Should you worry about white fonting?
White fonting is the practice of inserting hidden keywords into the body of an electronic document. The words are inserted by using a white font on a white background, so that the keywords are invisible to the human eye. However, they are still visible to any computer programs that scan for those keywords.
What some candidates have taken to doing is applying this practice to their CV, by hiding keywords taken from the job description in their CV, for example by copying and pasting words that relate to the essential or desirable skills or experience for the job role or even by pasting in the entire job description (which they might shrink down to a small font so it takes up less space). If the employer then uses AI screening software to scan CVs for specific keywords, the white fonted CV will probably pass that initial screening stage of the recruitment process, although at the next stage a human, such as the hiring manager, should assess the CVs put forward by the software.
Even if you manually assess CVs and don’t use any form of screening software, it’s important to be aware of the white font tactic. All you need to do is click “select all” when you open the electronic CV and change the font to black. Any white text will be then displayed. If any job applicants have done this, you’d be justified in rejecting their job application as white fonting is dishonest and it suggests they’re not the right fit for the job role in the first place if they’d had to resort to this tactic to try and get their CV before the hiring manager. You don’t even need to go through this exercise for everyone; you can confine it just to those whom you’d propose to invite to interview.
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