About this template
The ATS Monochrome template is a strictly black-and-white CV in Fira Sans, single column, with no accent colour. Uppercase letter-spaced headings and plain-text skill lists are designed so that a parser — Workday, Taleo, iCIMS, Greenhouse — reads every line cleanly, even after a print and rescan, a frequent scenario in large enterprise HR departments and US federal agencies.
Who is it for?
It fits candidates targeting strict ATS pipelines: US investment banks (Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley), federal government roles (GS-13 to GS-15, SES), large insurance carriers (Aetna, UnitedHealth, Anthem) and Big Pharma corporate HR where colour is sometimes read as graphic noise. Particularly suited to senior profiles — Senior Banking Compliance Officer, Senior Internal Auditor, Risk Officer — whose application must clear every parser before a human reviewer reads it.
How to use it
Place the Skills block at the top, under contact details, with exact keywords pulled from the job description (« anti-money-laundering », « SOX 404 », « Basel III », « ERISA »). Strict reverse-chronological order on experience, dates in MM/YYYY – MM/YYYY format to stay ATS-safe. Avoid tables, secondary columns and icons: Workday reads them as artefacts. For a federal role, add the GS grade and step at the end of the employer line. For a banking role, list FINRA registrations (Series 7, Series 63, Series 79) in a dedicated block.
Frequently asked questions
Is the template really compatible with US ATS pipelines?
Yes. The single-column structure, absence of tables and Fira Sans (libre font, no exotic variant) parse cleanly through Workday, Taleo, iCIMS, SmartRecruiters and Greenhouse. The PDF text layer is preserved, which matters for compound proper nouns, acronyms and registered trademarks that ATS systems index for keyword match.
How many pages for a banking or compliance application?
One page for junior to mid-level. Two pages maximum for senior. Beyond that, US banking HR reads the CV as imprecise. For federal roles, the page limit is often specified in the vacancy announcement — respect it to the line. SES applications use the longer ECQ format separately.
Should I add a photo at the top?
No. Photos are not expected for ATS-first applications, and some parsers treat them as artefacts that degrade extraction score. Keeping the header in plain text maximises machine readability. The US equality recruitment norm also discourages photos as a vector of bias.
