More and more employers — banks, telecoms, multinationals, and increasingly local firms using Rozee or LinkedIn's hiring tools — run applications through an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) before a person looks at them. The software extracts your details, matches keywords against the job description, and ranks you. A beautiful CV that the software cannot parse ranks at the bottom.
Here is how to make sure yours is read correctly.
Use a simple, single-column structure for the main content
ATS software reads top to bottom, left to right. Two-column layouts, text boxes, and content inside tables are often read out of order or skipped entirely. A sidebar for contact details and skills is usually fine; putting your work experience in a second column is not.
Standard section headings
The parser looks for familiar words. Use "Work experience", "Education", "Skills", "Certifications". Creative headings like "My journey" or "What I bring" confuse it.
Standard fonts, real text
Arial, Calibri, Helvetica, Georgia, Manrope. Avoid decorative fonts. Never put text inside an image — a scanned CV or a CV exported as a picture is invisible to the software.
Mirror the job description's keywords
If the ad says "financial reporting", "IFRS" and "SAP", and your CV says "accounts preparation", "international standards" and "ERP", the software may not connect them even though you mean the same things. Use the exact terms from the ad where they honestly apply to you. Put the most important ones in your profile paragraph and your skills list.
Dates the parser can read
Write dates the same way throughout: "Jan 2023 – Dec 2024" or "01/2023 – 12/2024". Mixing formats causes gaps in the parsed history.
Keep the header and footer empty
Some systems ignore text in the page header and footer. Put your name and contact details in the body of the page, at the top.
File format
PDF is safe with modern systems and keeps your formatting. If the application form specifically asks for Word (.docx), send that. Never send a .pages, .jpg or .png file.
What about "Personal details" sections?
They do not hurt parsing. Just keep them in plain text lines: "Date of birth: 12 March 1999".
Test it yourself
Copy all the text from your PDF and paste it into a blank document. Does it appear in the right order, with sections and dates intact? If yes, the software will read it too. If the text comes out jumbled, simplify the layout.
Do not try to trick the system
Hidden white text stuffed with keywords, or pasting the whole job ad in a tiny font, is detected by most modern systems and flagged. Even where it is not, the recruiter who opens the document sees it. Match keywords honestly.
The balance
An ATS-friendly CV is not an ugly CV. Clear headings, one accent colour, sensible spacing and a standard font look professional to humans and read cleanly for software. Every template on this site is built this way — the "Classic" and "Modern" layouts are the safest choice for heavily automated employers, and the "Sidebar" layout keeps work experience in the main column where parsers expect it.