ATS-friendly resume format: what applicant tracking systems can and can't read

How a parser reads your file

The ATS extracts text from your PDF or DOCX, then tries to recognise sections (experience, education, skills), job entries (title, company, dates) and contact details. It does this with heading names and reading order. Anything that disrupts reading order, columns, text boxes, tables, or hides text, images, headers and footers, can be lost or jumbled.

Layout: one column, top to bottom

• Use a single column. Two-column designs are often read left column first, then right, which separates job titles from their bullets.
• Avoid text boxes and tables for content; many parsers skip them or read them out of order.
• Keep contact details in the body, not in the page header or footer, which some systems ignore.
• Standard margins (1.5–2.5 cm) and 10.5–12 pt body text. Dense is fine; tiny is not.

Section headings the ATS recognises

Use conventional names so the parser can classify the content: Summary, Experience (or Work Experience / Professional Experience), Education, Skills, Certifications, Projects. Creative headings like "My journey" or "Toolbox" may be dropped into an unclassified bucket.

Dates, titles and companies

Put each job on a consistent pattern: Job title, Company, Location, Month Year – Month Year. Use the same date format throughout ("Jan 2023 – Mar 2025"). Parsers calculate years of experience from these; inconsistent formats produce wrong totals.

Fonts, bullets and characters

• Common fonts: Arial, Calibri, Helvetica, Georgia, Garamond, Times. Embedded or decorative fonts can become symbols.
• Use standard round or square bullets. Arrows, stars and custom glyphs may be read as odd characters.
• No icons for phone and email; write the words or just the values.
• Avoid skill bars, ratings and charts: the ATS can't read a progress bar, and the recruiter learns nothing from "Python: 4/5".

Which file type: PDF or DOCX?

Modern systems read both. Send what the post asks for. If it doesn't say, a text-based PDF preserves your layout for the human reader and parses fine. Never send a scanned PDF or an image of your resume; there is no text for the ATS to read. Check by selecting text in the PDF: if you can highlight words, it is text-based.

Test it

Run the file through an ATS checker and look at the extracted text. If sections, dates and bullets come out in order, you are fine. If the text is scrambled, simplify the layout until it isn't. Resumeni keeps your own layout and fonts when it rewrites your resume, so a format that parses before will parse after.