ATS-friendly CV templates
Clean, single-column templates designed to parse correctly on every Applicant Tracking System. Choose a template, edit it once with your full experience, then let RecastCV tailor the content to each job description automatically.
Available templates
Clean, chronological layout with clear section headers. Maximum ATS compatibility. Suited to most roles and industries.
Space-efficient layout that fits more experience onto one page without columns. Ideal for US resume conventions where one page is preferred.
Two-page format with a strong profile section and detailed achievement bullets. Suited to senior and director-level applications in the UK and EU.
Structured to lead with education and skills when work experience is limited. Includes a projects section for university work, internships, and side projects.
Downloadable .docx files are in preparation and will be available soon. Sign up for a free account to be notified at launch.
What makes an ATS-friendly template
Not all "ATS-friendly" labels are accurate. Many templates sold as ATS-compatible still use multi-column layouts, text boxes, or decorative graphic elements that cause parse failures on older ATS systems. Here is what the term actually requires.
Single-column layout
Multi-column layouts are the most common source of ATS parse failures. When a parser reads a two-column document left-to-right, content from the left and right columns interleave incorrectly. A job title from the left column appears next to a skill from the right column, and the parser assigns them to the wrong fields. Every template here is single-column.
Standard section headers
ATS parsers detect sections by matching header text against a known vocabulary. "Work Experience", "Employment History", "Professional Experience" trigger the experience parser. Creative alternatives do not. Our templates use the standard headers that every major ATS system recognises.
No text boxes, graphics, or icons
Text inside DOCX text boxes is stored in a separate XML element that most parsers skip. Skills listed in an icon grid or visual progress-bar chart are completely invisible to ATS. Every piece of information in our templates appears in the main document flow as plain text.
Contact in the main body, not in DOCX headers
Contact details placed in DOCX document headers or footers are stored in a separate XML node that many parsers do not read. Your name and email must appear in the main document body. Our templates place contact information at the top of the body content.
System-safe fonts
Unusual fonts that are not embedded correctly in the DOCX file fall back to a system default, sometimes with character-spacing issues that corrupt the text visually. Our templates use widely available fonts — Calibri, Arial, or Georgia — that render consistently across systems.
How to use a template with RecastCV
The templates here are starting points. The real power comes from combining an ATS-safe structure with RecastCV's tailoring engine: you build your master CV once, and RecastCV rewrites the content for each application automatically.
- Download a template — choose the layout that fits your seniority and target market (UK CV vs US resume, single-page vs two-page).
- Fill in your full experience — add every role, project, education entry, and skill you have. Be as detailed as possible. This becomes your master CV.
- Upload to RecastCV — paste or upload your completed master CV. RecastCV parses it into a structured profile.
- Tailor per job description — drop the URL of the job posting. RecastCV rewrites every bullet to match the role, grounded in your real experience, and exports the result as a tailored .docx using your original template structure.
Or read the complete ATS resume guide for a deeper explanation of how ATS systems parse and score applications.
Frequently asked questions
- What makes a CV template ATS-friendly?
- An ATS-friendly template uses a single-column layout, standard section headers (Work Experience, Education, Skills), plain text — no text boxes, tables used for layout, or graphic elements containing critical information. Fonts are system-safe. Contact information appears in the main document body, not in a DOCX header or footer.
- When will the template files be available to download?
- The downloadable .docx files are in preparation and will be available in a future update. Each template will be tested across Greenhouse, Lever, Workday, iCIMS, and Taleo before release. Sign up for a free RecastCV account to be notified when they launch.
- Can I use my own template with RecastCV?
- Yes. You can upload your own DOCX template and RecastCV will tailor its content to each job description while preserving your formatting. The tailoring happens at the content level — your template's structure and styling are maintained.
- Should I use a PDF or DOCX template for ATS submissions?
- DOCX is the safer choice for ATS submissions. PDF is a rendering format — text is stored as positioned glyphs, not as a structured document, which makes it harder for ATS parsers to extract reliably. DOCX has a predictable XML structure that ATS parsers handle well. For direct email applications where a human will read it immediately, PDF preserves your formatting exactly.