How to make your CV ATS-friendly
Most medium and large employers – and many job portals – use an applicant tracking system (ATS) to collect and sort applications. Before a recruiter sees your CV, the software extracts your details and often ranks or filters candidates by keywords. A CV that the ATS can’t read properly may never reach a human.
What an ATS does with your CV
- Parses the file: it extracts text and tries to recognise sections (experience, education, skills) and fields (job titles, employers, dates).
- Stores the data in a candidate profile.
- Matches you against the job: recruiters search and filter by keywords, job titles, skills, locations and years of experience.
So two things matter: can the system read your CV correctly, and does it contain the right keywords.
Formatting rules for ATS
- Use a single-column layout for the safest result. Many modern systems handle two columns, but single-column is never a problem.
- Real text only. Never put important information in images, icons or text boxes. Scanned or “image” PDFs are unreadable.
- Standard section titles: Work Experience, Education, Skills, Languages, Certifications. Creative titles like “Where I’ve been” confuse parsers.
- Consistent dates such as Mar 2021 – Present or 03/2021 – 06/2024.
- Contact details in the body, not in the page header/footer area of a Word document.
- Common fonts (Arial, Calibri, Georgia, Times New Roman and similar) at 10–12 pt.
- Avoid tables for layout in Word documents; simple bullet points are best.
File type: PDF or Word?
Both are fine for modern ATS as long as the PDF contains selectable text. Send PDF by default (it preserves your layout) and Word when the employer asks for it. A quick test: open your PDF and try to select and copy the text. If you can, an ATS can read it.
Keywords: speak the job ad’s language
- Read the job ad and note the hard skills, tools, certifications and job titles it mentions.
- Use the same wording: if the ad says project management, don’t only write managed projects.
- Add keywords naturally in your profile, experience bullets and skills section.
- Spell out abbreviations once: Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).
- Never copy the whole job ad or hide keywords in white text – recruiters notice, and modern systems flag it.
Which CVBurst templates are ATS-friendly?
Every CVBurst PDF contains real, selectable text. For online applications, these single-column templates are the safest choice:
- ATS Classic – centered header, serif typography, clean rules
- Harvard – the classic university career-centre format
- Clean – modern look with a subtle accent colour
- Compact – fits long careers on fewer pages
The Word (.docx) export keeps them single-column too. ATS Classic, Harvard and Clean use no tables at all; Compact places your name and contact details side by side in a simple header table, which modern systems read without problems – choose ATS Classic if you want zero tables.
Check what the ATS will see
In the CVBurst editor, use Download → Plain text (.txt). That file shows your CV as raw text – roughly what an ATS extracts. If everything appears in a sensible order with clear section titles, you’re good to go.
Create your ATS-friendly CV now – free, no sign-up.