What is an ATS-friendly resume, and how to make one that gets read

ATS stands for applicant tracking system. It is software that many companies and job portals use to collect applications, store resumes and let recruiters search and sort them. It does not "reject" you by itself in most cases, but it does decide how your resume is read, stored and found. If it cannot read your layout, your details may be scrambled or missing when a recruiter searches.

The free resume builder uses one-column templates with real text for this reason, and its Check tab scores your resume against the points below.

What an ATS does with your resume

1. Reads the file and pulls out the text.
2. Sorts it into fields: name, contact, education, jobs, skills.
3. Stores it so that recruiters can search by words, such as a job title or a tool.
4. May rank or filter resumes against the job post, depending on how the company uses it.

Because it reads text in order, the file has to be plain and in a sensible order. How strict each company's ATS is varies, so a safe resume is one that any of them can read.

The ATS-friendly checklist

Layout

• One column. Two columns can be read across instead of down, mixing the left and right text.
• No tables or text boxes for your main content. Many systems skip or scramble them.
• No pictures or icons carrying information (phone icon, skill rating bars, a logo as your name).
• Contact details in the body, not in the page header or footer, where some systems ignore them.

Headings and words

• Use standard headings: Summary, Experience, Projects, Education, Skills, Certifications. Creative names such as "My journey" are harder to place.
• Use the words from the job post for skills and job titles, as long as they are true for you. "Power BI" matched against "Power BI", not "dashboards".
• Spell out a term once with its short form: "Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)".
• Write dates the same way everywhere ("Jan 2024 – Jun 2024").

Text and file

• Plain fonts such as Arial, Calibri or Helvetica, 10 to 11 points.
• Real text. A scanned or photo PDF has no text for ATS software to read. If you can select the words with your mouse, it is real text.
• Plain characters. Emoji and special symbols can turn into "?".
• Save as a PDF (made from a document, not a scan) or .docx. Send the format the application asks for. See Word or PDF.
• Name the file Firstname_Lastname_Resume.pdf.

Content

• Start each bullet with a verb and add numbers where you have them.
• Keep to one page (freshers) or two pages at most.
• Leave out date of birth, father's name, marital status and a declaration. They are not needed.

Test your own resume

You can test in three ways:

1. Copy and paste test. Open your PDF, select all, copy, paste into a plain text file. If the order is jumbled, an ATS will read it the same way.
2. Use a checker. Upload your resume to the ATS resume checker. It reads your file on your device, tells you if it found two columns, tables, text boxes or contact details in the header, and gives a score out of 100 with fixes.
3. Match the job post. Paste the advert into the job match box and look at the missing keywords.

Myths

Make one in a few minutes

1. Open the resume builder and pick a template. All eight are one column with real text.
2. Fill in your details. On a computer you can type straight onto the resume.
3. Open Check and fix the points it lists.
4. Download the PDF and the Word file. Both are free, with no sign-up and no watermark.

Frequently asked questions