How to Get Your CV Past ATS Screening in 2026

What is an ATS and why does it matter?

An applicant tracking system is software that employers use to manage the volume of applications they receive. Large companies can get hundreds or thousands of applications for a single role, and it's not practical for a recruiter to read all of them.

The ATS reads each CV, extracts the key information, scores it against the job requirements, and ranks applications. Recruiters then typically only look at the top-ranked CVs. If yours scores low, it doesn't matter how strong your experience is. It simply won't be seen.

Harvard Business School's Hidden Workers research found that 63% of employers surveyed in the US, UK and Germany use a recruitment management system, rising to 69% of firms with more than 1,000 staff. More than 90% of those employers use it to filter or rank applicants. Even many medium-sized businesses use it now. The assumption that a human reads every CV sent in 2026 is unfortunately no longer accurate.

How ATS scoring actually works

Different ATS platforms work differently, but most use a combination of the following:

• Keyword matching: the system scans your CV for words and phrases that appear in the job description. The more matches, the higher your score.
• Skills identification: it looks for specific skills listed in the posting and checks whether they appear on your CV.
• Job title matching: it compares your previous titles against the role being advertised.
• Education and qualifications: it checks for specific degrees, certifications, or training that the employer requires.
• Chronology and gaps: some systems flag gaps in employment history or non-linear career paths.

The catch is that the ATS doesn't understand context. It doesn't know that your "Reporting Specialist" role was functionally identical to the "Data Analyst" job it's hiring for. It just matches words.

The formatting mistakes that trip up ATS systems

This is where a lot of CVs fail even when the experience is strong. ATS systems read your document as plain text. They strip out all the formatting. Anything that disrupts that plain text extraction can cause the system to misread or skip sections entirely.

Tables and columns

Two-column CV layouts look clean to a human reader. To an ATS, the text from both columns often gets read in the wrong order or merged into one unreadable block. A skills table that looks neat on screen may appear completely garbled when the ATS parses it.

Headers and footers

Many ATS systems skip the Word document header and footer entirely. If your name and contact details are in the document header, which is common in CV templates, the system processes your application with no contact information attached.

Images and graphics

Some CVs include photos, logos, icons, or graphical elements. ATS systems cannot read any of this. If your skills or experience are partly communicated through visual elements, that information is invisible to the screening software.

Text boxes

Text inside a Word text box is often not extracted at all. Any content in a text box, including key skills, summaries, or contact details, may not be seen by the ATS.

Unusual fonts and special characters

Decorative fonts and special bullet point symbols can confuse the character recognition that some ATS systems use. Stick to standard fonts like Arial, Calibri, or Times New Roman and use simple bullet points.

How to optimise your CV for ATS

Mirror the job description's language

This is the most important step. Read the job posting carefully and identify the key skills, responsibilities, and requirements. Then check whether those specific words and phrases appear in your CV. If the posting says "stakeholder management" and your CV says "client liaison", they may describe the same thing, but the ATS won't know that.

You don't need to stuff keywords in unnaturally. Just make sure the language you use to describe your experience reflects the language the employer used to describe the role.

Use a simple, single-column format

A clean, linear CV that reads top to bottom is far more ATS-friendly than a two-column or template-heavy layout. Use clear section headings (Profile, Experience, Skills, Education) and keep everything in the main body of the document.

Put contact details in the body, not the header

Your name, phone number, email, and LinkedIn should all be in the main body of the document as regular text. Style them to look like a header if you want. The visual result is the same, but the ATS can actually read it.

Include a strong skills section

A dedicated skills section, in plain text rather than a table, gives the ATS a concentrated block of keywords to match against. List both hard skills (software, tools, methodologies) and relevant soft skills. Keep it honest and specific.

Use both the full name and abbreviation for qualifications

Write "Prince2 Project Management" rather than just "Prince2", and "Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)" rather than just "SEO". Different employers phrase requirements differently, and covering both versions increases the chance of a match.

Don't optimise for ATS at the expense of the human reader

Here's the thing people sometimes miss: the goal of ATS optimisation is to get your CV in front of a human recruiter. Once it's there, it still needs to impress them. A CV stuffed with keywords that reads badly will get dismissed at the human review stage.

The aim is a CV that passes the ATS because it's genuinely relevant and clearly formatted, and that impresses the recruiter because it tells a compelling story about what you've done and what you can offer.

The best CVs aren't the ones that game the system. They're the ones that communicate genuine value clearly enough that both the algorithm and the human want to know more.