CV guide · UK 2026
How to write an ATS-friendly CV for UK jobs
75% of UK job applications are rejected by an Applicant Tracking System before a recruiter ever opens the file. Here's exactly how ATS systems work — and what you need to do to pass them every time.
In this guide
- 1.What ATS systems actually check (and in what order)
- 2.The formatting mistakes that get you rejected instantly
- 3.How to choose the right keywords
- 4.Section-by-section: what to write and where
- 5.ATS scoring by platform (Greenhouse vs Workday vs LinkedIn)
- 6.How to automatically optimise your CV per role
1. What ATS systems actually check (and in what order)
An Applicant Tracking System isn't one piece of software — Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby, Workday, and Taleo are all different products with different parsing engines. But most of them score CVs against job descriptions using the same general approach:
Parse the file
Extract text from your CV. PDFs with tables, columns, or graphics often fail here — text gets scrambled.
Match keywords
Score your CV against the job description. Each keyword in the JD that appears in your CV adds to your score.
Check required fields
Email, phone, location, LinkedIn URL, years of experience. Missing fields = lower score.
Score the result
CVs below a threshold are auto-rejected before any human sees them. Threshold varies by company.
2. The formatting mistakes that get you rejected instantly
The most common reason for ATS rejection isn't missing keywords — it's a CV format that can't be parsed. If the ATS can't read your CV, it fails regardless of your experience.
- ✗Multi-column layout — ATS parsers read left-to-right, top-to-bottom. Two columns produce garbled output.
- ✗Tables for skills or experience — Table content often gets skipped entirely by older parsers.
- ✗Text inside images or text boxes — Images are invisible to ATS. All text must be selectable.
- ✗Creative fonts, icons, or graphics — Decorative elements confuse parsers and increase file weight.
- ✓Single-column layout with clear sections — Every ATS reads this reliably.
- ✓Standard fonts (Arial, Calibri, Times New Roman) — Widely supported, never causes parsing errors.
- ✓Plain text headers (Experience, Education, Skills) — ATS uses these to identify section content.
- ✓Clean PDF or DOCX with real, selectable text — Both formats parse well when formatted correctly.
The Canva CV trap
Canva CV templates look great as PDFs but almost always use multi-column layouts and graphic elements. ATS parsers turn them into gibberish. Keep the beautiful PDF for networking events — use a clean DOCX for online applications.
3. How to choose the right keywords
The right keywords aren't generic skills — they're the exact words the hiring manager used when writing the job description. ATS systems are literal: “Python developer” and “Python programmer” can score differently.
How to extract keywords from any job description:
- →Copy the job description into a plain text document
- →Look for nouns repeated 2+ times — these are the core requirements
- →Note the exact job title (mirror it in your professional headline)
- →Extract the tools and technologies listed as "must-have" vs "nice-to-have"
- →Look for soft skill phrases specific to the role ("stakeholder management", "cross-functional collaboration")
For each application, you need 8–15 keywords from the JD woven naturally into your bullet points. Not stuffed in a list at the bottom — integrated into your experience descriptions.
4. Section-by-section: what to write and where
Professional headline
Mirror the exact job title from the posting. Not "Experienced Engineer" — "Senior Backend Engineer (Python, AWS)".
Professional summary
3–4 lines. Lead with your strongest credential for this role. Include 2–3 keywords. No generic phrases like "results-driven".
Work experience
Action verb + specific metric + context. "Led migration of payments service from monolith to microservices, reducing latency by 40%". ATS scores verbs and numbers.
Skills section
List as individual terms, not in tables. Include both the tool name and common abbreviations (e.g., "Kubernetes, K8s"). But: skills listed here score lower than skills in your experience bullets.
Education
Keep it simple. Degree, institution, year. Add relevant coursework only if applying for your first role or the JD specifically requires it.
5. ATS scoring by platform
Different ATS platforms weight things differently. Based on Autoply's data across thousands of UK applications:
Greenhouse
Keyword density + cover letter qualityCover letter is read by humans here. Both CV and cover letter matter equally.
Lever
CV keywords + application form answersShort-answer questions in the application form are often scored. Answer them properly.
Ashby
CV keywords + culture-fit signalsAshby clients often add custom screening questions. Be specific in your answers.
Workday
Form field completeness + keyword matchFill every field, even optional ones. Incomplete profiles score lower regardless of CV quality.
LinkedIn Easy Apply
Profile completeness + keyword match against your profileYour LinkedIn profile is scored, not just your attached CV. Keep it updated.
6. How to automatically optimise your CV per role
Tailoring your CV properly for every job takes 20–40 minutes per application. That's the tradeoff: a tailored CV triples your callback rate, but manual tailoring limits you to 5–10 applications per week.
Autoply automates this. For each job it applies to on your behalf, it:
- ✓Reads the job description and extracts the top keywords
- ✓Rewrites your bullet points to naturally include those keywords
- ✓Adjusts your professional headline to mirror the exact job title
- ✓Generates a tailored cover letter in your writing style
- ✓Submits the optimised CV directly to the ATS form
The result: every application has a tailored, ATS-optimised CV — at 100 applications per night, not 5 per week.
Autoply users average a 9% callback rate
The UK average is 3%. The difference is ATS-optimised, role-specific CVs on every single application. Autoply does this automatically — you just set your preferences once.
ATS-optimised. Automatically.
Every application gets a tailored CV. Every time.
Stop submitting the same CV to every job. Autoply tailors it per role, optimises it for each ATS, and applies overnight.
Start free — 10 credits included →No card required · Credits never expire