How to make your CV ATS-friendly

When you apply through an employer's careers site, your CV is usually read by software before a person sees it. A few formatting choices make the difference between a CV the software reads cleanly and one it scrambles.

What an applicant tracking system actually does

An applicant tracking system (ATS) is the software large employers and recruitment agencies use to manage job applications. Workday, SuccessFactors, Greenhouse, Lever and JobAdder are common examples. When you upload your CV, the ATS typically:

1. Extracts the text from your file.
2. Parses it, trying to work out which parts are your name, contact details, job titles, employers, dates, education and skills, and fills in a candidate profile.
3. Makes it searchable. Recruiters filter and search candidates by job title, skills, qualifications or location, and sometimes rank them against the job's requirements.

You will often hear that an ATS "automatically rejects most CVs". That claim is exaggerated. In most organisations, people still make the decisions. But if the software can't read your CV properly, your profile may be incomplete or jumbled, and you won't show up when a recruiter searches for the skills you have. That is the problem worth avoiding.

Formatting rules that keep your CV readable

Make sure your PDF contains real text

If your CV is a scanned document, or was exported as an image, there is no text for the system to read. Nothing gets through. PDFs exported from a word processor or from CV Editor contain real text. A quick way to check is the test at the end of this guide.

Use standard section headings

Parsers look for familiar headings to split your CV into sections. Use plain labels like Summary, Experience (or Professional Experience), Education, Skills and Certifications. Creative headings such as "Where I've Been" or "My Toolkit" are harder for software to classify.

Keep job details in a consistent pattern

Give every role the same structure: employer, job title and dates, always in the same order and the same date format (for example "March 2022 - Present"). Consistency helps the parser link the right title to the right employer and dates.

Be careful with columns, tables and text boxes

Many modern parsers handle a simple two-column layout well. Some older ones read straight across the page line by line, which can merge your sidebar with your work history into nonsense. Tables and floating text boxes cause similar problems. If you are applying through large corporate or government portals, a single-column layout is the safest choice. In CV Editor, the Single Column and Single Serif designs are built for this.

Don't put important details in headers, footers or images

Some systems ignore the page header and footer areas, and none can read text inside a picture or logo. Keep your name and contact details in the main body of the page, as normal text.

Use common fonts and simple bullets

Standard fonts such as Helvetica, Arial, Times and Calibri are read reliably. Plain round bullets or dashes are safest. Decorative icons and symbols may come out as random characters.

Send the file type they ask for

A text-based PDF is accepted by most systems today and keeps your design intact. If an employer specifically asks for a Word document, send one.

Keywords: match the job, honestly

Recruiters search their ATS using the words in the job advertisement: the job title, key skills, tools and qualifications. If you have those skills, make sure your CV uses the same words the employer does.

• Mirror the job title where it accurately describes your experience. If the ad says "Customer Success Manager" and your title was "Client Relationship Lead" for the same work, you can mention both in your summary.
• Use both the acronym and the full term once, such as "Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)" or "Certified Practising Accountant (CPA)", because a recruiter might search for either.
• Put skills in context. A skill mentioned in a result ("Built monthly forecasting models in Excel and Power BI") is more convincing to the human reader than the same word in a list.
• Don't stuff keywords. Repeating words unnaturally, or hiding them in white text, is easy for recruiters to spot when they read the parsed text. It will cost you the interview.

Test your CV before you apply

You can get a rough idea of what an ATS sees with a free test:

1. Open your exported PDF, select all the text (Ctrl+A or ⌘+A), copy it, and paste it into a plain text editor such as Notepad or TextEdit.
2. Read through the result. Is everything there? Is it in a sensible order? Do your job titles, employers and dates appear together?
3. If text is missing, comes out garbled, or the sidebar is mixed into your work history, simplify the layout and test again.

You can also import your exported PDF back into CV Editor. The importer works in a similar way to an ATS parser, so if it rebuilds your sections and roles correctly, that is a good sign.