Guides

How to write a resume that applicant tracking systems can read

When you apply for a job online, your resume often goes into an applicant tracking system (ATS) before anyone reads it. The ATS pulls the text out of your file, splits it into fields such as name, job titles, dates and skills, and lets the recruiter search and filter applicants. If the software can’t read your resume properly, your experience might show up scrambled, in the wrong fields, or not at all.

The good news is that you don’t need to game anything. A resume that’s easy for software to read is also easy for a busy person to read. This guide covers what trips these systems up, and a quick test you can run on your own file.

What the software actually does

An ATS doesn’t look at your resume the way a person does. It extracts the text in reading order, then guesses which parts are which, mostly from headings and patterns: a line that looks like a date range next to a line that looks like a job title is probably a position. Recruiters then search that extracted text for skills, titles and keywords from the job ad.

Two things follow. First, anything that isn’t real text, such as a logo, an icon, or words inside an image, is invisible to the system. Second, anything that scrambles the reading order, such as complicated tables or text boxes, can mix your sections together.

Layouts that cause trouble

• Text inside images. A skills graphic, a chart of your languages or a scanned resume is a picture, not text. The system sees nothing.
• Tables and text boxes. They look tidy, but some parsers read them cell by cell or skip them entirely. Lay your content out with plain paragraphs and tabs instead.
• Contact details in the page header or footer. Some systems ignore headers and footers, so your email and phone number may vanish. Put them in the main body, at the top.
• Icons instead of words. A phone icon next to a number is fine for people, but write “Phone” or just the number so it can be recognised.
• Unusual section names. “Where I’ve been” is charming, but “Work experience” is what the software looks for.
• Multi-column layouts. Modern systems handle simple two-column designs better than they used to, but a single column is still the safest choice for the main content.

Structure that works

Use the sections recruiters expect, with ordinary names: Contact details, Summary (optional), Work experience, Education and Skills, plus Certifications, Projects or Volunteering if they help. For each job, give the title, the employer, the location and the dates in a consistent format, such as “March 2022 – June 2025”, then a few bullet points.

Write bullet points that say what you did and what came of it: “Cut monthly reporting time from two days to three hours by automating the export” tells both the software and the reader far more than “Responsible for reporting”.

Keywords without stuffing

Recruiters search for the skills and titles in their job ad, so use the same words where they’re true for you. If the ad says “project management” and you wrote “ran projects”, add the exact phrase. Where a term has an abbreviation, include both forms at least once, for example “search engine optimisation (SEO)”.

Don’t paste the job description in white text or repeat keywords dozens of times. Recruiters see the extracted text, so hidden tricks show up immediately, and they read as dishonest.

PDF or Word?

Most current systems read both a PDF and a .docx file well, as long as the PDF contains real text. A PDF keeps your layout exactly as you designed it, which is why most people prefer it. If the job posting asks for a particular format, send that format; some older systems still prefer Word.

The PDF must be made from text, not scanned or exported as an image. You can check by trying to select a word in it: if you can highlight individual words, it’s text.

How long should it be?

One page is the norm for students and people with less than about ten years’ experience, and it forces you to keep only what matters. Two pages are fine for longer careers. The ATS doesn’t care about length, but the recruiter skimming the result does, so put the most relevant experience first.

A test you can run in a minute

1. Open your resume PDF and select all the text (Ctrl+A or Cmd+A).
2. Copy it and paste it into a plain text editor such as Notepad or TextEdit.
3. Read what comes out. Is your name at the top? Are your contact details there? Does each job’s title, employer and dates appear together, in order?
4. If sections are jumbled, text is missing, or words run together, a parser will likely struggle too. Simplify the layout where it went wrong and test again.

Keep a version for each kind of job

One resume for every application is rarely the best one. Keep a master copy with everything, then a version for each kind of role you apply for, with the most relevant experience and skills moved up and the wording matched to those job ads. Name the files clearly, such as “Resume – Data analyst.pdf”, so you always send the right one.

Making one

Any word processor can produce an ATS-friendly resume if you stick to a single column, real headings and no text boxes. If you’d rather not fight the layout, a resume builder does it for you; just check that it exports real text and doesn’t keep your details on its servers. Our free Resume Maker, for Windows and the browser, has eleven designs including a plain one that applicant tracking systems read cleanly, fits your resume to one page, keeps a version per job, and exports a PDF with real, searchable text, all on your own device.