parser agent read the target role from a cover-letter header as the candidate's current job title

TL;DR: Never read a candidate's current job title from a cover letter. Cover letters state the role being applied for, which looks exactly like a job title in the header. After the fix, current title comes only from the resume's experience section.

parser agent read the target role from a cover-letter header as the candidate's current job title

1. Check which document the title came from. Expected: the stored "current job title" was filled from a file that is actually a cover letter, not a resume.
2. Add document-type detection: if the text contains phrases like "Dear Hiring Manager", "I am applying for", or "I am excited to apply", tag it as a cover letter. Expected: the file gets tagged as cover letter, not resume.
3. Change the title rule: current title is the most recent entry in the resume's experience section only, and cover letters contribute zero fields. Expected: the title now matches the resume's latest role, or stays empty if the resume has no clear latest role.
4. Re-parse the candidate and compare to the PDF. Expected: the stored title matches the resume, not the applied-for role.

Use this when

• A candidate's stored title matches the job posting they applied to
• The parse input included a cover letter alongside or instead of a resume
• Titles look suspiciously like the exact role name from the job description

Not for this skill when

• The input was definitely a resume and the title is still wrong (that is an experience-section parsing bug)
• The candidate genuinely holds the title they applied for (verify against the resume first)
• The wrong field is the company name, not the title

Variant phrasings

Parser used the applied-for role as the candidate's current title

Cover letter job title parsed as current employment

Agent stored the target role from the cover letter header

Why it happens

Cover letters put the target role in a prominent header ("Application for Senior Backend Engineer"), which is exactly where a resume puts the candidate's headline title. A parser that fills the title field from whatever document it sees first cannot tell the two apart without classifying the document type first.

Edge cases

• Combined PDF with cover letter first and resume after: split on the document-type boundary and parse only the resume portion for employment fields
• Cover letters without the standard phrases: fall back to structure (a cover letter has salutation and sign-off paragraphs, a resume has section headers like Experience and Education)
• Candidates whose cover letter header legitimately states their current title too: the resume still wins as the source of truth

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_ar1uLOqEUhe8R8eFevMA