How to Make an ATS-Friendly Resume

An applicant tracking system (ATS) is the software employers use to collect and manage job applications. Workday, Greenhouse, Lever, iCIMS, Taleo and SuccessFactors are common examples. When you apply online, your resume goes into one of these systems before any person sees it. An ATS-friendly resume is one the software can read correctly, so that a recruiter can find it and judge it on its merits.

In one sentence:use a single-column layout with standard headings and real text, put your contact details in the page body, and include the job ad's key skills in the same words the ad uses.

What an ATS actually does

1. Parses your resume: it extracts your name, contact details, job titles, employers, dates, education and skills into fields of a candidate profile.
2. Stores and organises applications: recruiters see a list of candidates for each job, often with your parsed profile beside the original file.
3. Lets recruiters search and filter: by keywords, job titles, skills, location or answers to screening questions. Some systems also rank or flag applicants by how well they match.

So the two ways an ATS works against you are a parsing failure (your experience lands in the wrong fields or disappears) and a search miss(your resume doesn't contain the terms the recruiter searches for). Everything in the checklist below prevents one or the other.

Myths to ignore

• "75% of resumes are rejected by ATS before a human sees them."This widely shared figure has no solid public source. Most systems don't auto-reject on content; filtering usually comes from knockout questions and recruiter searches.
• "You need a plain .txt or Word file." Text-based PDFs parse well in modern systems. Use Word only when asked.
• "Stuff in as many keywords as possible." A recruiter reads the result. Keywords must sit inside real, readable bullet points.
• "Any design element breaks an ATS." Colour, a coloured name block or rules between sections are fine. What causes trouble is text in images, tables used for layout, multiple columns and text boxes.

The ATS-friendly checklist

Layout

• Use a single-column layout, so the reading order is unambiguous.
• Don't lay out content with tables or text boxes; parsers may read cells out of order or skip boxes.
• Never put text inside images, icons or charts. Skill bars and star ratings carry no readable information.
• Keep contact details in the main body, not the document header or footer.

Headings and structure

• Use standard headings: Summary, Experience, Education, Skills, Certifications.
• Write job title, employer, location and dates the same way for every role.
• Use month and year for dates ("Jan 2023 – Present").

Keywords

• Read the job ad and list its must-have skills, tools, certifications and job title.
• Include the ones you genuinely have, in the ad's wording, in your skills section and in your bullets where you used them.
• Write out acronyms once with the full term: "Search Engine Optimization (SEO)".
• Mirror the ad's job title in your summary if it truthfully describes you.

File

• Send a text-based PDF unless the employer asks for .docx.
• Check that you can select and copy the text in your PDF.
• Use a plain file name: Firstname-Lastname-Resume.pdf.

Test your resume in two minutes

1. Open your PDF, select all text, copy it, and paste it into a plain text editor (Notepad, TextEdit in plain-text mode).
2. Check the order: do sections, job titles, dates and bullets come out in a sensible sequence?
3. Check that nothing is missing: contact details, every role, your skills.
4. Compare your text against the job ad: are its five to ten most important terms present?

If the pasted text is jumbled, switch to a single-column template. Our template gallery marks which designs are ATS-friendly: seven of the ten are single-column.

Use the built-in ATS check

The resume builderincludes an ATS check that runs entirely in your browser. It scores keywords, bullet impact, sections, readability and contact details, and when you paste a job ad it shows a match score with the skills you already cover and the ones you're missing, each addable in a tap. Neither your resume nor the job ad is uploaded anywhere.

For job-specific keywords, every example page lists ATS keywords for that role. For instance, see the data analyst skills and keywords or find your job title.

Frequently asked questions