What makes a resume ATS-friendly?
That template with two columns, a photo circle and skills rated in little dots? Let's talk. There is no sacred template, no required shade of blue, no secret font.
An ATS-friendly resume is one the software can read into the right fields and a recruiter can follow in a few seconds. In practice: normal section headings, consistent dates, real selectable text, and a layout simple enough that nothing gets lost when a parser reads it left to right. There is no secret template, and no font that passes a robot gate.
You found a template with "ATS" in its name. It has two columns, a sidebar, a photo circle and your skills rated in little dots. It looks great. It also looks like something a machine would read in the wrong order, and that suspicion is worth listening to.
Everything below comes from an ATS vendor's help page or a university career centre's guide. Where they disagree, we say so. Whether any of this can get you auto-rejected is a separate question: does an ATS automatically reject resumes?
Which section headings should I use?
The boring ones. Santa Clara University's career centre lists Work Experience, Education, Skills and Certifications, and says to avoid custom ones. The University of Utah's guide adds Projects, and names "My Journey" as the kind of creative heading to avoid. The University of Maryland says mostly standard headings, not something like "Where I've Been".
| Safer | Riskier |
|---|---|
| Experience | My Journey |
| Education | Things I Have Built |
| Skills | Professional Adventures |
| Projects | Where I've Been |
| Certifications | Core Competencies (per Santa Clara's list) |
A recruiter will understand a creative heading. A parser may be less charming about it.
How should I write dates?
The same way every time. Santa Clara suggests either MM/YYYY or "Month Year" and says to avoid mixed styles such as "Jun. 2020 - Present" or "2020/06 - Present". Pick one and commit:
Our own advice, not a vendor's: keep dates out of graphic timelines and tiny sidebars. Greenhouse's help page lists unclear sections and graphics among the things that stop its parser filling in a profile, and dates are exactly the thing you want landing in the right place.
Are columns, tables and text boxes a problem?
Every source here says be careful. Greenhouse's own page on unsuccessful parses lists columned layouts, complex resumes with tables, headers and footers, graphics and photos, and contact details placed in a header, footer or text box. The University of Maryland says columns and tables may cause major parsing errors. The University of North Carolina advises avoiding columns, tables, text boxes and graphics. Utah says the same and adds coloured text.
Does that mean every two-column resume fails? No source says that. Parsers differ by product and by how each employer has set theirs up, and none of these pages promises a given layout will be read correctly.
So if your target clearly runs a large ATS, a single column with your name and contact details in the body is the lower-risk choice. It can still look good. It just does not need to look like a restaurant menu.
Does the file need real, selectable text?
Yes. A resume that is one giant picture of a resume is a bad idea. Greenhouse lists a resume uploaded as an image, rather than a document such as a .docx or .pdf, as a cause of failed parses. Utah's career centre says to use a text-based PDF because some ATS cannot read images. The recruiter who wants to search the file for "SQL" will thank you too.
Should I send a PDF or a DOCX?
The guides do not agree. That is the honest answer:
| Source | Says |
|---|---|
| University of Maryland | Save as .docx if possible; PDF is relatively okay |
| University of North Carolina | Submit a .docx or a simple PDF |
| University of Utah | A text-based PDF, not an image |
| Santa Clara University | Prefers PDF, not image-based; some systems accept .docx |
| Greenhouse | A document, not an image; it cannot parse files over 2.5MB |
So the useful rule is not "never use PDF". It is: if the application says which format to send, send that one, and make it a clean file with real text.
What font is best for an ATS?
An ordinary one. Santa Clara, UNC and Utah all name standard fonts like Arial, Calibri or Times New Roman, and Santa Clara and UNC put body text at 10 to 12 point. None of them says a particular font is required, and Maryland's examples (Helvetica, Georgia) differ from the others'. No font is a password.
Do keywords matter?
Yes, in the plain sense that a recruiter may search for them. UNC says to use the exact terms from the job description, and Maryland says to use the keywords you have real experience with. Both pair the spelled-out term with the abbreviation: UNC's example is "Certified Public Accountant" and "CPA", Maryland's is "User Experience (UX)". UNC adds a warning against keyword stuffing.
If you really have the skill, name it the way employers do: SQL, Kubernetes, Salesforce, user research. Our view on the rest:
- Do not paste the whole job description into the footer.
- Do not add invisible white text.
- Do not fill a skills list with things you touched once in 2019.
Searchability is useful. Credibility is more useful.
Does a person still read it?
Usually. Utah's guide says the resume stays attached to your application, that in most cases a human will see it, and that the software mainly helps recruiters organise candidates.
So aim for a resume that is boring to the parser and interesting to the recruiter: what you do, your level, where you have worked, what you achieved and why you fit this role. That is a good trade. For length, see one page or two; for wording, tailoring a resume without lying.
HUNT builds your profile from your resume and fills application forms from it, so a clean, structured resume gives it clean fields to work with. See how applying works.
Related: Does an ATS automatically reject resumes?, How to tailor a resume to a job description without lying and One page or two?
Published
Sources
- Unsuccessful resume parse, Greenhouse Support.Layouts and files that cause failed parses (columns, tables, graphics and photos, unclear sections, resumes uploaded as an image rather than a .docx or .pdf, contact details in headers, footers or text boxes); cannot parse resumes larger than 2.5MB.
- Common ATS Resume Formatting Mistakes, Santa Clara University Career Center.Conventional headings (Core Competencies listed as incorrect), consistent MM/YYYY or Month Year dates, avoiding tables and headers or footers, standard fonts at 10 to 12 point, PDF preference with .docx accepted by some systems.
- Resume How-To Guide, University of Maryland Career Center.Save as .docx if possible, PDF is okay; avoid columns, tables and headers or footers; standard headings; keywords with acronyms.
- UNC Resume Guide for Students, UNC Student Affairs Career Center.Submit .docx or a simple PDF; avoid columns, tables, text boxes and graphics; standard fonts at 10 to 12 point; exact job terms and acronyms, no keyword stuffing.
- How to Create an ATS-Friendly Resume for University Students, University of Utah, U Career Success.Standard headings including Projects (not 'My Journey'), text-based PDF, no columns, tables, text boxes or coloured text, standard fonts, and that in most cases a human will see the resume.