ATS CV guides: how 12 applicant tracking systems read your CV

Workday is the application form everyone dreads. Here is how it actually reads your CV, and where the real leverage is.

Greenhouse is one of the most common ATSs at tech companies and scale-ups, and it works nothing like the keyword-scanner of ATS folklore.

Lever is as much a talent CRM as an ATS, which changes what your CV needs to do: get found in searches, not beat a score.

Taleo is the oldest enterprise ATS you are still likely to meet, and the one where exact wording genuinely matters.

iCIMS runs hiring at many of the world's biggest employers. Its parser is modern, but a couple of sharp edges catch applicants out.

SmartRecruiters keeps applying light, but what recruiters see first is not your CV: it is a parsed summary card built from it.

Teamtailor powers the careers sites of thousands of European scale-ups. It is human-review hiring with a very light form on top.

Jobvite has been running mid-size and enterprise hiring for two decades. Your CV's job here is to be findable in a recruiter's search.

BambooHR is the ATS you meet at companies of 50 to 500 people. There is no algorithm here, just a busy human with a pile to read.

Workable sits on thousands of small and mid-sized companies' hiring, and its AI screening reads meaning, not just keywords.

Ashby is the ATS behind many of tech's best-known hiring pipelines, and its AI review works on criteria and evidence, not keywords.

SuccessFactors runs recruiting at many multinationals. The profile you build there, not the file you upload, is what gets reviewed.