An ATS (Applicant Tracking System) is the software that receives applications before the recruiter does. To get through its filters a CV needs a single column, real text rather than an image, standard section headings, and the exact words used in the job ad. Tables, columns, page headers and icons are the four most common reasons a CV is read badly.
What an ATS actually does
It does not "score" your CV. It converts it to plain text, tries to extract fields — name, experience, dates, skills — and files them in a database. The recruiter then searches that database: "Excel" and "project management" and "3 years". Your CV either appears in the results or it does not.
The consequence is simple, and it always surprises people: a beautiful CV that converts badly is less effective than a plain one that converts cleanly. The software does not see your layout. It sees what survives the conversion.
What breaks automated reading
- Columns. Two-column text comes out interleaved line by line after conversion. Your 2022 job title can end up welded to the name of a skill.
- Tables. Same problem, worse: some converters return only the first cell of each row.
- A CV as an image. A PDF exported from Canva or Photoshop may contain no selectable text at all. To the ATS, the page is blank.
- Headers and footers. Many converters ignore them. If your phone number and email live in the page header, they disappear.
- Creative section names. "My journey" instead of "Work experience": the field is not recognised and its contents are filed wrongly.
- Icons instead of words. A small envelope does not convert into "email".
Keywords: theirs, not yours
This is the part most candidates miss. The recruiter searches using the words in the ad. If the posting says "client relationship management" and your CV says "customer follow-up", you are describing the same thing and you do not appear in their search.
The method is three moves: reread the ad and highlight every skill, tool and title it names; check which ones already appear in your CV, spelled the same way; and for the ones that are missing and that you genuinely have, rewrite that sentence using their word instead of yours.
The format that works everywhere
- A single column, the full width of the page.
- A PDF containing selectable text. Check it: open the file and try to select your name with the mouse.
- Your contact details in the body of the document, never in the page header.
- Standard headings: Summary, Work experience, Education, Skills.
- Experience in reverse-chronological order, with dates in one consistent format throughout (03/2022 — 06/2024).
- A conventional typeface, body size between 10 and 12 point.
- One page under ten years of experience, two beyond it.
The five-minute test
Open your CV as a PDF. Select all of it, copy, and paste into a blank text editor. What you see is, near enough, what the ATS sees. If the order is incomprehensible, if words are jammed together, or if the page stays empty, your layout is the problem — not your experience.
Should a CV have a photo if an ATS will read it?
A photo does not prevent automated reading as long as the rest of the document is real text. In Morocco and France it is common practice; in the UK and the US it is discouraged on anti-discrimination grounds. Decide by the employer’s country, not by the ATS.
PDF or Word for a CV?
PDF, unless the ad explicitly asks for Word. A PDF exported properly from a word processor converts as well as a .docx and preserves your layout. The only problematic PDF is one with no text in it, because it was produced from an image.
How many keywords should I include?
There is no target number, and artificial repetition backfires: a human reads whatever the filter lets through. Aim for coverage instead — every important skill in the ad that you genuinely have should appear at least once, in its right place, in a sentence that means something.