What’s a good ATS score for a tech CV? Here’s the truth

There’s no such thing as a ‘good’ ATS score, even for a tech CV — and chasing one is a waste of time. Learn what actually determines whether you get an IT job interview, from an expert who’s assisted tens of thousands of professional candidates for 20 years.

There’s no such thing as a universally ‘good’ ATS score — and that includes tech roles, where the obsession with cracking the algorithm runs deeper than almost anywhere else. If you’ve run your CV through an Application Tracking System (ATS) and been told it's a 67% match, or 91 out of 100 against a Software Engineer template, that figure isn’t the objective, scientific measure it looks like.

In truth, at best, most of these scanners are simply someone’s opinion of what makes a CV ‘ATS-friendly’ and, at worst, they’re a basic keyword checker built to sell CV writing services, including to tech job candidates. And results-wise, IT job board users should be wary of those lean ATSs that spit out “Good work, your CV is 76% ATS-compatible,” because what’s compatible with a tech support vacancy at a start-up won’t be compatible with a temporary project manager contract job with an NGO, writes Matt Craven, founder of The CV & Interview Advisors and a career positioning expert who’s reviewed CVs across every sector for two decades.

Why do employers use ATS?

Employers use an ATS to manage vacancies, applications, candidate data and communication in one place.

In fact, to be technically correct, even IT recruiters use CRM systems that have some of the same ATS functionality.

Application Tracking Systems are big pieces of kit, but tech job-seekers only need to bother themselves with the technology within ATS relating to two things:

• Matching

• Parsing

What do ‘matching’ and ‘parsing’ mean in an ATS?

The ‘matching’ functionality matches CVs against the job requirements.

The ‘parsing’ functionality takes the data from the CV and transfers it into the ATS database, which constitutes the employer’s ongoing talent pool.

Do Applicant Tracking Systems give CVs a score?

Some do rank or grade CVs, but only against one specific vacancy’s requirements, never as a fixed, universal score. A CV can’t carry an inherent ATS rating of its own, only a match rating for a particular job. 

Some figures churned out by websites that score CVs are based on the site developer’s knowledge of ATS optimisation — and that knowledge may or may not be correct.

That’s why I said at the outset that a universally good ATS score isn’t a thing.

Here’s the truth: a CV cannot be “76% ATS-compatible” in isolation. Compatible with what, exactly? 

• A Senior Backend Engineer vacancy? 

• An IT Infrastructure Manager role? 

• A Technical Sales Director position? 

Without including both a specific vacancy and that vacancy’s selection criteria, the leanest ATS tools effectively benchmark your CV against — fresh air.

Does an automated ATS rejection mean AI rejected your CV?

Not necessarily — ATS vendors have adopted AI as part of their technology stack and functionality, but it’s not always AI to blame.

The ATS may have simply applied a ‘hard filter’ set by the employer. This hard filter is usually based on essential requirements such as:

• Qualifications

• Location

• Minimum level of experience

• Right to Work

If you fail one of those fields, the system may reject the application automatically.

Is it just ATS that uses hard filters?

No — employers and recruiters use hard filters too, not just ATS platforms. We’ve used them ourselves when advertising roles through LinkedIn since founding our CV advisory in 2006.

But it’s the same story with ATS: that isn’t the filtering technology making a deep and meaningful assessment of you, or of your application.

The filter simply applies the rules fed into it.

There are plenty of other explanations as to why ATS ‘kicks out’ your CV, or doesn’t give you a ‘pass to the next level,’ as a senior program manager, Stephanie Johnson, puts it.

Why is ATS rejecting my CV?

Beyond hard filters, five other reasons commonly trigger an automated ATS rejection:

1.    The employer already finding enough suitable candidates, even without a "No longer accepting applications" notice 
2.    A recruiter manually reviewing your CV and updating your status, with the ATS sending a batched rejection email later 

3.    Missing information on your application 

4.    Agency ownership rules and internal recruitment workflows 

5.    Duplicate applications

Does all this mean ATS CV optimisation is nonsense?

No — ATS optimisation is good CV practice. The problem is the misinformation that surrounds ATS.

Your tech job CV should be formatted so that parsing technology can extract important information such as your contact details, employment history, achievements, job titles, dates, qualifications and skills.

What should and shouldn’t CVs include in the ATS age?

With ATS in mind, our CV advisory recommends using:

• Clear headings

• Sensible structure

Equally, we recommend being cautious with these five: 

1.    Text boxes 

2.    Graphics 

3.    Icons 

4.    Headers/footers 

5.    Elaborate designs 

Thinking again about using the latter five doesn’t mean your CV needs to look like it was produced on a typewriter from 1987, however!

Modern ATS platforms can read many different CV layouts — just remember, there is little point in creating unnecessary obstacles that ATS will trip up on.

How often is CV matching technology actually used in 2026/27?

ATS-style matching technology is used often but inconsistently, although it’s most likely to play an active role in:

• High-volume tech recruitment

• IT graduate programmes

• Large direct-to-end user hiring campaigns. 

Do recruiters still review CVs manually?

Yes — even within this prime ATS territory, tech recruiters still review applications manually rather than relying on the matching technology’s recommendations.

In Q3 2026, we supported a large outplacement programme where the employer’s own HR team told us that its ATS was so “poor” at matching applicants to vacancies that it had effectively stopped using that strand of the system.

Will ATS technology replace human recruiters?

No — recruiters aren't going anywhere, even though matching technology will undoubtedly become more sophisticated in 2027 and AI plays an increasing role in recruitment.

Therefore, making your CV both easy to ‘parse’ and relevant to your target role, i.e., so it matches, is eminently sensible for tech job-seekers, both new and veteran.

But that is still very different from suggesting that most CVs are automatically rejected because they haven’t achieved an ‘imaginary’ ATS score.

And where a recruitment consultancy is involved, especially for qualified and senior tech vacancies, CVs are still usually landing in an inbox for a human review. That’s the purpose of a recruiter’s professional existence — in IT and other key sectors — and they don't have a vested interest in making themselves obsolete.

ATS fear factor: what should IT job hopefuls worry about?

Most tech job-seekers are worrying about the wrong thing — the biggest reason CVs fail isn’t that an ATS can’t read them; it's that they don't give the employer enough reason to interview the candidate. That's the pattern I've seen most, having worked with tens of thousands of job-seekers over two decades.

That’s especially the case in tech, where it’s tempting to assume a rejection means the algorithm didn’t recognise your stack in the UK’s arguably fastest-moving sector. 

A follow-up painful truth about ATS and AI? 

ATS and AI have almost become a convenient excuse for being rejected. 

Most CVs focus heavily on duties and responsibilities.

Even in the outcome-focused freelance IT sector, too many CVs breathlessly list skills without proving them, and with little evidence of achievements and commercial impact.

A good CV for a tech job candidate isn’t one that simply lists some duties and responsibilities that sails through whichever ATS is being used. 

What’s in a good CV for tech roles?

A good CV is a document that matches the IT job description (‘matching’) but also explains two key things:

• how you would add value in the role 

• how you would drive positive outcomes for the IT department or end-hirer

With all the focus on ATS and AI, technology job seekers are missing the crux of the matter.

By all means, make your CV ATS-friendly. Use sensible formatting, include relevant terminology, and tailor it properly to the vacancy. But don’t become fixated on a score produced by a sales tool.

Bottom line: the purpose of ATS optimisation is to help your CV get to a human, but it still has to persuade that person that you are worth interviewing.

Need some CV help — ATS or otherwise?

If you would like to know how IT job-market-ready you are, The CV & Interview Advisors offer Free-Work users a complimentary CV and LinkedIn appraisal that you can explore here. https://cvandinterviewadvisors.co.uk/partners/free-work

And if you are worried about AI, and wondering whether to use it or not when writing your CV, we also have an upcoming webinar on “How to create a CV using AI that doesn’t look like a CV created by AI (that won’t be instantly rejected).”

Live - How to Create a CV With AI That Doesn't Look Like a CV Created by AI (That Won't Be Instantly Rejected) on September 21st, 2026, 1:30 PM BST at: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/7774621883925762137

Replay - How to Create a CV With AI That Doesn't Look Like a CV Created by AI (That Won't Be Instantly Rejected): https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/rt/6554166176117864543