How to make your CV ATS-friendly
When you apply on a job website or a big company's careers page, software often reads your CV before a person does. If it cannot read your CV properly, your details can end up in the wrong place or go missing.
Updated 24 October 2026 · By Tumelo Vincent Tau
What is an ATS?
An applicant tracking system (ATS) is software that employers and job websites use to collect applications. It pulls the text out of your CV, fills in fields such as your name, contact details, jobs and qualifications, and helps recruiters search and sort candidates. It reads text, not pictures, and it reads in order.
What confuses an ATS
- A photo or scan of your CV. There is no text to read, only a picture.
- Two or three columns, where the software may mix lines from different columns together.
- Important details in the page header, footer or text boxes, which some systems skip.
- Icons instead of words, such as a phone symbol with no "Phone" label.
- Wide letter spacing ("W O R K"), which can be read as separate letters.
- Unusual section names, such as "My journey" instead of "Work experience".
How to make your CV ATS-friendly
- Use a simple, mostly one-column layout.
- Use standard headings: Profile, Work experience, Education, Skills, References.
- Save a real PDF made from text (not a photo), or the Word file if the website asks for one.
- Use the same words as the advert for your skills and job titles where they are true for you, for example "stock control" or "customer service".
- Put your name and contact details in the main part of the page, near the top.
- Write dates the same way everywhere, for example "Mar 2023 – Present".
How CV Maker SA tests its ATS-friendly templates
22 of CV Maker SA's 100 templates carry a green ✓ ATS badge. Each one was saved as a PDF, with and without a photo, and read back with four different PDF text readers of the kind online application systems rely on. A template only gets the badge if every reader finds the name first, keeps phone numbers and emails whole, keeps each label with its value, keeps job dates with the right job and keeps the sections in order. The app also reminds you when the design you picked is not ATS-friendly.
When a designed CV is fine
For a CV you print, hand in or email straight to a small business, a colourful two-column design is fine: a person reads it, not software. Many people keep two versions: an ATS-friendly one for job websites and a designed one for walk-in applications. With CV Maker SA you switch templates without retyping anything.