The short version
- One column, in reading order. It is the single rule that prevents the most damage.
- Every character must be real text: no images, no icon fonts, no letter-spaced headings.
- Use the headings an ATS expects — Summary, Experience, Education, Skills — not creative ones.
- PDF is fine when it is made from text. Fonts, colour and a little design are fine too.
Most “ATS resume” advice is a list of rules with no reasons attached, which makes it impossible to tell the rules that matter from superstition. These nine are the ones our own export is tested against, each with the reason it exists.
1. Use one column
Text extractors read a PDF in the order its text is stored, which for most multi-column designs means straight across the page. Your skills sidebar and your job history get interleaved line by line, and the parser files fragments of one under the other. A single column makes reading order and storage order the same thing.
2. Make every character real text
If you cannot select it, a parser cannot read it. Scanned resumes, designs exported as images, and names or contact blocks drawn as graphics all extract as nothing. Run the test: select all the text in your PDF and paste it into a plain text editor. Anything missing there is missing for the ATS.
3. Use the headings an ATS expects
Parsers find sections by their headings. “Experience” is unambiguous; “Where I’ve made an impact” is not a heading any system maps to work history. These are the names our scorer recognises for each section — the first is the safest:
| Section | Recognised headings |
|---|---|
| Summary | summary, professional summary, executive summary, career summary, profile, professional profile |
| Experience | experience, work experience, professional experience, employment, employment history, work history |
| Education | education, academic background, academic qualifications, education and training, academics |
| Skills | skills, technical skills, core skills, core competencies, competencies, areas of expertise |
| Projects | projects, personal projects, selected projects, key projects, technical projects, portfolio |
| Certifications | certifications, certification, licenses, licences, licenses and certifications, certifications and licenses |
4. Never letter-space a heading
Spaced-out capitals are a popular design touch, and one of the quietest ways to break a resume. Many PDF generators store each spaced letter separately, so the heading extracts as E X P E R I E N C E — eleven single letters that match no section name. Upper case is fine; tracking is not.
5. Put contact details in the body
Some parsers skip the page header and footer areas entirely. If your email and phone live in a header region, they may never be extracted. Put them at the top of the page body, written out in full.
6. Write dates a parser can read
“Mar 2021 – Present”, “2019 – 2021” and “03/2021” all parse. Seasons and creative formats are hit and miss. Keep one format throughout, and check that no role ends before it starts — it happens more often than you would think after a few rounds of editing.
Before
Spring '21 → now
After
Mar 2021 – Present
7. Skip icon fonts
The little phone, envelope and pin icons in many templates come from icon fonts, which map pictures onto unused character codes. Extracted, they become junk characters sitting right next to the details a parser most needs to find. Write “Email:” or just the address itself.
8. Send the right file
A PDF made from text is read reliably by modern systems and looks the same everywhere. If the posting asks for Word, send Word. Name the file so a recruiter can find it again: First_Last_Resume.pdf. Our guide to PDF versus Word has the detail.
9. Keep a sensible length
One page for under about eight years of experience, two for under fifteen, three beyond that is the rule our scorer uses. Parsers do not mind length; people do. More in how long a resume should be.
Myths you can ignore
- “Never use a PDF.” Text-based PDFs parse fine. Image PDFs do not — that is a different problem.
- “No colour, no bold.” Formatting does not reach the parser. Text order does.
- “Only Arial or Times.” Any font that embeds in the PDF is fine.
- “Paste the job description in white text.” Recruiters see the extracted text. Do not.
Questions
Are resume templates with two columns bad for ATS?
They are risky. Many parsers read straight across the page, mixing your sidebar into your job history. Some templates extract cleanly despite two columns, but you cannot tell which by looking — a single column removes the question entirely.
Can I use colour or a nice font?
Yes. Colour does not affect parsing, and any standard font that embeds properly in a PDF is fine. What matters is that the text is real text and comes out in order.