What makes a CV ATS-friendly
Most large employers and recruitment agencies collect applications in an applicant tracking system, usually shortened to ATS. Before a person reads your CV, the system pulls the text out of the file and sorts it into fields such as name, job titles, employers, dates and skills. Recruiters then search and filter on those fields.
A CV is ATS-friendly when that text comes out complete and in the right order. Problems start when a CV is built like a poster: text inside images, details in the header or footer of a Word file, tables used for layout, or skill levels shown as bars and dots. The software either skips those parts or scrambles them, and the candidate never learns why there was no call.
Every template here follows the same rules
- Your CV is real text from top to bottom. There are no icons or text boxes, and the only image is your photo if you pick a photo template.
- Sections use the plain headings software looks for: Summary, Experience, Education, Skills, Projects, Certifications and Languages.
- The reading order is fixed. Even the two-column templates put experience first in the file and side notes after it.
- Fonts are common system fonts, so the PDF opens the same way everywhere.
- Dates sit next to each role and qualification, where parsers expect them.
- No graphics for skill levels and no tables. A photo, where you choose one, sits beside your name and never replaces any text.
No builder can promise that a CV will pass a particular employer's screening. What a good format does is make sure your experience is read correctly, so that the decision is made on what you have actually done.
What to put in each section
- Contact details
- Your name, phone number, a professional email address and your city. Add a LinkedIn or portfolio link if it is up to date. A full postal address is not needed.
- Summary
- Two or three sentences on who you are professionally, how much experience you have and what you are good at. Write it last, once the rest of the CV is done.
- Experience
- Start with your most recent job. For each one give your title, the employer, dates, and three or four bullet points on what you did and what changed because of it.
- Education
- Your highest qualification first, with the institution, years and score. Once you have a few years of work behind you, this section can be short.
- Skills
- Tools, software, languages and methods you can actually use. Take the wording from the job description where it honestly applies to you.
- Projects
- Useful for freshers and for technical roles. Say what you built or delivered, what you used and what the result was.
- Certifications and languages
- List certificates with the issuing body and year, and the languages you can work in.
Tips for a CV that gets read
- Match the job description. If the advert asks for GST filing or Advanced Excel and you have done it, use those exact words.
- Begin each bullet with a verb and include a number where you can: handled 40 customer calls a day, reduced returns by a fifth, trained eight new joiners.
- Keep it to one page if you have less than about eight years of experience. Two pages is fine after that.
- Leave out your photo, date of birth, marital status and father's name unless the employer asks for them. They are not needed on a modern CV.
- Name the file clearly, for example Firstname-Lastname-CV.pdf, and send a PDF unless the advert asks for Word.
- Read it aloud once before you send it. Spelling mistakes in a CV are noticed more than anywhere else.
Writing a CV as a fresher
If you have no work experience yet, lead with your education, then projects, internships and anything that shows responsibility: a college event you organised, part-time work, a competition, volunteering. The Fresher template puts these in that order. Keep the summary honest and specific about the kind of role you want, and do not pad the page; a clear half page is better than a full page of filler.
CV or resume: which should you send?
In India the two words are used for the same document, and a job advert asking for either one means a one or two page summary of your experience and education. Only academic and research applications expect a longer CV with publications and conferences. This builder is designed for the first kind.
CV builder questions
Yes. Creating, editing and downloading a CV is free, and the PDF has no watermark.
It is a CV that applicant tracking software can read correctly. That means real text rather than images, standard section headings, one clear reading order and no tables or graphics holding important details.
All sixteen follow the same rules, so choose on appearance and fit. Classic, Modern, Minimal and Compact are single-column with no photo and are the safest choice if you are unsure. Tech suits software and data roles, and Fresher suits students and recent graduates.
Open your CV and choose Download PDF. A print view opens; pick Save as PDF as the printer in your browser and save the file. Turn off the browser's headers and footers option if it is on.
So your CV is saved and you can come back to edit it, change the template or make a second version for a different role. Signing up takes a minute and is free.
Only you. A CV you build here is private to your account. Employers see a CV only when you send it to them yourself.
One page is enough for freshers and for most people with under eight years of experience. Use two pages if you have a longer history, and put the most relevant work on the first.
You can type your details in any language. The section headings are in English, because that is what most employers and tracking systems in India expect.
Not at the moment. The builder produces a PDF, which is what most employers ask for.
Only if the employer or the role expects one, as in hospitality, aviation, modelling or some customer-facing jobs. For most applications a photo is not needed, and some employers prefer CVs without one. The photo templates keep all your details as text, so the rest of the CV reads the same either way.