Many employers, especially larger ones, collect applications through an applicant tracking system (ATS). An ATS stores your application, extracts text from your CV into a candidate profile, and lets recruiters search and filter candidates. Understanding that process removes most of the mystery — and most of the myths.
What an ATS really does
Most systems do three things with your CV:
- Parse it — extract your name, contact details, job titles, employers, dates, education and skills into structured fields.
- Store it — keep the full text so it can be searched later.
- Help recruiters search and filter — for example, by job title, skills, location or keywords from the job description.
There is no universal “ATS score”. Every vendor and every employer configures things differently, and many decisions are still made by a person reading your CV. Any tool that claims to know an employer’s exact score is guessing. The goal is simpler and more useful: make your CV easy to parse and easy to find for the skills you genuinely have.
Formatting that parses reliably
- Use real text. Export a PDF with selectable text (CVLuma does this by default). Never submit a CV that is a scanned image or a picture of text.
- Prefer a single-column layout for heavily automated portals. Two-column layouts are often parsed correctly, but single-column is the safest choice.
- Use standard section headings such as Experience, Education and Skills. Creative headings (“My Journey”) can confuse parsers.
- Avoid text boxes, tables for layout, headers/footers for key information, and icons in place of words. Write “Email” information as plain text, not just an envelope icon.
- Keep dates consistent, for example “Mar 2022 – Present”, and put them next to each role.
- Use common fonts and a sensible size (roughly 10–11pt for body text).
- Submit the format requested. If the application asks for Word, send Word; otherwise a text-based PDF is usually best.
Content that matches how recruiters search
Recruiters search an ATS the same way you search the web: with words. If they need a “financial analyst with SQL and Power BI”, CVs that mention those terms clearly are easier to find.
- Mirror the job title if it honestly describes what you do. If your internal title was “Analyst II”, you can write “Financial Analyst (Analyst II)”.
- Name your tools and skills explicitly — “Power BI”, “Salesforce”, “IFRS” — rather than vague phrases like “reporting software”.
- Use both the acronym and the full term the first time for important certifications, e.g. “Project Management Professional (PMP)”.
- Put keywords where they belong: in your skills section and in bullets that show you used them.
- Never add skills you do not have. Keyword-stuffing may get you past a filter, but it will not survive an interview — and recruiters notice.
Write for the human reader too
An ATS only gets your CV in front of a person. What happens next depends on clear, specific writing:
- Lead each bullet with a strong action verb and include a result: “Reduced month-end close from 10 to 5 days by automating reconciliations.”
- Keep bullets concise — one or two lines each.
- Tailor your summary to the role in two to four sentences.
Quick ATS-friendly checklist
- Text-based PDF (or the format requested)
- Single-column layout for strict portals
- Standard headings: Summary, Experience, Education, Skills
- Contact details in the main body, not only in a header
- Consistent dates for every role
- Job-relevant skills named explicitly — and truthfully
- No images, icons or charts carrying important information
- File name like
Firstname-Lastname-CV.pdf
You can check your own CV against these points with the ATS-friendly CV checker, and compare it with a specific job using the job description matcher.