What should a CV look like so screening software reads it?

Download the CV template (Word)

One page, one column, a grey line of guidance in every section. It opens in Word, in Google Docs (File, Open, Upload) and in Pages. No sign-up and no email address needed.

What we tested

We build Staffholm, software that reads job applications for employers. So we took one CV and laid it out twice with exactly the same words. Once as one plain column, once as a two-column design with skill bars and language dots. Both went through Staffholm twice, against a live advert for a solutions engineer.

• One plain column scored 78, then 89.
• The two-column design scored 87, then 88.

Layout made no difference. A reading moves by up to ten points on its own, and both layouts sat inside that. What the design did lose was every level drawn as a dot or a bar. Staffholm read "Estonian English Spanish", with no "native" and no "C1". For a job that needs Spanish at C1, that candidate would have lost.

Five rules the template follows

• Layout costs nothing if it is real text. Write levels as words, like English (C1) or Python (advanced), never as dots or bars.
• Every must-have in the advert is checked. Whatever your CV does not mention cannot count as met. Write one line of evidence for each must-have.
• Work counts wherever you did it. Your own company, freelance work, an internship and a study project all count. Write what you did, not just the title.
• Languages and certificates are read as complete lists. Leave a language out and, as far as the screening knows, you do not speak it.
• Numbers beat adjectives. How many, how much, how often, and what changed because of you.

What actually moves a score

When our founder ran his own CV through Staffholm, the layout cost him nothing. One honest line about running sales turned "commercial mindset" into evidence. Cutting a line about five years of investing took away every sign of financial analysis, and his score for a finance job dropped with it.

A template cannot give anyone experience they do not have. What it can do is make sure the experience you have is read, line by line, against what the job asks for.

How Staffholm helps

Staffholm reads every application against the employer's must-haves, quotes the line of the CV behind each score and asks candidates about what their CV leaves out. Nobody is turned down by the software. A person makes every decision.

How to go through 200 CVs quickly and fairly →

Tested and written on 13 October 2026.