A CV becomes a profile

Forty forms, one more

Lina: Wednesday evening in Istanbul. Zeynep Arslan has found the Data Analyst job in Lahore.

Zeynep Arslan: Six steps. I've typed my career into forty of these forms — let's see if this one reads it for me.

Lina: Tonight we follow her application from the first click to the last, and watch what Nova drafts on the way.

Lina: A CV becomes a profile. Nova reads her CV and drafts the form; Zeynep checks every line and decides what gets sent.

Her CV

Lina: Her CV: one page, a PDF.

Lina: Name, phone, email and LinkedIn at the top,

Lina: two analyst jobs over five years, each with what she actually did,

Lina: a degree in industrial engineering, with the years and a grade point average,

Lina: and at the bottom, her date of birth. Plenty of CVs still carry one.

David: Keep an eye on that one.

Lina: We will.

The advert

Lina: The advert. No account needed — she presses Apply now.

David: No account to create before she has even started. Good.

Lina: The requirements are plain: three years in data, strong SQL, a BI tool, clear written English.

Step one

Lina: Six steps, all empty.

David: That's a lot of typing for one evening.

Lina: She presses Fill from my CV and picks the PDF.

Nova reads

Lina: Reading your CV. One call to Nova, about twelve seconds.

David: What does it cost?

Lina: A cent and a half, logged against the feature that made it. Chapter six has the ledger.

The draft

Lina: And the form is drafted.

Lina: Her first and last name, from the top of the CV,

Lina: her email and mobile, exactly as the CV has them,

Lina: and her date of birth. The form asks for it, because the job has an age range, and the CV had it.

David: So Nova does see her age.

Lina: The form does, because she's filling it in. Nova's fit read in the next chapter is never given it.

Lina: And the note at the bottom says exactly what this is: a draft, please review every field.

Headline and skills

Lina: Further down, her headline, taken from the line under her name,

Lina: and eleven skills — every one from the CV. The five this job asks for are among them, because she has them, not because the job asked.

David: It didn't pad the list to match the advert?

Lina: No — every one is on her CV. Nothing was added to match the job.

Read from the CV, or asked of her

Lina: Notice what Nova didn't fill.

Lina: Everything a CV really says — name, contacts, headline, skills, address, education and work history — it drafted.

Lina: Gender, marital status, nationality, an ID number, a photo — it left alone. A CV is the wrong source for those, and a guess would be worse than a blank.

David: Even when a CV mentions them?

Lina: Even then. The draft has no place for them; she answers those herself, or leaves the optional ones blank.

Lina: And salary, notice period and start date are hers alone. Nothing on a CV can answer them.

Her answers

Lina: So she sets them herself. Nationality was still on the portal's default; she changes it to Türkiye.

David: The ID number is optional at this stage, so she leaves it blank — and Nova didn't invent one.

Step two

Lina: Step two. Her address and city came from the CV; the postal code she types herself.

Lina: Then what only she can answer: forty-two hundred dollars a month, the advertised figure, thirty days' notice, and she can start on the third of May.

Step three

Lina: Education: a bachelor's degree, the university, and the grade — her three point three out of four, written as eighty-two and a half out of a hundred.

David: And the dates say the first of January.

Lina: Because the CV only has the years. That's a guess, and a guess is exactly what she's here to check.

Step four

Lina: Her work history, most recent first. Marmara Lojistik, where she still works — the box is ticked —

Lina: and the retail group before it. What she did is in her own words, from the CV, not rewritten.

Step five

David: On Documents she attaches the same PDF as her CV. The certificates can follow later.

Step six

Lina: The review page puts it all on one screen. This is the last chance to catch a wrong line.

David: Did she change the dates?

Lina: She left them — the years are right, and that's what the panel reads.

Her consent

Lina: Then the privacy notice: who holds her data, what for, and for how long — and her consent, which she gives herself.

Received

Lina: Application received, with a confirmation to her email,

Lina: and her application number.

Lina: She's signed in to her own portal now, where she can track the application and complete her profile.

Three easy mistakes

Lina: Three easy mistakes with a feature like this.

Lina: Submitting the draft unread. The dates were a guess, and only the candidate knows which ones.

Lina: Parsing the pile. Nova reads one CV for the person who asked. It isn't a machine for sorting a stack of CVs on the recruiter's desk.

David: And guessing the personal fields. A blank the candidate fills beats a guess nobody checks.

Twelve minutes

Zeynep Arslan: Twelve minutes. And I read every line of it.

Lina: One thing she hasn't done yet: asked whether she's a good fit.

Lina: Next: Zeynep asks how well she fits — and gets an honest answer.