Three out of four CVs never reach a human in 2026. Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) parse, score, and filter them on the way through — and the rules they use have changed quietly but significantly over the past 18 months.
This is the pre-submission checklist Atlas runs on every CV before tailoring. Use it whether you are a care assistant in Manchester, an electrician in Birmingham, a teaching assistant in Leeds, a software engineer in London, a chef in Glasgow, or anyone in between.
The 60-second answer
An ATS in 2026 cares about: keyword presence in context, parseable structure, certifications spelled the way the system expects them, dates in a machine-readable format, and a clean PDF that does not rely on text-in-image. Hit those five and you clear roughly 80% of automated filters.
1. Match the job-description language exactly
ATS scoring is fuzzy but not infinitely so. If the description says "safeguarding", write "safeguarding", not "child protection". If it says "18th Edition", do not write "current wiring regulations". Specifics outscore synonyms.
Care assistant example: the role asks for "person-centred care", "medication administration", and "safeguarding". Drop those exact phrases into your skills list and at least once in a role description further down.
Electrician example: the role asks for "18th Edition", "inspection and testing", "CSCS". Use each phrase verbatim — "BS 7671" alone is not enough.
2. Put credentials where the parser looks
Modern ATS parsers look for certifications under a header called "Certifications", "Licences", or "Qualifications". Put them under those exact words.
- Healthcare: DBS Enhanced, Care Certificate, NVQ Level 2/3 Health & Social Care.
- Trades: CSCS card (specify colour), NVQ Level 3, 18th Edition, City & Guilds 2391.
- Hospitality: Level 2 Food Hygiene, Personal Licence, allergen awareness.
- Education: Enhanced DBS, Safeguarding Children Level 1, First Aid at Work, Level 2/3 Supporting Teaching & Learning.
- Logistics: Counterbalance / Reach Truck licence, Manual Handling, ADR (if applicable).
- Tech: AWS Certified Developer / Solutions Architect, Azure Fundamentals, security clearances.
3. Format dates the way the parser reads them
Use "MM/YYYY" or "Month YYYY". "Jan 2024 – present" parses cleanly; "1/24 – now" does not. "Currently employed" without a start date is the single most common cause of role-history parsing failure.
4. Use a single-column layout
Two-column CVs look elegant but most parsers read top-to-bottom, then left-to-right by column. A skill in the right column can end up parsed in the middle of your education section. Stick to one column. If you want visual interest, use sectioned horizontal rules, not columns.
5. Submit a real PDF — not an image-PDF
Open the PDF and try to select text. If you can, the parser can. If text is locked inside an image (common when a CV is scanned or exported as "flatten image"), the ATS reads nothing. Re-export from Word or use a CV builder that emits text-layer PDFs.
6. Bullet structure: verb · what · result
Each bullet should start with an action verb, name the task or system, and end with a measurable outcome where possible.
- Care assistant: "Delivered person-centred care to 12 residents per shift across dementia and palliative pathways, supporting medication rounds in line with NICE guidelines."
- Warehouse operative: "Operated counterbalance forklift across 8-hour shifts, picking 220 lines per hour at 99.6% accuracy on RF scanner."
- Teaching assistant: "Supported 1:1 SEN provision for two pupils with EHCPs across English and maths, contributing to a measurable improvement in reading age across the academic year."
7. Skills section: 8–12 entries, mixed types
Pure soft-skill lists ("hardworking, motivated, team player") score poorly. Mix concrete skills (named systems, credentials, methodologies) with one or two transferable ones. Aim for 8–12 entries total.
8. Remove header / footer trickery
Contact details in the document header sometimes do not parse. Put name, phone, email, and city as the first lines of the body, not in the page header.
9. File name matters
Save the file as "Firstname-Lastname-Role.pdf". Some ATS systems extract role intent from the filename when the parser cannot match a job title in the body.
10. Avoid tables for layout
Tables for structured data (qualifications grid, skills matrix) are fine. Tables used to fake a two-column layout are not — the parser reads them cell-by-cell in an unpredictable order.
11. Include a city, not just a postcode
ATS systems filter by location. "Manchester, UK" matches a recruiter searching Manchester; "M14 5AB" alone may not. Include both.
12. Mirror the role title in your summary
If the job is "Senior Care Assistant", your two-line summary should start with "Senior Care Assistant with X years experience". Title matching is one of the highest-weighted signals in most modern ATS engines.
The 30-second pre-submission check
- Does my summary use the exact job title from the advert?
- Are the top three keywords from the JD present in my skills section AND at least once in role text?
- Are credentials under a header named "Certifications" or "Qualifications"?
- Are dates in "Month YYYY" format?
- Is the layout single-column with selectable text?
If you can answer yes to all five, you have cleared the gate the vast majority of CVs fail at. The rest is content quality — and that is what tailoring is for.