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ATS-friendly resume: a plain-English guide

Many employers use an applicant tracking system (ATS) to collect and search resumes. An ATS-friendly resume is simply one that this software can read correctly, so a person can then find and read it too.

What an ATS actually does

An applicant tracking system stores applications, pulls the text out of your resume, and lets recruiters search and filter candidates. Different employers use different systems and set them up differently, so nobody can promise how a specific system will rank you. What you can control is making sure your resume's text is easy to extract and clearly matches the job.

Formatting rules that help

• Use a single column. Two-column layouts and sidebars can be read out of order.
• Use real text. Don't put important information in images, icons, charts or text boxes.
• Use standard headings: Summary, Skills, Experience, Education, Certifications.
• Keep contact details in the main body, not only in a header or footer.
• Use common fonts and plain bullet points.
• Write dates consistently, for example 2021–2024 or Jan 2021 – Mar 2024.
• Send the file type the employer asks for. A text-based PDF or a Word (.docx) file is usually fine. If you can highlight and copy the text in your PDF, the software can usually read it too.

Keywords without keyword stuffing

Recruiters often search for the skills and job titles in their posting. Read the posting and make sure the important terms that are true for you appear naturally in your summary, skills and bullets. If the job says "inventory management" and you did inventory counts, say so in those words.

Do not paste the job description into your resume, hide keywords in white text, or list skills you don't have. People read your resume after the software does, and these tricks are easy to spot.

A simple ATS-friendly structure

1. Name and contact details: phone, email, city and state, and a LinkedIn link if you have one.
2. Summary: two or three sentences aimed at the target job.
3. Skills: a short list of relevant hard skills and tools.
4. Experience: job title, employer, dates, then three to six bullets per role, most recent first.
5. Education, certifications and training.

How to check your resume

Open your PDF and try to select and copy all of the text into a plain text editor. If it comes out in the right order with nothing missing, that is a good sign. Then compare it with the job posting: are the main skills and the job title there, where true? Finally, read it out loud. It still has to work for the person who reads it next.

A quick ATS-friendly checklist

• One column, standard headings, plain bullets.
• Contact details in the body of the page.
• No important text inside images, tables or text boxes.
• The job title you want appears in your summary or headline.
• The main skills from the posting appear where they are true.
• Dates in one consistent format.
• Saved as a text-based PDF or Word file, with a clear file name such as FirstName-LastName-Resume.pdf.
• Proofread by a person, out loud.

If you are changing fields, our career change resume guide shows how to match the new job's language honestly.

Common myths

• "Most resumes are rejected by robots." Many systems mainly help recruiters search and sort. People still make the decisions.
• "You need a special ATS template." A clean, simple layout is what matters.
• "PDFs can't be read." Text-based PDFs generally can. Scanned image PDFs cannot.

Every resume from Resume Randy uses a single-column layout with real, selectable text, in PDF and Word.

More free guides

• Warehouse worker resume: examples and tips
• Career change resume: examples and tips
• How to write a resume with no experience