How to Get Your CV Past Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS)
· 6 min read
When you apply for a job online, your CV usually lands in an applicant tracking system (ATS) before a person ever opens it. Employers use these systems to collect applications, store them, search them and move candidates through each hiring stage. That is not sinister. A single advert can attract hundreds of applications, and nobody can organise that volume in an inbox.
It does change how you should write your CV, though. A document that looks beautiful to you can arrive in the system as scrambled text, with your job titles in the wrong place and your contact details missing. And if a recruiter searches the system for a skill you have but described differently, your profile may never come up. This guide explains what actually happens to your CV and how to make sure it survives the journey.
What an applicant tracking system actually does
There is a popular myth that an ATS "reads" your CV, gives it a score and automatically rejects most applicants before a human sees anything. Reality is more ordinary. Most systems do three things:
Parse your CV: they extract text and try to split it into fields such as name, email, job titles, employers, dates, education and skills.
Store and search it: recruiters filter and search candidates by keywords, location, job title or answers to screening questions.
Track progress: each application moves through stages such as new, reviewed, interview, offer or rejected.
Some employers do add knock-out questions ("Do you have the right to work in this country?") or ranking features, but in most hiring processes a person still decides who moves forward. The real risk is not a robot rejecting you. It is your CV being parsed badly or never appearing in a search, so that the person never gets to see what you can do.
Step 1: Use a format the software can read
Parsing works best on simple, single-column documents. Design-heavy templates are the most common reason good CVs turn into nonsense inside an ATS.
One column. Two-column layouts often get read left to right across both columns, mixing your skills into your job history.
No text inside images, text boxes or tables. Many systems skip them entirely, so a skills table or a header built as a text box can simply disappear.
Contact details in the body, not in the page header or footer area of your word processor, which some parsers ignore.
Standard fonts such as Arial, Calibri or Georgia, at 10.5 to 12 points.
No icons for phone, email or skills ratings. A row of five stars or a progress bar means nothing to a parser, and little to a recruiter.
Unless the job advert says otherwise, send a text-based PDF (one exported from your word processor, not a scanned image) or a .docx file. If you can highlight and copy the text in your PDF, a system can usually read it too.
Step 2: Use headings the system expects
Parsers look for familiar section names to decide what is what. Creative headings such as "My Journey" or "What I Bring" make that harder. Stick to:
Contact details (name, phone, email, city and country, LinkedIn URL)
Professional summary
Work experience
Skills
Education
Certifications, languages or projects, if relevant
For each job, write the title, employer, location and dates on their own lines in the same order every time. Use a consistent date format, for example "Mar 2021 – Present" or "03/2021 – Present". Mixed formats confuse both software and people trying to work out how long you stayed.
Step 3: Match the language of the job advert
Recruiters search the ATS with the words that matter for the role, usually the same words they wrote in the advert. If the advert says "accounts payable" and your CV says "supplier invoicing", a search may miss you even though you do exactly that work.
Do this for every application:
Copy the job advert into a document and highlight the skills, tools, qualifications and duties that appear more than once or sit in the "requirements" section.
For each one you genuinely have, check that your CV uses the same term at least once, ideally in your experience bullets where you can show evidence.
Include both the full name and the abbreviation the first time: "Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)", "Certified Public Accountant (CPA)".
Mirror the job title where it is honest. If your title was "Customer Champion" but the work was customer support, write "Customer Support Specialist (title: Customer Champion)".
Never paste the job advert into your CV in white text or stuff it with keywords you cannot back up. Recruiters see the parsed text, so hidden text is visible to them, and a CV full of claims you cannot discuss in an interview does more harm than good.
Step 4: Write experience as achievements
Getting found is only the first step. Once a recruiter opens your profile, they spend very little time on the first scan. Bullet points that describe duties ("Responsible for social media") tell them almost nothing. Bullet points that describe results tell them what you would do for them.
A reliable pattern is action + task + result:
Weak: "Responsible for the company's social media accounts."
Strong: "Planned and published content for three social channels, growing followers from 2,000 to 11,000 in a year and doubling website visits from social."
Numbers do not have to be revenue. Team size, number of customers served, tickets resolved, time saved, error rates, budgets managed and deadlines met all count. If you cannot share exact figures, use honest approximations ("about 40 orders a day") or scope ("across 12 branches").
Step 5: Build a skills section that works for search
A short, plain skills section helps both the search engine inside the ATS and the recruiter skimming your CV. Group skills by type rather than listing thirty words in one line:
Technical: financial modelling, SQL, payroll processing
Tools: Excel (pivot tables, Power Query), SAP, Salesforce
Languages: English (fluent), French (intermediate)
Leave out vague traits such as "hard-working" or "team player". They are not searchable and they are better shown through your achievements.
Step 6: Test your CV before you send it
You can check how readable your CV is in a few minutes:
The copy-paste test. Open your PDF, select all the text and paste it into a plain text editor. If the order is jumbled, words are missing or your name is not at the top, a parser will struggle too.
The form test. Many application forms try to fill the fields from your CV. If job titles land in the wrong boxes, simplify the layout.
The six-second test. Ask a friend to look at your CV for six seconds and tell you your current job, your main skill and what you want next. If they cannot, restructure the top third.
Common mistakes that hide good candidates
Putting key information only in a design element, such as a coloured sidebar.
Sending the same generic CV to every job, so the words recruiters search for are missing.
Leaving out the location. Many recruiters filter by city, country or time zone, especially for international and remote roles.
Using unusual file types (Pages, image files) or password-protected documents.
Naming the file "CV final v3.pdf". Use "Firstname-Lastname-CV.pdf" so it is easy to find later.
A quick pre-send checklist
Single-column layout, no tables, text boxes or images holding important text.
Standard section headings and consistent dates.
The advert's key skills and job title appear where they are true for you.
Every bullet starts with an action verb and, where possible, shows a result.
Text-based PDF or .docx, named clearly, passing the copy-paste test.
The bottom line
An applicant tracking system is a filing cabinet with a search box, not a judge. Your job is to make sure your CV is filed correctly and turns up when a recruiter searches for what you offer. Keep the format simple, use the employer's language honestly, and fill the page with evidence of what you achieved. Do that, and the software stops being an obstacle and the person reading your CV gets a clear picture of why you are worth an interview.