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What is an ATS? Why your CV might never reach a recruiter

Published 18 October 2026 · WebPad Studio

When you apply for a job, the first reader of your CV is often software, not a person. That software is called an ATS. Knowing how it works is the first step to understanding why a good CV gets no reply.

What does ATS mean?

ATS stands for Applicant Tracking System. Companies use it to collect applications, sort them and share them within the hiring team. Workday, SAP SuccessFactors, Greenhouse, Lever and Taleo are well-known examples; large job boards run similar systems of their own.

As soon as you upload your CV, the system turns it into plain text and tries to pull out your name, contact details, experience and skills. Recruiters often see these extracted fields, and the candidates matching their searches, before they open the CV itself.

How does it read a CV?

An ATS doesn’t look at the page the way a person does; it reads the text top to bottom, left to right. It uses section headings (Work experience, Education, Skills) to guess which detail belongs where. When a recruiter searches for, say, “Power BI” or “sales manager”, matching candidates come first.

Which designs cause trouble?

  • Two- or three-column layouts: lines from different columns can be merged into one jumbled sentence.
  • Tables and text boxes: cells are read out of order or skipped.
  • Text inside images, icons and skill bars: software can’t read text in a picture.
  • Contact details in the header or footer: many systems ignore those areas.
  • Creative headings like “My journey”: a non-standard heading may not be recognised as a section.
  • Scanned PDFs or CVs saved as photos: there is no readable text inside.

Is it true that most CVs are rejected by an ATS?

Figures like “75% of CVs are rejected by ATS” circulate widely, but they have no solid source. Most systems don’t reject a CV on their own; candidates are usually filtered out by a recruiter’s criteria, or never show up in searches because their details couldn’t be read.

So the real risk isn’t “the robot deleted me” but “nobody found me because my details were unreadable”. A cleanly built CV prevents most of that.

A short checklist for an ATS-friendly CV

  1. Use one column; no tables, text boxes or images.
  2. Put your contact details in the body, right under your name.
  3. Use standard headings: Professional summary, Work experience, Education, Skills, Languages.
  4. Write skills and job titles exactly as the job post does.
  5. Save from Word as PDF; never send a scanned file.
  6. Check the plain-text version of your CV before sending it.

How can I see what a machine sees?

The simplest test: select all the text in your PDF and paste it into a plain text editor. If the order falls apart, an ATS will likely read it the same way. The free CV template in WebPad Studio has an “ATS check” for this; it shows the plain text of your CV, the contact details it finds and what to fix. It isn’t a real ATS, but it reads the same way.

Questions

Does every company use an ATS?

No. They are common at large companies and for roles with many applicants; small businesses often receive CVs by e-mail and read them directly. An ATS-friendly CV is still easier for a person to read.

Can an ATS read PDFs?

Yes, if the PDF contains text, for example one saved from Word. It can’t read scanned PDFs or CVs saved as images.

Can I use colour and bold text?

Yes. Colour, bold and italics don’t break the text. Layout is what causes trouble: columns, tables and images.