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 insights.