The ATS Landscape: Which Robots Are Reading Your CV?

## Know Your Audience (The Machines) When you apply for a job, your CV enters a sorting machine. But not all machines work the same way. Understanding who uses what helps you optimise strategically. ## The Big Three Categories ### Enterprise ATS (Fortune 500) Large corporations typically use heavyweight platforms: - **Workday** — Dominates FTSE 100 and Fortune 500 companies - **Oracle (Taleo)** — Legacy system still used by major banks and consultancies - **iCIMS** — Popular with US multinationals expanding into UK - **Cornerstone** — Common in healthcare and government **What this means:** These systems are strict. They prioritise keyword matching and penalise creative formatting. ### Agency ATS (Recruiters) Recruitment agencies use CRM-style systems to manage candidate pipelines: - **Bullhorn** — The industry standard for UK agencies - **Loxo** — Growing among tech recruiters - **Zoho Recruit** — Popular with boutique firms - **Eploy** — Strong in UK public sector recruitment **What this means:** Your CV may be edited before reaching the client. Keep formatting simple so agencies can strip and reformat easily. ### SMB ATS (Startups & Scale-ups) Smaller companies use lighter, more modern tools: - **JazzHR** — Common with US startups - **Teamtailor** — Popular in Nordics and spreading to UK - **Pinpoint** — UK-based, growing fast - **Manatal** — AI-powered, newer entrant **What this means:** These systems are often more forgiving. But they still parse, so avoid graphics and tables. ## The Parsing Constant Regardless of platform, all ATS systems share one behaviour: they extract text and map it to database fields. Your job is to make that mapping easy. ## Pre-Flight Checklist Before applying, consider: - [ ] Is this a large company? Use ultra-conservative formatting. - [ ] Is this via a recruitment agency? Expect your CV to be edited. - [ ] Is this a startup? You have more formatting freedom—but still avoid tables. - [ ] Have you tested your CV in a free ATS checker? --- *For more on ATS compatibility, explore our [ATS Optimisation](/ats-optimization) insights.*