How to create an ATS-friendly CV

Dear Jobseeker,

You might think that the first question you should ask yourself before applying for a vacancy is “Am I qualified for the job?” – but it isn’t!

That question is “Can a machine read my CV?”.

Because if the answer is “no”, you may be the best person in the whole world for the job and still get rejected. The vast majority of employers now use Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to filter out CVs deemed irrelevant and to rank the remaining CVs by how well the applicant matches the vacancy requirements. Only then a human comes into the picture to review the CVs that got past the ATS. According to some estimates, around 75% of CVs are filtered out at this stage.

This means that you can boost your chances and be in the 25% by simply making your CV ATS-friendly. Here are some tips on how to achieve this.

What is an ATS (Applicant Tracking System)?

An ATS (or Applicant Tracking System) is software that manages your entire hiring and recruitment process. It helps you to speed up candidate management and significantly reduce time-to-fill. From posting the job online to making the job offer an ATS keeps track of all the activity that takes place in the recruiting department.

Tips to create ATS friendly resume

01. Avoid images, graphics and special symbols

The ATSs are just not good at parsing elements that are not plain text. Therefore, try to stay clear of these to ensure that the ATS understands the information you include and keeps your CV away from the “reject” pile. Avoid tables, pictures, charts, skills bars, and any other creative things. You should also be aware that some companies delete photos/graphics from CVs to guard against any unconscious discrimination. If you add your key skills as a graphic, this may simply be taken out, and your CV will be missing some pretty important information.

02. Use clear formatting - Part 1

Not only does this make life easier for the human reviewer, but good formatting also helps ATSs make sense of what is written.

Use standard headings like ‘Work Experience’, ‘Education’, and ‘Skills’ to help machine split your resume into sections. Examples of headings that should be avoided include: ‘More’, ‘Tools’, ‘Abilities’, and ‘Areas of Expertise’.

Never use columns as the text in columns may be parsed horizontally, completely mixing up the sentences.

Use simple bullet points to structure the details of your experience. And by ‘simple’ I mean the standard solid round blob like this “?”. Anything more exotic (‘?’, ‘?’, ‘!’) may not be easily digested by an ATS.

A variety of different text fonts, sizes and colours may also confuse the system. Choose one professionally-looking font and only vary the size to distinguish headings from everything else. ALLCAPS or bold are also fine but only for the headings; italics and underlining are not!

Using grammatically unnecessary punctuation or spacing (E D U C A T I O N, L.A.S.T N.A.M.E) is also a bad idea because ATSs do not possess the common sense to interpret this. It might look good in terms of design but will completely break simple CV processors relying, for example, on section headings to categorise information.

Words division (part of a word on one line, the other part on the next line) over several lines will lead to only part of the text being processed as machines normally rely on spaces and line breaks to split the text into separate words. Using ‘-‘ to split words over multiple lines is also a bad idea.

Dividing a web link over two lines will also almost certainly stop an ATS from parsing it correctly. If you want to add a direct link to, say, your Github account, insert the full link in a single line. A mere username or nickname will not be enough. Alternatively, you can type up your username or the name of the platform and insert a hyperlink to your profile.

03. User clear formatting - Part 2

If you are adding a telephone number, help an ATS to identify it as such by using the specific format like +(xx) xxx xxx xxxx. This will set it apart from any other string of digits in your CV (like a license number). It is also advisable to avoid adding long numbers or codes (ID or passport number, etc.) unless you absolutely have to, as this minimises the likelihood that an ATS will confuse it with the phone number.

It is very risky to include the name and contact details of anybody but yourself (current employer or referee) in the CV. An ATS may well think that it is that other person who is the applicant and invite them to an interview instead of you. Not ideal!

You should also avoid potting anything in the header or footer of your CV as some ATSs may not be able to parse any text there.

Last but not least in this section, the document format must be compatible with the particular ATS the employer is using. Usually, the vacancy or the upload box will tell you the format in which to submit the CV. If there is no indication of this, it is generally safer to upload a Word document than a PDF.

04. Do not submit a generic CV

It is tempting to just send out the same version of your CV to different employers and for different jobs. But this will not get you far with an ATS which is trying to figure out how suitable you are for the job by scoring the extracted text of your CV. For every single application, use the job description and the employer’s website or marketing materials to determine which keywords, skills and qualifications the ATS may have been programmed to pick up. Once you have a good idea of what the employer is looking for, edit your CV accordingly to include the ones that apply, but try not to overdo it.

It is also best to spell out any acronyms you are using, even if they are very standard or signify a widely-known industry qualification like the CFA or ACCA. This will help ensure that your CV is not rejected for lacking an essential skill or qualification merely because it is written in a different way. The same goes for the names of common skills: use Microsoft Office, not just ”Office” or “MS Suite”.

When adding languages, put your proficiency levels right next to the language and use a clear and standard hierarchy of proficiency (basic, intermediate, advanced, fluent, native).

This goes without saying of course, but your CV should be error- and typo-free. This is important at any stage of review, but whereas a human reviewer may notice the mistake and make a mental note about your attention to detail, an ATS may simply not understand what you have written, with very disappointing consequences.