What is an ATS and why does it matter?

An Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is software that employers use to receive, store, and screen job applications at scale. When you apply online, your CV almost certainly passes through one before a recruiter lays eyes on it. The system parses your document into structured data — name, contact details, employment history, skills — and scores it against the job description.

If your CV scores below a threshold, or if the parser fails to read it at all, you’re eliminated automatically. Studies consistently show that over 75% of CVs are rejected by ATS before reaching a human reviewer. The good news: the fixes are straightforward.

“The goal is a CV that a machine can parse perfectly and a person finds genuinely compelling. These are not in conflict — clarity serves both.”

Modern ATS platforms (Workday, Greenhouse, Lever, iCIMS, Taleo) have improved considerably, but they still struggle with complex layouts, graphics, tables, and non-standard section headers. Writing for ATS means writing clearly — which is good writing practice anyway.

Format and file type

Always submit a .docx or a clean .pdf

Unless the job posting specifies otherwise, .docx (Word) is the safest choice — ATS parsers were largely built around it. A clean, single-column .pdf is also broadly accepted and avoids font-substitution issues. Never submit .pages, .odt, or a Google Docs link.

One column is safest

Many candidates use two-column layouts — a sidebar for skills and contact info, a main column for experience. Some ATS software reads across the page left-to-right, mashing sidebar content into the wrong place. A single-column layout eliminates this risk entirely.

File name matters too

Name your file something professional and searchable: FirstName-LastName-CV.pdf. Avoid “CV_final_v3_USE THIS ONE.docx” — it signals disorganisation before anyone opens it.

Structure and section order

ATS systems expect to find specific sections in a predictable order. Using unusual headers like “My Journey” instead of “Work Experience” can cause the parser to miss your career history entirely. Stick to the conventional labels.

Recommended section order

• Contact information — name, professional email, phone, LinkedIn URL, city (not full address)
• Professional summary — 2–3 sentences distilling your experience and value proposition
• Work experience — reverse chronological, with employer, job title, dates, and bullet points
• Education — degree, institution, year (no high school if you have a university degree)
• Skills — a clean, scannable list of hard skills and tools
• Optional: Certifications, Projects, Publications, Languages, Volunteer Work

The professional summary

This is valuable real estate. A strong summary tells the ATS and the recruiter immediately who you are and what role you’re suited for. It should echo the language of the job description and contain your most important keywords.

Example: “Results-driven product manager with 6 years of experience leading cross-functional teams in B2B SaaS. Track record of shipping 0-to-1 products, reducing churn by 28%, and aligning engineering, design, and commercial stakeholders. Seeking a senior role in a growth-stage company.”

What to leave out

Remove the following from your CV: a photo, your date of birth, your marital status, a headshot, and your full home address. These are unnecessary, create bias risk, and waste space the ATS and recruiter need for your achievements.

Keywords and tailoring

“Sending the same CV to every job is the single most common mistake. ATS scores are calculated against a specific job description — a generic CV loses every time.”

How to find the right keywords

Read the job description carefully and note the exact language used. If the posting says “stakeholder management,” use that phrase — not “managing stakeholders.” ATS systems often match keywords literally. Common keyword categories to look for:

Where to place keywords

Keywords should appear naturally in your professional summary, work experience bullet points, and skills section. Don’t stuff them in white text or in a hidden block — modern ATS systems flag this, and it reads as dishonest to any human who reviews your CV.

Tailoring doesn’t mean rewriting from scratch

Keep a master CV with all your experience. For each application, adjust your summary to reflect the specific role, reorder or swap in the most relevant bullet points, and update your skills section to match what the job emphasises. This takes 15–20 minutes and meaningfully improves your pass rate.

Writing strong bullet points

This is where most CVs fall apart. Vague, duty-describing bullets are invisible to both ATS parsers and recruiters. Strong bullets are achievement-oriented, specific, and quantified wherever possible.

The formula: Action verb + Task + Result

When you don’t have hard numbers

Not every achievement is quantifiable — and that’s fine. Use relative comparisons (“highest-rated in the cohort”), scope (“across 12 countries”), or qualitative outcomes (“adopted as company-wide standard”). Even “led,” “owned,” and “initiated” signal more than “helped” or “assisted.”

Design: clarity over creativity

Unless you’re applying for a design, creative, or arts role, your CV is not the place to showcase visual creativity. An ATS-safe CV uses conservative formatting — and conservative formatting also reads as professional.

Typography

Use a single, clean font. Excellent choices are Calibri, Arial, Georgia, Garamond, or Lato. Body text should be 10–12pt. Headers can be 13–16pt. Avoid fonts that aren’t installed by default (they’ll substitute unpredictably) and never use less than 10pt.

Spacing and length

Margins of 1.5–2cm on all sides give the document room to breathe. Use consistent spacing between sections. As a rule: one page if you have under 10 years of experience, two pages if you have more. Senior executives may extend to three. Never pad to fill space — white space is not wasted space.

What to avoid

• Tables — can confuse ATS parsers and create reading-order problems
• Text boxes — often invisible to parsers
• Headers and footers for key information — some ATS skip these
• Logos, icons, skill-rating bars, and progress indicators
• Images of any kind, including a profile photo
• Columns (for safety — a single column is always safest)

Common mistakes to avoid

Final checklist

Before you submit, run through every item below. If you can check all of these, your CV is in strong shape.

• Saved as .docx or a clean, single-column .pdf
• File named FirstName-LastName-CV.pdf
• Contact section includes: name, email, phone, LinkedIn, city
• Professional summary reflects the language of the target job description
• Work experience in reverse chronological order
• Every role has 3–6 bullet points beginning with action verbs
• At least half the bullets include a specific number, percentage, or scale
• Keywords from the job description appear naturally in the body text
• Skills section lists tools and competencies relevant to the role
• No tables, text boxes, images, icons, or skill-rating bars
• Consistent date format throughout
• Font is standard, 10–12pt, readable
• One page (under 10 years exp.) or two pages max
• Proofread — and proofread again. Then ask someone else to read it.

“A CV that passes the ATS and impresses a recruiter in six seconds does one thing above all else: it makes it easy to understand exactly what you did, for whom, and what it achieved.”

The job market rewards preparation. A well-crafted, tailored CV isn’t a small edge — it’s the difference between being seen and being filtered out before anyone even reads your name.