The ATS-friendly CV, what it really means

An ATS isn't an AI, it is a database

"ATS-friendly" sounds technical. In practice it means no more than that your CV has to be stored as readable text in a search system.

An ATS (Applicant Tracking System) is a tool recruiters use to handle hundreds of applications. When you submit your CV, three things happen:

1. The system reads the PDF or DOCX and extracts the text.
2. The text is stored in the database, linked to your applicant profile.
3. The recruiter can later search or filter across all applicants, for example "everyone who has written ‘Python’ and lives in Oslo".

Every problem with "ATS-friendliness" lies in step 1. If the system can't read your CV correctly, you are invisible in step 3. Not because anyone rejected you, but because you don't show up when the recruiter searches.

What an ATS actually does badly

Modern systems have improved, but they still struggle with:

Graphics-based CVs

If the design is exported as a single image, or if text is embedded in icons and graphics, the ATS only sees pixels. The system gets no text to store. The result: your CV exists in the database, but none of its words are searchable.

Test: open your CV in a PDF reader and press Ctrl+A to select everything. If the text doesn't get selected, you have a flat PDF. Fix it before you send it.

Multiple columns

Many design templates have two or three columns. When the ATS reads, it reads line by line, from left to right. That means "Oslo | 2024" can turn into "Oslo 2024 Bachelor in computer science 2019 to 2022" because the system read across the columns.

The result is that your experience gets linked to the wrong time periods, or your education ends up inside a job role.

Solution: one column. It is less "designed", but it is read correctly 100 % of the time.

Tables and text boxes

The same problem as columns. Table structures can cause a role and its time period to be paired incorrectly. Avoid them.

Unusual fonts

Almost all ordinary fonts work: Arial, Calibri, Helvetica, Inter, Times New Roman, Georgia, Garamond. Avoid handwritten fonts, fonts with ligatures, and fonts that aren't common for embedding in PDFs (they can be replaced during conversion).

Size: 10 to 12 points for body text, 14 to 18 points for headings. Below 9 points can confuse OCR if the system has to scan.

Headings that don't look like headings

If you call your experience section "My journey" or "What I have done", the ATS may struggle to identify the section. Use conventional names:

• "Experience" or "Work experience" («Erfaring» or «Arbeidserfaring» on a Norwegian CV)
• "Education" («Utdanning»)
• "Skills" or "Competencies" («Ferdigheter» or «Kompetanse»)
• "Languages" («Språk»)
• "Certifications" («Sertifiseringer»)

It is boring. It is right.

What an ATS actually does well

An ATS is actually quite smart at some things:

• Dates in common formats ("2022 to 2024", "June 2020 to March 2023") are recognised and used to build timelines.
• The job title on the first line under a section is automatically linked to the organisation on the line below.
• Bullet points under roles are often preserved as structured data.
• Email, phone and LinkedIn URL are extracted automatically from the top lines.

Design your CV so the ATS can easily get these things right.

Keywords, without manipulation

"Optimise your CV for ATS" is often taken to mean "stuff in as many keywords as possible". That is the wrong approach, and modern systems see through it.

The right approach:

1. Read the job ad twice.
2. Mark the words that describe concrete skills, tools and methods.
3. For each one you actually have experience with, make sure the word appears in your CV, written as in the ad.

Example: the ad says "experience with Kubernetes and Helm". Your CV says "have worked with container orchestration". Add "Kubernetes and Helm" explicitly, otherwise you won't match when the recruiter searches.

This isn't cheating, it is tidy matching. If you don't have the experience, don't write it. It will cost you the interview.

Common myths

"An ATS can't read PDFs." Wrong. Most modern ATS systems read PDFs perfectly well, as long as the file has a text layer. A few older systems prefer DOCX, but that is the exception.

"You get rejected automatically if you don't hit the keywords." Almost always wrong. Systems rank and score, but people do the rejecting. The exception: when a job gets 1,000+ applicants, automatic cuts are sometimes used.

"ATS systems don't like colours." Wrong. Colours are fine. Just avoid text sitting inside coloured images, and make sure background colours don't drown the text.

"You need an ‘ATS-optimised template’." Misleading. There is no secret formula. A well-built, simple one-column CV is automatically "ATS-optimised".

Test it yourself in 2 minutes

Do this before you send your next application:

1. Open your PDF.
2. Press Ctrl+A to select all the text.
3. Press Ctrl+C, and paste it into an empty text document.

Read what comes out. If you see your name, titles, dates and bullet points in the right order, you are safe. If it is scrambled, has parts missing, or is completely empty, the layout needs fixing.

Søknadsbasen always exports to PDF with the text layer intact, so this test passes automatically.

When it is worth caring about ATS

Large companies and the public sector almost always use an ATS. Start-ups and small companies (under 50 employees) often don't, and your applications end up directly in an inbox.

Even so: an ATS-friendly CV is also easy for a person to read. Following the principles above costs you nothing, and the reader can't tell that you have done it.

Think of it as grammar. You notice when it is missing, not when it is there.

In summary: keep it simple

• One column.
• An ordinary font.
• Conventional section names.
• Dates in common formats.
• A PDF with a text layer.
• Keywords from the ad where you actually have the experience.

That is the whole ATS guide. The rest is the content, and that comes from how you write your CV in the first place.