CV TIPS - 5 Ways To Get Your Resume Past ATS, Hiring Managers Reveal

Posted 21st July 2026 • Written by Rachel Wells on forbes.com • • • • • •

Never heard of ATS?

It means Applicant Tracking Systems, and it's an AI-powered software that hiring managers use to make the process of screening out and filtering candidates a whole lot easier and faster.

Nearly four in 10 hiring managers allow the ATS to fully screen out candidates based on pre-set criteria.

At the same time, half of hiring managers still personally review resumes and use the ATS to flag, rank, or organize them.

But with ATS being the gatekeeper between you and your dream job, the immediate question is, how do you manage to convince and persuade the initial gatekeeper--ATS, and the recruiter or hiring manager who reviews it after, that you’re a close enough fit to be considered for a first stage interview?

5 Reasons Your Application Isn’t Making It Past The ATS

These include:

Missing required skills from the job description (top reason)--42%
Failure to meet basic role requirements--36%
Unclear or incomplete work history--33%
Generic or AI-heavy content--28%
Lack of relevant keywords--28%

Here’s how to ensure your resume actually gets past ATS:

1. Include The Required Skills And Align With The Job Description

As mentioned above, the biggest factor that’s impacting your job application success rate when you send your resume, is that you’re demonstrating poor alignment with the job description (JD).

I often use this as a teaching point to explain to them that, for example, they could be an expert in agile leadership, or be black belt Six Sigma certified, yet since they never mentioned it explicitly in their resume, the ATS downgrades them.

This is why keywords are important. It’s not so much about “keyword stuffing” as it is about ensuring that all the relevant skills, tools, and competencies that are mentioned in the JD are highlighted clearly, the same way they are cited, in the resume.

2. Meet Basic Role Requirements

Because the job market is so saturated and increasingly competitive, as a rule of thumb:

Never adopt the “spray-and-pray” approach to job hunting. Hitting the “easy apply” button on 100 job listings in one week may be tempting, but job hunting is not a numbers game. It’s more a matter of tailoring and relevance. If you apply to every role without taking the time to read each JD in detail, chances are higher that you will barely meet basic role requirements.

Only apply for jobs where you meet at least 70% of the specifications.

Your job search is not a numbers game.

3. Make Your Work History Clear

Unclear and incomplete work history was cited by a third of hiring managers as a primary reason why ATS filters out candidates.

Here’s how to fix that:

Avoid using elaborate titles for your work experience section. Keep it simple. Go with “professional experience,” “work experience,” or “employment,” not “My Professional Journey” or “Career Odyssey.” Fancy phrases means that ATS will group your experience into “other” or leave it out altogether.

To get your resume past ATS, think about what both the AI and the human behind it are screening for, and tailor accordingly.

4. Do Not Fill Your Resume With AI Slop Or Cliches

One of the biggest turnoffs is a resume that’s full of tell-tale AI signs:

Repetitive phrases and bullet points that essentially say the exact same thing but in elaborate ways each time, scattered everywhere

Generic, meaningless phrases that sound good but in reality mean nothing and add zero value: “dedicated,” “hardworking,” “dynamic (unless the JD specifically calls for it),” “intersection,” etc.

Grammatical errors

Overly exaggerated experience

5. Include Relevant Keywords

I’ve already explained this to some extent in my first point, but to help you a little more, here are some examples of relevant keywords:

Industry-relevant certifications: Prince2, CISSP, CPA, etc.

Role-relevant and industry-specific tools: SAP, Salesforce, ChatGPT Agent, Zapier, Workday, WordPress, etc.

Industry niches: consulting, start-up, venture capital, high-growth scale-ups, non-profit, public sector, NGOs, federal, etc.

If you follow all these principles, you’ll increase your chances of being hired, and you’ll start receiving more relevant opportunities too.

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