ATS Resume: How to Get Past Applicant Tracking Systems
How applicant tracking systems work, what stops them from reading your resume, and the checklist for an ATS-friendly resume.
An ATS (short for “Applicant Tracking System”) is hiring management software. When you apply through the careers site of a large company or a staffing agency, your resume almost always passes through one of them before it reaches a recruiter’s eyes. The software extracts your text, files it into a profile, and lets the recruiter search and sort candidates.
A resume that an ATS reads poorly can end up with an empty or incomplete profile, and therefore never surface in searches. Here’s how these systems work, what makes them fail, and how to make your resume reliably readable.
How hiring software works
An ATS does three things with your resume:
- It extracts the text from your file (PDF or Word).
- It breaks it into fields: contact info, work experience, education, skills, languages.
- It indexes it so the recruiter can search for keywords (“accountant,” “SAP,” “fluent Spanish”) or sort candidates by how well they match the job posting.
Contrary to a common belief, most ATS platforms don’t automatically “reject” resumes. The recruiter does the filtering and searching, but they only find what the software was able to read. A resume that’s unreadable to the ATS isn’t rejected: it’s simply invisible.
Among the most widely used systems in the United States are Workday, SAP SuccessFactors, Taleo, SmartRecruiters, Greenhouse, Lever, and iCIMS. They don’t all have the same capabilities, but the rules below work with all of them.
What stops an ATS from reading your resume
| Problem | Consequence | Solution |
|---|---|---|
| Resume saved as an image or scanned PDF | No text extracted, empty profile | Export a PDF with real text |
| Text inside floating boxes or shapes | Text ignored or scrambled | Keep text in the body of the page |
| Contact info in the Word document header | Name and phone sometimes lost | Put contact info in the page itself |
| Creative section headings | Sections misclassified | Standard headings: Work Experience, Education, Skills |
| Skills shown only as icons, stars, or bars | Level not read, sometimes the skill is ignored | Write the skill name out in full |
| Dates in inconsistent formats | Experience durations miscalculated | One format only: “03/2023 – 06/2026” or “2023 – 2026” |
| Unusual fonts that aren’t embedded | Characters replaced or unreadable | Common fonts, embedded in the PDF |
The simplest test: select the text
Open your resume as a PDF and try to select a sentence with your mouse, then copy it into a text editor. If the text pastes correctly, in the right order, an ATS can read it. If nothing gets selected, your resume is an image: redo it. If the text comes out scrambled, simplify the layout.
Keywords: mirror the language of the job posting
Recruiters search the ATS using the words from their job posting. If the listing asks for a “Payroll Specialist” who knows “ADP,” your resume needs to contain those exact words, as long as they honestly match your background.
- Technical skills and software mentioned, in your Skills section and in your work experience.
- Degrees and certifications with their full name, then the abbreviation: “Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) 30-Hour Certification.”
- Common variations: “front-end developer” and “React,” “accounts payable” and “AP.”
Don’t try to trick the software by adding invisible white keywords or a list of unrelated terms. Recruiters spot them when they read, and your application loses all credibility.
One column or two for an ATS?
Modern ATS platforms generally read two-column resumes well, as long as they’re real PDFs with structured text. Older systems can scramble the two columns line by line. If you’re applying to a large company or a government agency, choose a one-column resume: it’s the safest choice. For a small business that receives resumes by email, the question doesn’t come up.
PDF or Word?
PDF is the best format in the vast majority of cases: it preserves your layout, and modern ATS platforms read it without trouble, as long as it contains text. Send a Word file only if the posting or the application form explicitly asks for one.
Checklist before you send your resume
- The PDF text can be selected and copied in the right order.
- Your name, phone number, and email are in the page body, not in the document header.
- Your section headings are standard.
- The job title from the posting appears in your headline.
- The skills and software requested appear in full.
- All dates follow the same format.
- The file is named “Resume-FirstName-LastName.pdf.”
Frequently asked questions
Do ATS platforms automatically reject applications?
Some forms ask knockout questions (driver’s license, work authorization, required degree) and can screen out negative answers. Beyond that, it’s the recruiter who sorts through candidates, with help from the software. Your goal is to be read clearly and easy to find.
Should you avoid photos for an ATS?
A photo doesn’t prevent the text from being read. On the other hand, it isn’t extracted and adds nothing for the software. In the US, leave it off anyway: photos aren’t expected on resumes.
Is a resume built online compatible with ATS platforms?
It depends on the tool. Check that the generated PDF contains real text using the selection test. Some design tools export resumes as images by default.
Resumes created with CVZeno are PDFs with real text, selectable and in reading order. The Simple template, in one column, is built for applications submitted through recruiting software. Create yours and run the selection test yourself.