How to use CV360 to improve your resume

Helping you optimise your resume for humans and machines
CV360 is a free service for all enrolled students at the University of Sydney. It provides the opportunity for all students to access immediate feedback on their resumes in a flexible and timely manner.

CV360 How to

CV360 is an online tool providing instant, automated feedback on your resume with suggestions based on the features commonly assessed by Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS). An ATS is the technology currently used by many employers and recruiters to screen resumes both in and out of selection processes.

CV360 provides feedback on your resume’s:

  1. file type
  2. presentation
  3. structure
  4. content
  5. skills
  6. language

Upload your resume (ideally in Word or plain text format) onto CV360

CV360 feedback starts with a summary profile, gleaned from across your resume content, which provides a useful insight into how you are coming across in nutshell form in your resume eg:

“Joe Student’s experience appears to be strongly concentrated in Employability Skills (mostly Critical Thinking & Problem Solving) and slightly concentrated in Common End-user Software (mostly Core Office). Joe Student’s experience appears to be entry level, with 18 months of experience.”

CV360 then reports on 58 different checks across the six categories (file type, presentation, structure, content, language and skills) to give your resume a score out 100. The aim is to move your score from the “red zone” (<85%) to the “green zone” (85+%).

To do this you have the option of editing your resume based on the generated feedback, then re-submitting your resume on CV360 for a re-score. The system will encourage you to keep re-submitting until you reach a perfect score.

CV360 will rate you as either having “passed” or “failed”  a check in each of the 6 categories and explain what the system was looking for with each check.

You have the option to “dismiss”   comments on the CV360 feedback screen where you know the advice is not relevant to your circumstances. Every time you dismiss a “failed” result, your score will increase. The aim is not necessarily to score 100% but to take on board the feedback and decide if it’s appropriate to apply in your circumstance, so your resume might be fine with an 87% result, for example.

You can re-submit a resume as many times as you wish/need. CV360 keeps a record of your score progression over each edit. You can also submit as many file versions of your resume as you like, for example, if you have different resumes tailored for different purposes.

It is important to bear in mind that CV360 is using general principles and guidelines to assess your resume. Its focus is on helping you to optimise your resume’s impact in an online recruitment process where a robot (ie: ATS) will assess your credentials before a human does. This means plain text and plain formatting features are required. You may still want to have a more visual presentation of your resume, if that is well regarded by your target industry, for example in design and creative professions. Keep that version for direct applications via email or to offer in person at interview, not for ATS mediated portals. Who Uses ATSs and how can you spot them? gives tips on how to recognise an ATS platform:

Also be aware that despite the predominance of ATSs in today’s recruiting environment, there is still no one right way to write a resume. For example, some employers will stipulate a one page resume, others are happy to receive three or more pages if your work history and achievements are considerable and relevant to the job. For example, a higher degree research student could potentially have a one page resume for an industry role but a 5 page resume for an academic position. CV360 will base its assessment on a general industry standard. If in doubt, there is always room for you to research expectations in your target industry. As with any online tool, use your judgement when applying the advice from CV360.

Before submitting your resume to CV360 it is important to use the following resources to prepare and optimise your resume for feedback:

  • Attend a free resume writing workshop (link here to events) on campus.

AND/OR

  • Read the information on resume writing on the Careers Centre website and refer to our Resume Template