Over 75% of CVs are rejected by ATS systems before a human reads them. Most failures come down to 12 avoidable mistakes. Check these before you submit anything.
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Run through these before submitting any application. Each one can be the difference between being filtered out or getting shortlisted.
Identify 10–15 key terms from the job ad. Check they appear — verbatim — in your CV. ATS matches exact phrases, not just intent.
If you were a "Customer Success Ninja" but the role is "Account Manager", consider including the standard term. ATS looks for job title matches.
These break most ATS parsers. The system reads left to right, top to bottom. Multi-column layouts scramble the order of your information.
Use "Experience", "Education", "Skills" — not creative variations like "My Journey" or "Where I've Been". ATS looks for standard headers.
Images and icons are invisible to ATS. If your contact details or skills are in icons, the system won't read them.
Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, Times New Roman. Decorative fonts can cause parsing errors in some systems.
A targeted summary that references the job title signals immediate relevance to both ATS and human reviewers.
Lead with a strong verb and include a quantified outcome: "Increased X by Y% by doing Z". Duties-focused bullets score lower.
If the job says "Stakeholder management" and you wrote "Managing stakeholders" — add the exact phrase. ATS often matches on exact strings.
If a degree or certification is listed as required, make sure it appears clearly — don't assume it's implied by your experience.
Not all ATS systems handle Apple Pages or OpenOffice files. DOCX is the safest. Some prefer plain text — check the job ad.
"Sarah_Mitchell_Product_Manager_CV.docx" is infinitely better than "CV_v2_FINAL.docx" — especially if the recruiter downloads it.
These are the most frequent causes of ATS rejection we see — and how to fix each one.
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