How to Tailor Your CV to a Job Description (The ATS Guide)

You spend hours crafting the perfect CV. You hit apply. Nothing. Not even an automated rejection for three weeks.

Sound familiar? You're not alone. The problem, in most cases, isn't your qualifications — it's that your CV never made it past the software.

What Is ATS and Why Does It Matter?

An Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is software that companies use to manage job applications. Before a recruiter ever sees your CV, it's scanned, parsed, and ranked by an algorithm.

The ATS is looking for specific signals:

Keywords from the job description
Job title matches
Skills alignment
Education and qualification criteria

If your CV doesn't contain the right words in the right context, it gets filtered out — regardless of how experienced you are.

According to research by Jobscan, over 98% of Fortune 500 companies use ATS software, and up to 75% of CVs are rejected by ATS before a human sees them.

The Two Types of CV Tailoring

There are two ways to tailor a CV:

1. Surface-Level Tailoring

This is what most people do: swap out the job title in your summary and call it done. It doesn't work because ATS systems scan the whole document, not just the headline.

2. Deep Tailoring

This means reviewing the job description carefully and weaving its language into every relevant section of your CV — your summary, your experience bullet points, and your skills list.

Deep tailoring is what actually moves the needle.

Step-by-Step: How to Tailor Your CV

Step 1: Analyse the Job Description

Read the job posting carefully and highlight:

Required skills (non-negotiable)
Preferred skills (nice-to-have)
Key responsibilities (shows what your day-to-day will look like)
Recurring words (any phrase used 2+ times is a priority keyword)

Step 2: Map Keywords to Your Experience

For each keyword, ask yourself: "Do I have a genuine example of this?" If yes, that experience should appear in your CV using the job description's language.

For example:

Job says "stakeholder management" → Your CV should say "stakeholder management", not "worked with clients"
Job says "agile methodology" → Don't write "fast-paced environment" — write "agile methodology"

ATS systems match exact phrases. Synonyms don't always score the same.

Step 3: Rewrite Your Summary

Your summary is the first thing both ATS and recruiters read. It should:

Reflect your target job title
Contain 3–5 of the most important keywords
Be 3–5 sentences maximum

Before:

Experienced software engineer with a background in backend development looking for new opportunities.

After (tailored to a Python + AWS role):

Backend software engineer with 5 years of experience building scalable APIs in Python and deploying cloud-native applications on AWS. Proficient in microservices architecture, CI/CD pipelines, and agile development workflows.

Step 4: Update Your Experience Bullet Points

Rephrase your bullet points to:

Start with strong action verbs that match the role
Include specific tools, technologies, or methodologies mentioned in the JD
Quantify impact wherever possible ("reduced load time by 40%" beats "improved performance")

Step 5: Optimise Your Skills Section

Don't just list generic skills. Mirror the exact terminology in the job description. If the JD says "TypeScript", don't write "JavaScript (TypeScript)" — write both separately.

Step 6: Check Your ATS Score

After tailoring, use a tool like TailorCV to get an ATS score. Aim for 75+ before submitting. Below 60, you're unlikely to pass automated filtering.

Common ATS Mistakes to Avoid

Using tables or columns: Many ATS parsers can't read multi-column layouts correctly. Stick to single-column templates.
Headers as images: If your name or contact info is in a graphic, ATS won't parse it.
Generic file names: Name your file FirstName-LastName-JobTitle.pdf, not CV-Final-v3.pdf.
Keyword stuffing: Listing keywords without context doesn't help — you need them in genuine sentences.
Using the same CV for every application: One-size-fits-all CVs score poorly on ATS.

How Long Does Tailoring Take?

Done manually, a thorough tailoring takes 45–90 minutes per application. With AI assistance, it takes 3–5 minutes.

TailorCV's AI reads both your CV and the job description simultaneously and produces a tailored version that:

Matches keyword density to the job
Preserves your authentic experience
Scores ATS alignment in real-time

Key Takeaways

ATS filters out most CVs before a human reads them
Keyword matching is the primary scoring mechanism
Tailor your summary, experience, and skills for every role
Mirror the exact language of the job description
Aim for an ATS score of 75+ before applying

The job market is competitive. A tailored CV is the single highest-leverage action you can take per application. Use the tools available to you — starting with getting your keywords right.