April 2026 · 7 min read

How to make your CV pass ATS systems in the UK — 2026 guide

Up to 75% of CVs are rejected by ATS software before a human ever sees them. This is not because the candidates lack ability — it's because their CVs aren't optimised for the way machines read them. Here's exactly how to fix that.

What is ATS and which UK employers use it?

Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) are software platforms that receive, parse, and score job applications. When you apply online and your CV goes through a portal — whether on Indeed, LinkedIn, or a company's own careers page — it's almost certainly being processed by an ATS before a human reviews it.

In the UK, most large employers (500+ employees) use ATS platforms. Common ones include Workday, Greenhouse, Lever, and SmartRecruiters. Smaller companies and direct applications are less likely to use sophisticated ATS filtering, but keyword relevance still matters to human reviewers.

How ATS reads your CV: what to know

ATS systems parse your CV into structured fields — name, contact details, work history, education, skills — and then score it against the job description using keyword matching. The score determines whether your CV reaches human review.

Critical implication: if your CV uses complex formatting — tables, text boxes, headers and footers, graphics, or multiple columns — ATS parsers often misread or skip sections entirely. A visually impressive CV can score lower than a plain one if the ATS can't extract the text correctly.

The safest CV format for ATS is: single column, standard section headers (Work Experience, Education, Skills), no tables or text boxes, no images or graphics, and standard fonts (Arial, Calibri, or Times New Roman). Save as .docx or .pdf — most modern ATS handle both, but .docx is safer.

Keyword optimisation: the practical approach

Read the job description carefully and list every skill, technology, qualification, and phrase that appears. Then check your CV against that list. Any keyword on their list that's genuinely true of you should appear on your CV — using their exact wording, not synonyms.

If the job description mentions 'stakeholder management' and your CV says 'working with stakeholders', ATS may not match them. If they want 'Agile / Scrum' and you've written 'agile methodology', the match may fail. Copy their language precisely.

Don't keyword-stuff — adding skills you don't have, or repeating keywords unnaturally, will be obvious to human reviewers and may get you rejected at interview stage even if you pass ATS filtering.

Section headers that ATS recognises

Use standard section headers that ATS is trained to recognise: 'Work Experience' (not 'My Career Story'), 'Education' (not 'Academic Background'), 'Skills' (not 'What I Bring'). Creative section headers confuse parsers and can cause your content to be misclassified or ignored.

The sections that matter most to ATS are Work Experience and Skills — ensure these are clearly labelled and contain the relevant keywords from the job description.

Testing your CV against ATS before applying

Before submitting any application, test your CV against the job description using a free ATS checker. Several are available online — paste the job description and your CV text, and they'll show you which keywords you're missing and your estimated match score.

CVCraft AI builds ATS optimisation into the CV generation process — it analyses your target role and ensures your generated CV scores strongly against the keywords employers are actually filtering for. This eliminates the need for manual keyword checking on every application.