What is an ATS, and how does it read your CV?

What is an ATS?

ATS stands for applicant tracking system. It is the software an employer or a recruitment agency uses to receive applications for a job, store the CVs, read them and help a recruiter find the best ones.

When you apply through an online form, a company careers page or a job site, your CV often goes into an ATS first. A recruiter then searches, filters and sorts the CVs in it, and reads the ones at the top.

Well-known ATS products include Workday, SAP SuccessFactors, Oracle Taleo and Zoho Recruit, and many companies use smaller ones or build their own. They differ in the details, but every one of them has to turn your CV into text before anyone can search it.

How does an ATS read a CV?

An ATS does not look at your CV the way a person does. It reads it in four steps, and a CV can lose information at each one.

1. 1

   It takes the text out of the file.

   The ATS pulls the words out of your PDF or Word file. Words that are part of a picture, such as a CV designed as an image or a scanned page, are not words to it, so they are lost.

2. 2

   It splits the text into sections.

   It looks for headings such as Profile, Experience, Education and Skills, and files what follows under each one. A heading it does not recognise, or one spelt with spaces between the letters, such as "E X P E R I E N C E", can leave a whole section in the wrong place.

3. 3

   It reads the details.

   It picks out your name, phone number, email address, job titles, employers, dates and qualifications. Text set out in two columns, tables or text boxes can come out in the wrong order, so a job title can end up beside the wrong dates.

4. 4

   It compares you with the job.

   It matches the words in your CV with the skills, tools, qualifications and job titles the employer wants, and works out your years of experience from your dates. The recruiter sees the result as a sorted or filtered list.

Does an ATS reject CVs on its own?

Usually not. In most companies a person decides who goes forward. What the ATS decides is what that person sees first.

If your CV cannot be read well, it does not come up when the recruiter searches for a skill, it sits at the bottom of the list, or it shows with empty or jumbled details. The effect is the same as a rejection: nobody reads it.

Some application forms ask screening questions, such as whether you have a degree or a driving licence, and a wrong answer there can end an application automatically. Answer them carefully and truthfully.

What an ATS cannot read well

These are the problems BetterJobs AI finds most often in Sri Lankan CVs. Most of them cost marks in its check, for the same reason they cost you with an ATS.

• Two or three columns. Many Canva and Word templates put the skills and contact details in a side column, and an ATS can read across both columns, line by line, and mix them up.
• Words saved as a picture. A CV exported as an image, or a PDF made from a photo or a scan, has no words for an ATS to read.
• A photo at the top. An ATS cannot read it, it takes space your experience needs, and many employers prefer CVs without one.
• Icons in place of words. A phone or envelope symbol instead of the words "Phone" and "Email", or bullets from symbol fonts, can come out as strange characters.
• Decorative headings. A heading spelt with spaces between the letters, or an unusual one such as "My Journey", may not be recognised as a heading at all.
• Missing dates. A job with no start and end date, or dates set apart in their own column, makes your experience hard to count.
• Personal details nobody needs. NIC number, religion, civil status, gender and date of birth say nothing about your work, and an NIC number on a CV puts your identity at risk.
• Too many pages. Three or four pages bury your best work. Most CVs need one or two.
• Things that waste space. Every O/L subject and grade after you have a degree, a diploma or a job; a long list of hobbies; a declaration with a signature line; and a career objective of stock phrases such as "a challenging position in a reputed organisation".
• A file name such as "Sample Resume.pdf" or "CV.pdf". A recruiter may have hundreds of files with that name. Use your own.

How to write an ATS-friendly CV

An ATS-friendly CV is a CV that software can read from top to bottom without losing anything. It can still look neat and professional. Use this checklist.

• One column, from top to bottom, with no side bars, tables or text boxes for your main content.
• Your name, phone number, email address and town at the top, as plain text in the page itself, not in the header area.
• Plain headings: Profile, Experience, Education and Skills, and Certifications if you have them.
• For every job: your job title, the employer, the town, and the start and end month and year, such as "Jan 2022 – Present".
• Three to five points under each job, saying what you did and what came of it. Numbers help, such as "Reconciled 120 supplier accounts every month".
• The skills, tools and qualifications from the job advert, in the words the advert uses, wherever they are true for you.
• Your highest qualification first. Your A/L results in one line, and your O/Ls in one line, such as "G.C.E. O/L – 9 passes", once you have more.
• One or two pages.
• Saved as a PDF from Word or Google Docs, so the words stay words, and named after you, such as Nimal-Perera-CV.pdf.
• A version for each kind of job you apply for, using the words that kind of job uses.

An ATS-friendly CV, set out

This is the shape that reads well in any ATS. The person and the companies are made up.

Do employers in Sri Lanka use an ATS?

Larger employers and recruitment agencies, in Sri Lanka and abroad, often take applications through an ATS, especially when hundreds of people apply for one job. Smaller employers may read every CV themselves.

Either way, the same CV works best. Columns, pictures of text and missing dates slow down a person reading fifty CVs in an afternoon, just as they confuse software.

Four ATS myths

Myth

An ATS throws out most CVs automatically.

Fact

A person usually decides. The ATS decides the order, and a CV it cannot read falls to the bottom.

Myth

A colourful design helps you stand out.

Fact

Columns, graphics and icons are what an ATS reads worst. Stand out with what you have done, not with the design.

Myth

Hiding keywords in white text beats the system.

Fact

An ATS shows the recruiter your text, hidden words included, and it looks like cheating.

Myth

An ATS cannot read a PDF.

Fact

Today’s systems read a PDF that has real text in it. What they cannot read is a PDF made from a picture.

Check your CV the way an ATS reads it

Everything in this guide is built into BetterJobs AI. It knows Sri Lankan CVs, from O/L results to NIC numbers, and after the check it writes your personal advice, a stronger summary and a cover letter.