person phrasing. See first-person neutralisation.

OCR (Optical Character Recognition) Recognising text in an image. Used when a PDF has no text layer — a scan or a photograph. See scanned PDFs and OCR.

Parsing Working out what extracted text means — which text is a job title, which is an employer, which is a date range. The stage that turns a wall of text into structured data.

Processing method Whether a CV was read from a text layer (text) or via OCR (image). Recorded on every processed CV.

Reading order The order a human reads a document. PDFs do not store it, which is why multi-column layouts can extract in a jumbled sequence. See jumbled and multi-column CVs.

Structured data The result of parsing: employers, titles, dates and bullets as discrete fields rather than free text. What gets rendered into a template.

Text layer The machine-readable text inside a PDF. A scanned PDF has none, which is what triggers OCR.

#RemakeCV terms

Acting user The consultant an API request is made on behalf of. Determines template visibility and which credit limits apply. See authentication.

Bulk formatting Processing several CVs in one batch. Five are processed concurrently and the rest queue. See bulk formatting.

Credit The unit of usage. One credit formats one CV, and covers all subsequent editing, anonymising and downloading of that CV. See how credits and usage work.

Custom extraction field An agency-specific field extracted from every CV — security clearance, licence category, registration number. See custom extraction fields.

CV storage A company-level setting controlling whether processed CVs are retained. When disabled, there is no CV history. See GDPR and data retention.

Reprocessing Running extraction again on a CV already in the system. Does not consume a credit.

Shared pool A credit allocation shared between a named group of users. See credits explained.

Signed URL A time-limited link granting access to a stored file without authentication. Expires — never store or share one. See GET /cvs/{cvId}/file.

Template Your agency's CV design: fonts, colours, logo, section order, headings and custom fields. Owned at company level. See template basics.

Template variant A version of a template for a specific situation — a client's branding, an anonymised layout, or one without a cover page.

User limit A per-consultant cap on credit usage within a billing cycle. Takes precedence over any shared pool the user also belongs to.