What is usually going wrong
Rejections arrive within hours
A same-day rejection is almost always software, not a person. Something structural — parsing, keywords, or knock-out questions — failed automatically.
Your CV is beautiful — and unreadable
Two-column layouts, text boxes, icons, and headers/footers frequently parse into scrambled text or nothing at all in applicant tracking systems.
You describe your work in your words
The posting says "stakeholder management", your CV says "coordinated with clients". Same work, zero keyword overlap, lower rank.
What actually moves the needle
- 1
Mirror the posting's vocabulary
For each application, lift the exact skill and tool names from the posting into your CV — where they are true. ATS ranking is largely keyword overlap; their words outrank your synonyms.
- 2
Use boring, parseable formatting
One column, standard section titles ("Work Experience", "Education"), real text not images, a common font. The CV that robots read correctly is the one humans get to see.
- 3
Test before you send
Run the document through a checker that shows you the extracted text. If dates, titles, or skills come out scrambled, the employer's system sees the same scramble.
Check your keyword match free
Paste your CV and a job posting — see exactly which required keywords you are missing before the ATS does.
Get the fixes by email
A short series with the specific changes for your situation, the templates to copy, and nothing else.
We store your address in the EU, use it only for these emails, and delete it on request.
Straight answers
What is an ATS, exactly?
Applicant tracking software — the system employers use to collect, parse, rank, and filter applications. It turns your CV into structured data and scores it against the posting before any human looks.
Do ATS systems auto-reject CVs?
Some do via knock-out questions (right-to-work, required licences), but most rank rather than reject. Low-ranking CVs simply never reach the shortlist a recruiter reads — which amounts to the same thing.
Is PDF or DOCX safer for ATS?
Modern systems handle text-based PDFs well. The real risks are scanned/image PDFs and heavy design elements. Export a clean, text-based PDF and you are safe on both.