Resume basics · 7 min read
How to make an ATS-friendly resume
What applicant tracking systems actually do with your file, the layout choices that keep your details readable, and how to check your resume before you send it.
By the Ergent team · Updated
What an ATS actually does
An applicant tracking system stores applications and lets recruiters search them. When you apply, it turns your file into plain text and tries to sort it into fields: name, contact details, job titles, employers, dates, skills and education. Recruiters then search and filter on those fields.
Most systems don’t reject a resume for how it looks. What goes wrong is quieter: a job title lands in the wrong field, dates can’t be read, or a skills list never makes it out of a text box — so you don’t come up when a recruiter searches for exactly what you’ve done.
Use a layout a parser can follow
Parsers read top to bottom, left to right. Anything that breaks that order — or hides text where they don’t look — is where details get lost.
Parsers read these reliably
- One column, top to bottom
- Standard headings: Experience, Education, Skills
- Contact details in the body, not the page header
- One date format, like Mar 2023 – Present
- A Word file, or a PDF whose text you can select
Often lost or scrambled
- Tables, text boxes and side-by-side columns
- Skill bars, icons and charts
- Text inside images, or a scanned PDF
- Creative headings like “Where I’ve been”
- Key details only in the header or footer
Match the job’s words — honestly
Recruiters search for the skills and titles in the job description. Where it’s true for you, use the posting’s own wording: if it says “stakeholder management” and you’ve done it, say that rather than a synonym. Spell out an acronym once next to the short form, like “search engine optimisation (SEO)”.
Put keywords where they’re backed up — in the bullets that show you using them. A block of repeated or hidden keywords doesn’t help the person reading it, and it’s the first thing they notice.
Keep it quick to scan
After the software, a person reads it — usually fast. Start each bullet with what you did and what changed, with a number where you have one. Put the most relevant role first, and keep to one page early in your career, two at most later on.
Check before you send
Two minutes is enough to catch most problems:
- Copy everything from your PDF into a plain text editor. Anything missing or scrambled there is what a parser loses too.
- Your name, email and phone are ordinary text near the top.
- Every role has a job title, employer and dates.
- The skills the job asks for appear in bullets where you used them.
- The file name is your name, like priya-sharma-resume.pdf.
What a check shows
Sample output · fictional candidate and job
ATS score
64/ 100
An estimate, with its reasons
Fix these first
- 01Say what changed in your Lumen Retail bullets~+6 pts
- 02Add A/B testing, only if you have run experiments~+5 pts
- 03Rewrite the summary for a product analyst role~+4 pts
Missing from the job: A/B testing, Funnel analysis, Cohort analysis, Amplitude — add only if true.
Questions
- Do ATSs reject resumes automatically?
- Usually not for formatting alone. Rejections tend to come from knockout questions, like work authorisation, or a recruiter’s filters. Formatting matters because it decides what those searches can find.
- PDF or Word?
- Either, as long as the PDF’s text can be selected. If the job posting asks for a format, use that one.
- Can I use two columns?
- It’s a risk. Many parsers read across the page line by line and mix the columns together. One column is the safe choice.
- Does it have to look plain?
- No. A clean font, a little colour and clear spacing are fine. What to avoid is structure a parser can’t follow, not design.
Keep reading
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