How to write an ATS-friendly resume

An ATS-friendly resume is one that an applicant tracking system can read correctly: a single column of real text, standard section headings, consistent dates and the skill terms the job description uses. Get the structure right once, then tailor the wording for each application. Clever design tricks and keyword stuffing do not help.

What an applicant tracking system actually does

An applicant tracking system (ATS) is the software many employers and recruitment firms use to manage job applications. When you apply through a company careers page or many job portals, your resume goes into one of these systems before a person sees it.

In plain terms, the system does three things:

1. Parses your resume. It extracts the text and tries to sort it into fields: name, contact details, job titles, employers, dates, education, skills.
2. Stores and ranks candidates. Recruiters then search, filter and sort applicants, often by keywords, job titles, qualifications or answers to screening questions on the application form.
3. Tracks the process. Who has been screened, interviewed, rejected or offered.

The important point is that much of the "rejection" people blame on software comes from two places: screening questions that rule an applicant out (for example, "Do you have a valid work permit?"), and recruiters searching for terms your resume does not contain, or contains in a form the parser garbled. You cannot change the first. The second is largely in your hands.

Layout: keep it in one column

Parsers read a page roughly left to right, top to bottom. Two-column layouts, sidebars and text boxes can make them read across columns, mixing your skills list into your job history or losing a section altogether.

• Use a single column. Colour, rules and a little shading are fine; the reading order must be straightforward.
• No text boxes, and no tables for key content. Some parsers skip or scramble what is inside them. A simple list of skills in plain text is safer than a grid.
• Keep contact details in the main body, not in the page header or footer, which some systems ignore.
• No images of text. A name designed as a graphic, a skills chart or a logo carries no readable text. Icons for phone and email are harmless only if the actual number and address are written out beside them.
• No skill bars, stars or ratings. The system cannot read "four out of five dots", and recruiters do not trust them either.

All 17 of our resume and CV templates are single-column for exactly this reason: they differ in tone, not in how well they parse.

Headings, fonts and dates

Use standard section headings the system expects: Summary, Experience (or Work Experience), Education, Skills, Projects, Certifications. "Where I've Been" or "My Toolkit" may be clever, but a parser may not recognise them as sections.

Use common, well-supported fonts and ordinary characters. Fonts that ship with Word and Google Docs are safe. Avoid decorative fonts, symbol fonts used as bullets, and unusual characters that may turn into boxes or question marks when extracted.

Write dates in one format and use it everywhere, for example "Jun 2023 – Mar 2025". Mixing "06/23", "June 2023" and "2023-24" makes it harder for the system to calculate your experience. Put dates on the same line as, or directly next to, the role they belong to.

Write job titles and employer names plainly, on their own line, so they land in the right fields.

Keywords: take them honestly from the job description

Recruiters search their ATS using words from the job description. If the posting asks for "financial modelling", "IFRS" and "Power BI", and you have those skills, those exact phrases should appear on your resume.

• Mirror the employer's terms. If they say "stakeholder management" and you wrote "worked with clients", use their phrase where it truthfully describes what you did.
• Include both the acronym and the full form once for important terms, for example "Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)".
• Put keywords in context. A skill used in an experience bullet ("Built monthly MIS dashboards in Power BI for four regional heads") carries more weight with a human reader than the same word in a list.
• Only claim what you can defend. A keyword that gets you through a filter but not through the interview wastes everyone's time.

File type: PDF or DOCX?

Both work in most modern systems, provided the file contains real text. The choice depends on the situation.

Situation	Safer choice	Why
The employer or portal specifies a format	Whatever they ask for	Their system was set up for it.
Emailing a recruiter or hiring manager directly	PDF	The layout looks identical on every device.
Uploading to a company careers portal, no instruction given	Text-based PDF, or DOCX if the portal's preview mangles the PDF	Most systems handle both; the preview shows you what the parser saw.
A recruitment agency that will reformat your resume	DOCX	They need to edit it.
Your resume is a scan or a photo	Neither: recreate it as text	A scanned page is an image with no readable text.

A quick test for any PDF: open it, select all, copy, and paste into a plain text editor such as Notepad. If the text comes out complete and in the right order, a parser will usually manage it too. If it comes out scrambled or not at all, fix the source file.

File name: use your name and the document type, such as Rahul-Mehta-Resume.pdf. Avoid names like Resume (1) final!!.pdf.

How to tailor for each application

You do not need a new resume for every job. You need a strong master version and ten minutes of tailoring.

1. Read the job description twice and highlight the skills, tools, qualifications and responsibilities it mentions more than once.
2. Adjust your summary so its first line matches the role's title and main requirement.
3. Reorder your skills so the ones the posting asks for come first.
4. Rewrite two or three bullet points to use the employer's terms for work you have genuinely done.
5. Check the portal preview after uploading, if there is one, and correct any fields the system filled wrongly.
6. Save each version with a clear name so you know which resume went where.

If you are applying in a particular profession, the conventions matter as much as the keywords. Our professions page explains how resumes differ by field, and freshers should also read the resume format for freshers guide.

Myths worth ignoring

• "Hiding keywords in white text beats the system." Parsers extract all text, including white text, so it can show up in the recruiter's view as a block of odd words. It looks like what it is: an attempt to game the process.
• "ATS rejects all PDFs." Not true of modern systems in general. The problem is image-only or badly built PDFs, not the format itself. Follow the employer's instruction when there is one.
• "Any colour or design gets you rejected." Colour and clean rules do not confuse parsers. Columns, text boxes, tables and images of text do.
• "You need a 90% match score on an online checker." Free checkers are rough estimates that use their own rules, not the employer's. Use them to spot missing terms, not as a pass mark.
• "The software decides, so a human never reads it." In most hiring, a person makes the shortlist. Your resume has to read well to that person too, which is why stuffing keywords backfires.

Final ATS checklist

• Single column, no sidebars, text boxes or tables for key content
• Name and contact details in the main body, not the header or footer
• Standard headings: Summary, Experience, Education, Skills, Projects, Certifications
• All text is real, selectable text; no images of text, no skill bars
• Common fonts and plain bullet characters
• One date format throughout, next to each role
• Job titles and employers on their own lines
• Skill terms from the job description, used honestly and in context
• Text-based PDF or DOCX, as the employer prefers; copy-paste test passed
• File named with your name and "Resume" or "CV"
• Proofread, including company names and your own contact details

To test your own file, run it through our free ATS resume checker: it reads the resume the way these systems do and lists the top fixes. If you want a second pair of eyes, Fieldcraft's expert review adds a person's notes; details are on the pricing page.

Questions people ask

What is an ATS-friendly resume?

A resume that applicant tracking software can read correctly: one column, standard headings, real text rather than images, consistent dates and the relevant skill terms from the job description.

Is PDF or Word better for ATS?

Both work in most modern systems if the file contains real text. Use whatever the employer asks for; otherwise a text-based PDF is fine, and DOCX is safer if a portal's preview garbles your PDF.

Can an ATS read two-column resumes?

Sometimes, but not reliably. Some parsers read across the columns and mix sections together. A single-column layout removes that risk without making the resume look plain.

Does adding keywords in white text work?

No. The hidden text is extracted like any other text and can appear in what the recruiter sees, which looks like an attempt to game the system.

How many keywords should my resume have?

There is no magic number. Include the skills and terms the job description emphasises that you genuinely have, ideally inside experience bullets, not just a list.