ATS-friendly CV: format, fonts, sections and file type

What an ATS does (and doesn't do)

An ATS stores the applications for a role and helps the recruiting team organise them. It usually does three things: turns your file into text, tries to fill in fields (name, contact details, roles, dates, education), and lets recruiters search and filter by keywords or criteria.

Systems vary a lot. Some rank candidates automatically, others only search, and in many cases a person decides who moves on. So there is no universal "ATS score", and be wary of anyone who promises one. The goal is simpler: that the text of your CV reaches the person reading it complete and in order.

Layout: one column, real text

• One column. Two- or three-column layouts may be read line by line, mixing the left column with the right one.
• No tables or text boxes for the main content. Some parsers skip what is inside them or change the order.
• Nothing important in the document's header or footer. Some systems ignore those areas; put your name and contact details in the body, at the top.
• No charts for skills (bars, stars, circles). A parser can't tell what "4 out of 5 stars" means; write the level in words.
• Text, not images. A CV made as a picture or scanned on paper has no text to read. If you can select and copy the text in the PDF, the system can read it too.

None of this means an ugly CV. Bold headings, some space between sections, a discreet colour for headings and consistent alignment are enough for a clean, professional document.

Fonts and sizes

Use a common font that is installed on almost every computer: Arial, Calibri, Helvetica, Georgia, Garamond or Times New Roman, for example. Decorative fonts or icon fonts can turn into odd symbols.

• Body text usually between 10 and 12 points; headings a little larger.
• One font family, or two at most (one for headings, one for text).
• Simple bullets (• or –). Special symbols can come out as question marks.

Section names everyone recognises

Systems and people look for familiar headings. Prefer standard names to creative ones: "Work experience" rather than "My journey", "Skills" rather than "What I can do". An order that works for most people:

1. Name and contact details (phone, email, city, LinkedIn if it is up to date).
2. Profile: two to four sentences.
3. Work experience, most recent first.
4. Education.
5. Skills (technical skills and tools).
6. Languages, certifications and, if relevant, volunteering or projects.

For each role, give the job title, company, location and dates, always in the same order and format. Dates like "03/2022 – 06/2024" or "Mar 2022 – Jun 2024" are easy to read; what matters is consistency. Recent graduates can put education before experience.

File type: PDF or DOCX?

First, follow the ad: if it asks for DOCX, send DOCX. Without instructions, a PDF with real text (exported from Word, Google Docs or another editor, not scanned) is usually the best choice, because it looks the same on any computer. DOCX is read very well by most systems, but it may change its look in a different editor.

• Avoid unusual formats (.pages, .odt) and images (.jpg, .png).
• Don't password-protect the PDF or block text copying.
• Give the file a clear name: "Firstname-Lastname-CV.pdf", not "CV final version 3".

A quick test: open the PDF, select all, copy and paste it into a plain text editor. If the text comes out in the right order and without odd symbols, that's a good sign.

Keywords without tricks

Recruiters search the ATS for the role's terms: tools, certifications, job titles. Use those terms when they describe what you did, write acronyms out once, such as "International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS)", and keep the ad's spelling ("Power BI", not "PowerBI"). The guide How to tailor your CV to a job ad explains the full method.

Don't hide keywords in white text or repeat them in a list without context. When the recruiter opens your CV, they see the text as the system read it, and the trick is usually found out.

Common pitfalls

• Very graphic CV templates with columns, icons and a photo inside a box.
• Essential information only inside images or the document header.
• Dates in different formats across the CV, or years only for some roles and months and years for others.
• In-house acronyms that nobody outside the company knows.
• A scanned PDF of a printed CV.
• Sending the same file to every role without tailoring the content.

A five-minute check before you send

1. Copy the text of the PDF into a plain text editor and read it top to bottom: do your roles come out in the right order, with the job title, company and dates together?
2. Search the copied text for the three or four most important terms in the ad. If one describes something you did and it isn't there, add it where it is true.
3. Check that your name, phone and email are in the body of the document and read as text.
4. Open the file on another device, such as your phone, to see whether the font and page breaks hold.
5. If the application platform shows a preview of fields filled in from your CV, correct anything it misread there. It is the best clue to how the system read your file.

If the form asks you to type your experience in again by hand, do it carefully even if it feels redundant: that text is often what the recruiter sees first. Then review the content itself with the common CV mistakes guide.