The average corporate job gets 250 applications. A recruiter won't read 250 CVs. An applicant tracking system (ATS) will — and it'll rank yours against every other one before a human even opens the pile. Writing an ATS-friendly CV isn't about gaming a robot. It's about making sure your actual qualifications aren't lost to bad formatting and mismatched keywords. Here's how to do it right.
What "ATS-friendly" actually means
An ATS-friendly CV has three properties:
- Parseable — the software can extract your name, contact info, jobs, dates, and skills without errors.
- Keyword-matched — it contains the specific phrases used in the job description.
- Readable by humans — because once you pass the ATS, a person still has to want to interview you. Miss any one of these and you lose. Let's go through each.
Part 1 — Formatting rules (parseability)
Use a single-column layout
ATS tools read top-to-bottom, left-to-right. Two-column CVs confuse the parser and your skills sidebar might end up mixed into your work history. If you love your two-column design, save it for your personal website, not the job application.
Stick to standard section headings
Use these exact words:
- Summary (or Professional Summary)
- Experience (or Work Experience)
- Education
- Skills
- Projects (optional)
- Certifications (optional) Creative headings like "Where I've Made Magic" look charming and parse as nothing.
Use a standard font
Arial, Calibri, Helvetica, Georgia, or Times New Roman. 10–12pt for body, 14–16pt for section headings. Custom fonts can fail to embed and end up as gibberish.
Ditch anything visual
- No tables
- No text boxes
- No icons (the little phone/email symbols — ATS often reads them as junk characters)
- No headers or footers (some parsers ignore everything inside them)
- No images, logos, or photos
- No charts or progress bars for skill levels
Save as a text-based PDF
Export from Word or Google Docs as PDF. Don't scan a printed copy. Test it: open your PDF, try to select a line of text. If it highlights as text, you're good. If it highlights as an image, redo it.
Part 2 — Keyword strategy (match score)
This is where most people lose. A beautifully formatted CV that doesn't use the employer's language will still rank below a messier one that does.
Pull keywords from the job description
Copy the job description into a blank doc. Highlight every:
- Hard skill (tool, technology, certification)
- Soft skill or responsibility phrase
- Industry-specific term
- Qualification requirement These are your target keywords. You want them — or close variants — in your CV, in context.
Use keywords inside your bullets, not just in a list
A standalone "Skills" list signals you've used the tool. A bullet that shows you using it in context proves it.
Weak: Skills: SQL, Python, dbt
Strong: Built a dbt + SQL data model that cut monthly close from 9 days to 3, using Python for the reconciliation scripts.
Spell out acronyms once
"Search Engine Optimization (SEO)" will match both "SEO" and "search engine optimization" in the job description. Two keywords for the price of one.
Don't keyword-stuff
A wall of skills with no context actively hurts you — once a human sees it. ATS rank matters, but interviews are still done by people. Every keyword should feel like it belongs.
Part 3 — Writing rules (human readability)
Lead with impact, not tasks
Task: Responsible for managing the social media accounts.
Impact: Grew combined Instagram and LinkedIn following from 12K to 78K in 14 months, driving a 31% increase in inbound demo requests. Numbers, percentages, time periods. If you can't measure it, at least describe the outcome.
Use strong action verbs
Start every bullet with a verb: led, built, launched, reduced, grew, shipped, owned, negotiated, automated, scaled. Avoid "responsible for" and "worked on."
Keep it to 2 pages max
Unless you're applying in the US for industry work (resume = 1 page), aim for 2 pages. More than that and recruiters skim harder. Less than that and you look inexperienced.
Tailor for every application
This is the single highest-ROI habit in job searching. Spend 5–10 minutes per application tweaking your summary and top bullets. If that sounds painful, CVmake's AI tailor does it automatically — paste the job description, get a re-written CV in seconds.
The ATS-friendly template
Copy this structure exactly:
FULL NAME
City, Country · email@example.com · +31 6 1234 5678 · linkedin.com/in/yourname
SUMMARY
One-sentence role + years of experience. One sentence on your 2–3 strongest specialisms. One sentence on what you're looking for. Mirror 3–5 keywords from the job description.
EXPERIENCE
Job Title — Company Name
City, Country · Month Year – Month Year
- Impact-led bullet with a number and a keyword.
- Impact-led bullet with a number and a keyword.
- Impact-led bullet with a number and a keyword.
Job Title — Company Name
City, Country · Month Year – Month Year
- Impact-led bullet.
- Impact-led bullet.
- Impact-led bullet.
EDUCATION
Degree — Institution
City, Country · Year – Year
SKILLS
Tool 1, Tool 2, Tool 3, Methodology 1, Methodology 2, Language 1, Language 2
CERTIFICATIONS (optional)
Certification Name — Issuing Body, Year
That's it. Boring to look at. Beautiful to an ATS. Easy for a human to skim.
Test your CV before you send it
Two quick tests:
- Copy-paste test. Open your PDF, select all, copy, paste into a blank doc. If the text is out of order or sections are missing, the ATS will see the same mess. Fix your layout.
- Score test. Upload to our free ATS score checker, paste the job description, see your match score and missing keywords. Aim for 80+. Takes 30 seconds.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Fancy template from Canva or Creative Market — looks gorgeous, parses like garbage.
- Putting contact info in the header — some ATS ignore headers and footers. Put it in the body.
- Using graphics to show skill levels — "★★★★☆" is invisible to ATS. Write proficiency levels in words if you need them.
- One generic CV for every job — you'll score 50 everywhere instead of 85 somewhere.
- No dates on your experience — the ATS uses dates to calculate years of experience. Always include month + year.