ATS-friendly resume: how to write one that applicant tracking systems can read

What an ATS (applicant tracking system) is

ATS stands for applicant tracking system, the software many employers and staffing agencies use to run their hiring. They use it to post jobs, receive applications, store resumes and coordinate the people who make the decisions. When you apply through the careers page of a midsize or large company, your resume very likely ends up in one of these systems; Workday, Greenhouse, Lever, iCIMS and Taleo are names you may recognize from application pages.

There are many different applicant tracking systems, from simple modules inside an HR software suite to platforms built for global corporations. Each one works in its own way and, above all, each employer configures it to fit its own needs. That’s why any advice promising to “beat the algorithm” or guaranteeing you’ll get past “the filter” is, at best, an oversimplification. What you can control is that your resume reads cleanly and accurately reflects what you can do.

What an ATS actually does with your resume

It varies from system to system, but there are three main functions.

Store

It saves your resume and your answers to the application form in a database. That has a little-known consequence: your application can resurface months later, when the company looks for candidates for another opening. A clear resume keeps working for you even if you don’t get a call for the first job.

Parse the document

Many systems extract the text of your resume and try to sort it into fields: name, contact details, job titles, employers, dates, education and skills. This is called parsing. If the layout confuses the parser, information can end up in the wrong place, incomplete or missing from the candidate profile the recruiter sees.

Search, filter and rank

Recruiters can search by keyword (“SAP,” “forklift,” “Python”), filter by location or by answers to the application form and, in some systems, sort applications by how well they match the job. Many forms also include screening questions the employer sets up, such as whether you’re authorized to work in the US or hold a specific license.

ATS myths you can forget

Plenty of unsourced claims circulate about applicant tracking systems. These are the most repeated ones, and what can honestly be said about them:

• “A bot rejects most resumes before a human ever sees them.” It depends on how each employer sets up its process. The automatic rejection rates that get quoted online don’t have a source anyone can verify.
• “There’s a universal ATS score.” There’s no common standard. Tools that give you a score calculate their own metric, which may have little to do with what a given employer’s system does.
• “Hide keywords in white text.” Hidden text shows up as soon as someone copies or parses the document, and anyone who sees it will read it as an attempt to game the system.
• “A designed resume never gets through.” A clean, well-structured design isn’t the problem. Specific elements cause errors: text inside images, complex tables, text boxes or poorly built columns.

How to format an ATS-friendly resume

An ATS-friendly resume looks a lot like a good resume for people: orderly, predictable and free of decoration that gets in the way. These are the choices that most affect whether your text is extracted correctly.

Standard section headings

Use names every system and every recruiter recognizes: Summary, Work Experience, Education, Skills, Certifications (or Licenses and Certifications). A creative heading like “My Journey” or “Where I’ve Made an Impact” can keep the parser from identifying the section.

Real text, never images

Everything important must be actual text: your name, contact details, job titles and skills. If your name is part of a logo, or your skills appear as icons or rating bars, the system can’t read them. An “Excel: 80%” bar doesn’t tell a person anything either; write “Advanced Excel: pivot tables, XLOOKUP, Power Query” instead.

Careful with tables, columns and text boxes

Your key information (experience, employers, dates) should follow a simple, linear structure. Complex tables, floating text boxes and some two-column layouts can make the text come out in a jumbled order. Don’t leave essential details only in the document’s header or footer either, because some parsers skip them.

Consistent dates

Pick one format and use it throughout: “03/2022 – Present” or “Mar 2022 – Present.” Mixing “2021–2023,” “Jan ’22” and “since summer 2019” makes it harder for both the system and the person to work out how much experience you have.

Fonts and symbols

Use a common, readable font at 10 to 12 points for body text, and simple bullets. Icons next to your phone number or email usually cause no trouble as long as the detail is written out beside them; what you shouldn’t do is leave information only in symbols. If you’re comparing resume templates, run the reading test described below on the final PDF.

File types: text-based PDF, Word or something else?

Most job sites accept a PDF or a Word document (.docx), and both work well when they contain real text. A PDF exported from a word processor or a resume builder has text you can select, copy and search. A PDF made by scanning or photographing a printed page is really an image, and a system without text recognition can’t extract anything from it. The same goes for JPG or PNG files, and for formats such as .pages that many systems don’t accept.

• If the posting or the job site asks for a specific format, use exactly that. Some employers specifically request a Word document.
• If it doesn’t say, a text-based PDF is a sound choice: it keeps your layout intact on any device.

Check your PDF in a minute:

1. Open it and search for your last name with Ctrl+F (Cmd+F on a Mac). If it isn’t found, there’s a problem.
2. Select all the text, copy it and paste it into a plain text editor such as Notepad or TextEdit. It should come out complete, with no strange characters.
3. Check that the order makes sense: each job with its employer, dates and accomplishments, without getting mixed up with another column.

Mi Resumen exports your resume as a PDF with real, selectable text, so you can run this test directly on the file you download.

Resume keywords: how to use them without stuffing

Keywords are the terms a recruiter would search for to find someone like you: the job title, tools, techniques, certifications or industries. If someone searches for “account reconciliation” and your resume only says “balanced the books,” you may not show up.

Pull them from the job posting

Paste the posting into a document and highlight three groups of terms:

• Job title and variations: “accountant,” “staff accountant,” “senior accountant.”
• Hard skills and tools: “month-end close,” “GAAP,” “sales tax,” “NetSuite,” “advanced Excel.”
• Formal requirements: degrees, licenses, certifications, years of experience.

Terms that repeat, or that appear among the required qualifications, carry the most weight.

Use them honestly and in context

Include only the keywords that match your real experience and knowledge, and place them where they make sense: in your summary, in the accomplishments under each job and in your skills section. A keyword inside an accomplishment proves more than the same word in a list.

Acronyms and full terms

You don’t know whether the recruiter will search for the acronym or the full term, so write both the first time: “Certified Public Accountant (CPA),” “customer relationship management (CRM),” “electronic health records (EHR).” After that, the acronym is enough. Do the same with job titles that vary from company to company: if your official title was an internal one like “Guest Experience Ambassador,” add the standard title employers search for: “Guest Experience Ambassador (Front Desk Agent).”

To do this with a specific posting, the job match check in Mi Resumen reads the job posting you paste, lists its requirements and shows you which ones already appear on your resume and which are missing, along with a formatting review. The result is a score from 0 to 100 with its criteria in plain view: it isn’t the score of any real ATS, because every employer configures its own, but it tells you which words and fixes to review. The AI assistant can also tailor your text to the posting, separating real matches from requirements you can’t back up, and you review each change before applying it.

Example: a work experience entry an ATS can read

Here’s what an easy-to-parse experience entry looks like: job title, employer, city and dates on clear lines, followed by accomplishment bullets with the keywords inside complete sentences.

Notice that the job title includes both ways people usually search for the role, and the tools appear under their exact names. Our resume examples by job list common keywords for each role, and the software engineer resume example shows how to work technologies into your accomplishments.

The online application form counts too

On many job sites, besides uploading your resume, you’ll fill in fields: work history, education, desired salary or availability. Even if it feels repetitive, do it carefully, because those fields are often what employers filter on.

• Enter your details exactly as they appear on your resume: same job titles, same dates, same employers.
• Answer screening questions truthfully, including those about work authorization, visa sponsorship or a required license. A false answer comes to light before the process is over.
• Review what the system filled in automatically from your resume before you submit. If it put your employer in the job title field, fix it by hand.
• Voluntary self-identification questions (such as veteran or disability status) are exactly that: voluntary. Answering or declining is up to you.
• If there’s a free-text field or an optional upload, use it for a short, specific cover letter.

ATS-friendly resume checklist

Before you apply, run through this list:

• Standard section headings: Summary, Work Experience, Education, Skills, Certifications.
• Name and contact details written as text in the body of the document, not only in the header.
• Experience in reverse-chronological order, with job title, employer, city and state, and dates in the same format.
• No key information inside images, rating graphics or text boxes.
• Keywords from the posting that match your real experience, woven into your summary and accomplishments.
• Acronyms spelled out the first time they appear.
• A text-based PDF (you’ve done the copy-and-paste test), or the format the posting asks for.
• A clear file name, such as First-Last-Resume.pdf.
• No hidden text or endless lists of terms.
• Proofread by a person: spelling, consistent dates and details that match the application form.

If you don’t have a solid draft yet, start with our guides on how to write a resume and skills for your resume, then come back to this list before you apply.

Frequently asked questions