Should you stuff white words on your CV to trick an ATS?

You shouldn’t stuff white words on your CV to trick an applicant tracking system (ATS). Stuffing your CV with extra keywords and turning the font colour white doesn’t work and makes you look dishonest.

White fonting, or white word stuffing, is a shifty CV writing practice that tries to raise your ATS score. It works by copy-and-pasting keywords from the job description onto your CV and turning them white so a hiring manager can’t see them but an ATS can.

In addition to being deceitful, white fonting rarely works.

Some ATS can’t read white text, while others discard CVs that have hidden text because they perceive them as spammy.

Even if your CV does get a high score, hiring managers are aware of white wording and may highlight your CV before reading it to reveal the hidden text. Or if they print your CV on off-white paper, the keywords will be visible.