If you have applied to a bank, a government entity, Aramco, stc or a multinational in Saudi Arabia and heard nothing back, there is a good chance a person never saw your CV. Most large employers in the Kingdom use an applicant tracking system (ATS) that parses each CV, scores it against the job description and ranks candidates before a recruiter opens the shortlist.
This guide explains what those systems read, the format that passes reliably, and the mistakes we see most often in the CVs sent to Misaar for review.
What an ATS actually does
An ATS does three things: it extracts text from your file, maps that text into fields (name, employer, dates, skills), and matches the result against the keywords in the job posting. If the parser cannot read your file or cannot tell which text is your job title and which is the company name, your score drops regardless of your experience.
The systems most common in Saudi Arabia (SAP SuccessFactors, Oracle Taleo, Workday, Greenhouse and local platforms integrated with LinkedIn) all parse plain, single-column text well and struggle with the same things: text inside images, tables, text boxes, headers and footers, and icons used in place of words.
The format that passes
- File type: .docx or a text-based PDF. Never a scanned PDF, image or Canva export saved as an image.
- Layout: one column. Two-column designs are parsed left to right across both columns, which scrambles your dates and titles.
- Headings: standard section names the parser expects: Summary, Experience, Education, Skills, Certifications, Languages.
- Dates: month and year on every role, in one consistent format (e.g. Jan 2022 – Present).
- Fonts: a common system font (Arial, Calibri, Times) at 10.5–12 pt. For Arabic, Tahoma, Arial or IBM Plex Sans Arabic.
- Length: two pages for most professionals, three for senior leaders, one for fresh graduates.
- No: photos, tables, text boxes, charts of skill levels, or your contact details in the header area.
Choosing keywords
Keywords are the job titles, skills, tools and certifications that appear in the posting. Copy the posting into a document and highlight every noun phrase that describes a requirement. Then make sure each one appears in your CV, in the same words, where it is true.
Three rules that matter in Saudi Arabia specifically:
- Use both the English and the common Arabic term where a role is posted bilingually, for example “Project Manager (مدير مشاريع)”.
- Spell out acronyms once: “Saudi Council of Engineers (SCE)”, “Project Management Professional (PMP)”.
- Include the industry and sector terms employers search for: “Vision 2030 programs”, “giga-project”, “semi-government”, “Saudization (Nitaqat)” if relevant to your experience.
Arabic, English or both?
Apply in the language of the posting. If the posting is in English, send an English CV; most ATS deployments in the Kingdom are configured for English-language parsing. If the posting is in Arabic or the employer is a ministry or a Saudi family group, send Arabic. For bilingual employers, keep two separate files rather than a mixed document; a CV that alternates languages within sections parses poorly in both.
Mistakes that get CVs rejected
- A “creative” template downloaded from a design site: these are the single most common reason an experienced candidate scores low.
- Responsibilities instead of results. “Managed a team” tells the recruiter nothing; “Led a team of 12 engineers delivering a SAR 40M substation upgrade three weeks early” does.
- Missing the exact job title. If you are applying for “Senior Financial Analyst”, that phrase should be in your summary.
- Gaps without explanation and overlapping dates, which parsers flag.
- A generic summary. The first three lines should name your target role, your years of experience and the two or three strengths the posting asks for.
A quick self-check
Open your CV, select all, copy and paste it into a plain text file. If the order of the text is scrambled, if dates are separated from job titles, or if sections have disappeared, an ATS will see the same thing. Fix the layout before you fix the wording.
If you would rather have an expert do this check, upload your CV for a free CV review. We reply within 48 hours with an ATS analysis and the three changes that matter most. And if you want it rewritten properly, the Tamayaz program delivers an ATS-optimised CV in Arabic or English in five working days.