Chapter 1

How your CV reaches an agency

In the UK, much contract and temp work, and a lot of permanent work, is filled by recruitment agencies Our view. Your CV usually reaches them by one of four routes, and on each one it ends up as a record in a database before a person reads it.

Route 1: you apply to an advert on a job board

You apply on a job board. The board passes your application to the agency that posted the advert. Many agencies post through a multiposter, a service that sends one advert to many boards and routes the replies back:

• Broadbean's Aplitrak tracks applications from boards into more than 120 agency and employer systems BB1.
• idibu has used a Daxtra integration since 2009 so that applicants' CVs create or update records in the agency's system against the advert I1.
• Some agency systems take applications straight from boards: Firefish documents direct applications from boards including the feed partner, Reed and Monster FP22.

Route 2: a recruiter finds you in a CV database

Job boards sell recruiters access to the CVs candidates upload. Recruiters search these databases directly:

• Totaljobs lets recruiters search by keyword or Boolean across the whole CV and profile or the job title only, and filter by location, salary (annual, daily or hourly), right to work and job type (temporary, contract, permanent) CV1.
• Reed scans all CV text including previous job titles, and filters by how recently the candidate registered, from 1 day to 24 months CV2.
• Aggregators run one search across every database an agency pays for, with saved searches that run overnight: Broadbean Search BB2 and Daxtra Search inside Mercury M4.

the feed partner also runs a CV database. We have not read its recruiter documentation for this guide, so we say nothing about how it searches Not documented here.

Route 3: the agency's own system

Whichever way it arrives, your CV is parsed into a candidate record in the agency's own system, often called a CRM. Recruiters then search that record for years, not just for the advert you answered Our view. What UK agency systems publicly say about how they parse:

Two things that catch people out

• Duplicate records. In Bullhorn for Salesforce only one CV per candidate is searchable (normally the most recent), and duplicates are checked on first name and email, or email alone, so a CV sent from a different email address can create a second record B7. Use the same email address with every agency and board.
• Old parses stay. Bullhorn says documents parsed before its 2026 parser upgrade keep their old result unless they are parsed again B1. When your CV changes, send the new file rather than assuming the agency's record updates itself Our view.

Route 4: straight to the employer

Some adverts, more often permanent ones, send you to the employer's own application system: Workday, Greenhouse, Lever, Workable, Teamtailor, Ashby, iCIMS, Taleo, SmartRecruiters and others. These usually ask screening questions alongside your CV (chapter 4). Few say publicly which parser they use Not documented.

The public sector is different again:

• NHS Jobs does not accept an uploaded CV. Where the employer chooses a CV application, you paste your CV into set sections, remove identifying details because the process is anonymous, and cannot save that text for reuse FP24.
• Civil Service Jobs scores behaviour examples of up to 250 words, asks for job history covering at least the last three years and up to eight roles with gaps explained, and says to upload a document only when the form asks FP25.