How to make your resume easier for ATS systems to understand

Most companies now use an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) to collect, scan and rank resumes before a human ever opens them. If your resume is hard for that system to parse — or doesn't contain the language it's been told to look for — a strong candidate can get filtered out before the recruiter sees a single line. None of this is about "gaming" software. It's about presenting your real experience in a format both a machine and a busy recruiter can understand in seconds.

1. Keep the structure simple and predictable

ATS software reads resumes top to bottom, left to right, mapping text into fields like name, title, employer and dates. Anything that breaks that reading order confuses the parse.

• Use a single column layout. Multi-column resumes and text boxes often get scrambled or skipped entirely by parsers.
• Stick to standard section headings — "Experience," "Education," "Skills," "Certifications" — rather than creative labels like "My Journey."
• Avoid tables, headers/footers, and embedded graphics for anything you need the system to read, including your contact details.
• Use a common, readable font (Arial, Calibri, Helvetica) and export as a simple, text-based PDF or .docx rather than a design-heavy template.

2. Mirror the language of the job description

ATS ranking is largely keyword-matching. If the job description says "stakeholder management" and your resume says "worked with clients," the system may not connect the two — even though you mean the same thing.

• Read the job description closely and note the exact terms used for skills, tools and responsibilities.
• Work those terms naturally into your experience bullets, not just a buried skills list.
• Spell out acronyms at least once — "Search Engine Optimization (SEO)" — so you match however the system is searching.
• Tailor this per application. A resume optimised for one role's keywords won't automatically match a different role.

3. Write achievement-led bullets, not task lists

Beyond parsing, this is what actually convinces a recruiter once your resume is in front of them. Swap generic duty statements for a simple formula:

Even where you don't have a hard number, you can quantify scope — team size, budget, number of stakeholders, frequency — to give the achievement weight.

4. Common mistakes that hurt your ATS score

• Putting your name, phone number or email inside a header/footer box — many parsers skip these entirely.
• Using icons instead of text for contact info (a phone icon with no visible number nearby).
• Relying on a skills list alone instead of reinforcing those skills inside your experience bullets.
• Saving as an image-based PDF (from a scanned document or certain design tools) instead of a real text layer.
• Using non-standard job titles that don't match how the role is normally searched for.

Getting past the ATS is the first hurdle — the resume still has to read well once a human opens it. That's the balance we build for every client: language and structure that both systems and recruiters understand at a glance.