If you are applying to medium and large South African employers and hearing nothing back, your CV may not be reaching a person at all.
What an ATS does
An Applicant Tracking System receives applications, extracts the text from your CV, sorts it into fields, and ranks candidates against the job requirements. Recruiters then work through the ranking.
The software is not deciding whether you are capable. It is deciding whether it can read you, and whether what it read matches the advert.
Why good CVs fail
Two column layouts
Parsers read left to right across the full page. A two column CV can come out with your job titles interleaved with your skills list.
Tables used for layout
Table structure often does not survive extraction. Content can arrive out of order or be dropped entirely.
Headers and footers
Contact details placed in a document header are frequently ignored. If your phone number is only in the header, the system may record you as having no contact number.
Creative section headings
“Where I have worked” does not map to a field. “Work Experience” does. Use the conventional words.
Graphics and skill bars
An image showing eighty percent proficiency in Excel conveys nothing to a parser. Write the word Excel.
What works
- Single column, top to bottom
- Standard headings
- Contact details in the body, not the header
- Full dates, month and year
- Skills written as plain text
- PDF unless the advert asks otherwise
- The advert language where it genuinely applies to you
Matching without lying
Use the terms in the advert where they describe work you have actually done. If it says stakeholder engagement and you did that, write stakeholder engagement rather than a synonym.
Do not list skills you do not have. It gets you past the software and into an interview you cannot survive.
Public sector is different
Government applications are usually screened by people rather than software, but the formatting rules overlap almost completely, because applications are printed. A CV built to parse well also prints well. See our guide to government CVs.
Check your CV before you apply
Score it free against the rules panels and screening software use. Includes a template built for South African public sector applications.
General information, not employment advice. Requirements vary by department and post. Always follow the instructions in the specific advert.