An applicant tracking system does not score your CV; it parses it into fields. A CV passes when the parser can read your name, contact details, job titles, dates and skills from plain text in a conventional order. Tables, columns, text boxes, headers, graphics and PDFs exported from design tools are the usual causes of lost information.
What an ATS actually is
An applicant tracking system is recruitment software: it receives applications, extracts structured data from each CV, stores candidates and lets a recruiter search and filter them. Most systems do not reject anyone automatically. What happens instead is quieter — if a field failed to parse, or a required skill is not present as readable text, your record simply does not surface when the recruiter searches.
That distinction matters, because it changes the goal. You are not trying to beat a scoring algorithm. You are trying to be correctly readable and correctly findable.
What breaks parsing
- Multi-column layouts. Parsers read across the page, so two columns interleave into nonsense.
- Tables. Dates and titles in table cells frequently detach from each other.
- Text boxes and shapes. Often skipped entirely.
- Headers and footers. Contact details placed there can be dropped.
- Graphics. Skill ratings, icons and charts carry no text.
- Image-based PDFs. Exports from design tools sometimes contain no selectable text at all.
- Unconventional headings. "My Journey" instead of "Experience"; "Where I've Been" instead of "Education".
- Creative job titles. "Growth Ninja" cannot be matched to "Marketing Executive".
The keyword advice that misleads people
Two claims circulate widely and are both wrong:
- "You need a 90% keyword match." No standard system publishes such a threshold, and recruiters search rather than rank by percentage.
- "Hide white keywords in the document." Parsers read hidden text and recruiters see it in the parsed record. It reads as deception.
What is true is simpler: if the advert asks for a skill and your CV never states it in plain words, you will not appear in a search for it. Use the employer's terminology alongside your own — write "search engine optimisation (SEO)" rather than assuming either form.
Check your own CV in ten minutes
1. → Open the CV, select all, and copy it into a plain text editor. 2. → Read the result. Is the order sensible? Are dates still attached to the right roles? 3. → Is your email address present in the body text? 4. → Are section headings standard: Experience, Education, Skills? 5. → Are the advert's key skills present as ordinary words? 6. → Is every job title one a recruiter would recognise?
If the plain-text version is coherent, parsing is very unlikely to be your problem.
A realistic example
Sofia uses an attractive two-column template with a sidebar for skills and a skills bar chart. Copied into a text editor, the output interleaves her sidebar with her job history, her email is missing because it sits in the header, and the chart contributes no text — so none of the six tools she uses daily appear anywhere.
She rebuilds the same content in one column, with contact details in the first line of the body, standard headings, and skills written out as text. Nothing about her experience changed; all of it is now readable.
What to do next, without any account
- Convert to a single-column layout with standard section headings.
- Move contact details out of the header into the body.
- Replace graphics and rating bars with plain text skill lists.
- Keep the file format the employer asks for; where there is a choice, submit a text-based document.
- Re-read the advert and confirm each required skill appears in your own sentences.
Formatting fixes make you readable. They do not make you a match — that still comes from the evidence in the content.
You can check your own CV against a specific target role with Eden, which scores structure, keywords and evidence rather than guessing.