ATS CV checker will your CV get past the software?

Despite what you may have heard, most ATS software doesn't "bin" CVs on its own. It makes them searchable, and the search is the real filter. A CV that's captured badly leaves a patchy candidate record, and a patchy record doesn't come up when a recruiter searches for "payroll administrator", "Sage" or "CIPD". Your application is there, but nobody finds it, which is one of the most common reasons good candidates never hear back.

1. Receiving: your CV arrives through the online form, a job board or an agency.
2. Parsing: the software converts the file into data, field by field.
3. Searching: recruiters filter the database by job title, keyword, experience, location or screening questions.
4. Shortlisting: only the candidates who come up in that search are opened and read.

Recruitment agencies work the same way: your CV goes into their database, and consultants search it each time a client sends a new vacancy. A CV that parses cleanly keeps turning up long after you sent it.

The ATS CV checker reads your CV as an applicant tracking system would: it extracts the text, rebuilds your sections, dates and skills, then applies 12 ATS checks. You get one ATS score out of 100 that brings together ATS readability, the content of your CV and, when you name a role or paste an advert, how well you match it.

1. Automated reading: the text is recovered in the order an ATS would follow. A sidebar that ends up in the middle of your work history is spotted straight away.
2. Structure: headings, dates and contact details are looked for where a parser expects them.
3. Content: your job title, skills and keywords are compared with the role you're after.
4. Score: every point lost is explained, with the fix that wins it back and how many points are left to reach green.

No AI model decides the score. It's calculated by fixed, weighted rules, so the same file always gets the same result. That's what lets you measure the effect of each change and check again as often as you like.

These checks are part of the AI CV checker, which also reviews the substance of your CV: what the hiring manager reads once the system has found you.

A good ATS score is one where you don't lose a single critical check: contact details captured, real text, complete dates. Those are the checks that leave your candidate record empty. Next come the content checks (job title, skills, the advert's vocabulary), which decide whether you appear in recruiters' searches. The report tells you how many points you need to reach green, and which fixes to make first.

• Contact details incomplete: write your full email address and mobile number as text, not as an icon on its own.
• Two columns detected: choose a single-column template, or test another design.
• Dates missing: add the start month and year, and the end date, to every role.
• Few keywords from the advert: use the terms that genuinely describe your experience.
• More than two pages: cut roles older than ten years and bullet points with no result.

• A two-column template from a design tool: attractive on screen, read in the wrong order.
• Skill bars or star ratings with no words beside them: the software only sees shapes.
• Creative headings ("About Me", "My Story") that the ATS can't file anywhere.
• Text inside an image, often the top of the page with your name and number: the record comes out blank.
• A scanned CV or a photo of a printout: there's no text left to extract.
• Tables used for layout: some cells are read out of order, or dropped.
• Abbreviations on their own ("mgmt", "admin"): recruiters search for the full word.

1. Choose a simple template: one column, clear headings, a readable font. Graphics add nothing for an ATS. Our CV templates flag the ones that pass every ATS check.
2. Put the job title under your name, worded as the adverts word it.
3. Open with a short personal statement: three or four lines on who you are and what you're looking for. See our guide to the CV personal statement.
4. List your work experience in reverse chronological order, with the month and year for each role.
5. Write your skills as words: software, qualifications, languages, licences. Our guide to skills for a CV has lists by sector.
6. Export a PDF from your editor, never a scan.
7. Run the ATS CV checker, fix what it finds, and check again before you apply.

Applying for your first role after university? The graduate CV examples show how to fill the same sections with placements, projects and part-time work.

Recruiters search their ATS using the words from their own advert. Paste the advert you're targeting (its link, or its text if the site needs you to log in): the ATS checker compares your CV term by term and lists what's missing. Only add what's true, because a keyword you can't back up won't survive the interview.

Kandiq can also tailor your CV to an advert with AI: it suggests new wording, and you keep only what's accurate. Tailoring uses 5 AI credits, and a new account starts with 5.

Both work, provided the text is real text. A PDF keeps your layout the same on every computer; recruitment agencies sometimes ask for Word so they can reformat your CV before sending it to a client. Send what the advert asks for and, if it doesn't say, a PDF exported from your editor.

A UK CV doesn't include a photo, a date of birth, nationality or marital status. Age, race, sex, marriage and civil partnership are among the protected characteristics of the Equality Act 2010, and employers would rather not see information they can't base a decision on. A photo in the header also trips up some parsers, so the ATS checker flags it.

Your photo belongs on LinkedIn, which recruiters often open after reading your CV: see our LinkedIn profile picture tool.

Some employers ask you to complete an online application form instead of, or as well as, uploading a CV, with questions about your experience and supporting statements. The ATS CV checker reads CVs, not those forms. The same rules still help, though: use the words of the advert, give dates, and write out your skills and qualifications in full.

Applicant tracking systems are adding more AI: automatic ranking, profile summaries, chatbot screening. For you, the difference is small. AI screening still needs a CV whose text extracts cleanly and that uses the vocabulary of the role. No AI can find experience that isn't written down.

At the end, a person still decides, after reading your CV and often your LinkedIn profile. Look after both: the ATS counts matches, the hiring manager looks for reasons to invite you in.