Free ATS resume checker

What is an ATS?

An applicant tracking system (ATS) is the software employers use to collect and manage job applications. When you apply through a company's careers page or a large job board, your CV usually goes into an ATS first. Recruiters then use it to read applications, search them by skill or job title, filter by answers to screening questions, and move people through stages such as "shortlisted" or "interview".

Most medium and large employers use one, and so do many recruitment agencies. Smaller firms often just read emails. Either way, a CV that software can read cleanly is also easier for a person to read, so the fixes below are worth making for every application.

How an ATS reads your CV

The process differs between systems, but it usually goes like this:

1. Extract the text. The system pulls the words out of your file. If the file is a scan or an image, there is nothing to pull out.
2. Split it into sections. It looks for familiar headings to decide which text is your experience, education and skills.
3. Fill in fields. It tries to pick out your name, email, phone number, employers, job titles and dates, and stores them in a profile.
4. Make it searchable. Recruiters then search or filter that profile, often by keywords from the job ad, and open the CVs that look relevant.

A common myth is that an ATS rejects most CVs automatically with a secret score. In practice, people make most of the decisions, but they make them using what the software extracted. If the parsing goes wrong, your strongest experience may simply never be seen.

Common reasons a CV gets misread

How to make your CV ATS-friendly

• Export a text-based PDF. Create the CV in a word processor or a CV builder and export it, rather than scanning it. Check you can highlight the words in a PDF viewer.
• Use one column for the main content. A simple layout with your contact details at the top and sections running down the page is read correctly by almost every system.
• Keep headings plain. "Profile", "Experience", "Education", "Skills". Add "Projects", "Certifications" or "Volunteering" if they help.
• Type every detail as text. Your email, phone, job titles and skills should be real words, not icons, logos, charts or star ratings.
• Pick one date format. For example "Jan 2021 – Mar 2024" for every job and course.
• Mirror the job ad's wording honestly. If the ad asks for "budget management" and you have done it, use that phrase in your skills and in a bullet that shows the result.
• Keep bullets short. One or two lines each, starting with a verb and ending with a result.
• Tailor for each job. Run the checker again with each new job description and adjust your skills and summary.

The quickest fix for layout problems is to rebuild your CV in a single-column template. Every template in the free CV builder exports a text-based PDF with no watermark, and the single-column templates are the safest choice for online applications.

What this checker can and cannot tell you

The checks look for the problems above: missing or unreadable text, missing contact details, unusual headings, side-by-side columns, large images, odd symbols, mixed date formats, very long bullets, and keywords from a job ad that do not appear in your CV. Each is a simple rule, run in your browser, and each result explains what was found.

It cannot tell you how a specific employer will rank you. Applicant tracking systems differ, employers set their own filters and questions, and no tool can see those. Treat the results as a checklist for a clean, readable CV, not a prediction. If you want feedback on the content itself, such as how strong your bullets are, use the free CV review.