ATS-friendly resume: what to do and what to track

Looking for work is a project with many small parts: a resume for each kind of job, a cover letter, interview answers, and a list of where you applied and when to follow up. People lose chances by losing track, not only by writing badly. This guide covers each part, including the question everyone asks about screening software.

What "ATS" means, and what we do not know

ATS stands for applicant tracking system. It is software that employers use to collect applications, store resumes and let recruiters search and sort them. Many employers use one. What each one does with your file differs, and employers set them up in different ways. Some read your file into fields such as job titles and dates. Some simply show the document to a person.

For that reason, be wary of anyone who says a template is "ATS-proof" or that every system throws out resumes below a keyword score. We know of no way to promise either, and we do not. What you can do is make the file easy to read for both software and people.

A resume that is easy to read

The UK National Careers Service gives plain advice for a CV: use a clear font such as Arial, Times New Roman or Calibri in size 11 or bigger, use the same style throughout, use headings and bullet points, and be clear and to the point. It also says to have someone else check spelling and grammar.

Our templates go a little further, because the point is to reduce the chance of misreading:

• One column. Text in two columns can be read in the wrong order by software.
• Standard headings. Use "Experience", "Education" and "Skills", not clever names.
• Real text. No tables, text boxes or pictures for the main content, because some programs skip them.
• System fonts. A font that every computer has will not be swapped for another.
• Consistent dates. Write each date the same way, for example "Mar 2023 - Jun 2025".

Send the format the advert asks for. If it does not say, a Word file or a PDF with real text, not a scan, is the usual choice.

What goes in the work-history section

The National Careers Service lists, for each job, the employer name, the job title, the dates, and what you did, usually 2 to 3 lines using the STAR method. List the most recent job first. If you are early in your career, put education first. If you have gaps, the Service says that gaps are normal and has separate advice on explaining them.

It also tells you not to include your age, date of birth, marital status or nationality. That advice is from a UK source, so ask a local adviser what is usual in your country.

Writing bullets that say something

A weak bullet says what the job was: "Responsible for customer emails". A stronger one says what you did and what changed. A formula that works for many jobs is:

action verb + what you did + how or with what + the result

For example: "Cut average handling time for support tickets from 9 to 7 minutes by rewriting 14 reply templates." The numbers here are an example only. Use your own, and only true ones.

Not every bullet needs a number. If you cannot measure the result, say what it was in words: "Trained three new colleagues, who then worked unsupervised within a month." A made-up number is worse than none. If an interviewer asks about it, you will have to explain it.

Tailor it to each job

The National Careers Service says to tailor your CV: look at the advert, with its description and essential criteria, and highlight the skills you have that they ask for. In practice, keep a master resume with everything in it, and for each application change the summary and reorder or swap the bullets so that the most relevant ones come first. Use the words of the advert when they describe what you really did. Do not claim skills you do not have.

The cover letter

A cover letter answers one question: why you, for this role, now. Keep it to a few short paragraphs. The situation changes the opening: a posted job, a career change, an internship, a referral from someone you know, or a message to a company that has not advertised. Each needs a different first line, so it helps to have a version ready for each.

Interview answers

Many employers use structured interviews, in which each candidate is asked the same questions and the answers are rated against a common scale. Levashina and colleagues (2014) reviewed the research on such interviews. It is a review of employer practice, not of how to answer, but it gives a practical lesson: expect questions about specific situations from your past, and prepare examples.

The STAR frame keeps an answer focused:

1. Situation: where and when, in a sentence.
2. Task: what you had to achieve.
3. Action: what you did. Say "I", not "we".
4. Result: what happened, with a number or a plain description.

Prepare six to eight stories that you can bend to different questions, such as a conflict, a mistake, a deadline, a time you led, and a time you learned something quickly. Write them down and say them aloud. Prepare questions to ask the employer too, and send a short thank-you note after the interview.

Track every application

A tracker is the dull part that matters. For each application, record the company, role, link to the advert, date applied, the version of the resume you sent, where you found the job, the status, and the date you plan to follow up. Then sort by follow-up date each morning.

Here is a month of invented numbers. You applied for 12 roles. Four employers replied, three of them with interview invitations, and two applications still wait for a follow-up. Four replies out of 12 is 33 per cent. But 12 applications is a very small sample, so you cannot tell from it whether your resume or the choice of jobs made the difference. What the tracker does tell you is what to do next: two follow-ups are due, and you know which version of the resume went where.

Before you press send

Check the file name, since "Resume final v7" tells an employer nothing, and a name like your name and the job title does. Open the file you are about to send and read it from top to bottom. Check that dates, contact details and the company name in the cover letter are correct. Many applications are lost to a wrong company name or an old phone number. Then record the application in your tracker on the same day.

Tool that fits

The Job Search Kit (EUR 19, paid once) has six single-column resume templates in Word (Classic, Modern, Minimal, Executive, Graduate and Career changer), each filled with an example and short tips, with PDF previews. It also has five cover letter templates, a Resume Bullet Builder with 150 fill-in-the-blank formulas for 10 job functions, and an Interview Prep Guide with 40 common questions, STAR frameworks, 25 questions to ask and 5 follow-up emails. The Excel application tracker has status and source drop-downs, highlights overdue follow-ups and has a dashboard. It opens in Word, Excel, Google Docs and Sheets and LibreOffice, with no macros. The kit organises your job search. It does not guarantee interviews or a job, and no template can promise to pass every employer's software.

Questions people ask

Sources

1. National Careers Service (UK), How to write a CV (clear fonts, headings, tailoring to the job, STAR method for work history)
2. Levashina, Hartwell, Morgeson and Campion (2014), The structured employment interview: narrative and quantitative review of the research literature, Personnel Psychology 67(1), 241-293

We checked each source on 17 October 2026. If a fact here is out of date, tell us at hello@hiddenway.info.

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