How to write an ATS-friendly resume in 2026

What an ATS actually does

ATS systems — Workday, Greenhouse, Lever, Taleo, iCIMS, SuccessFactors, Bullhorn, Ashby — are the storefront for most job postings. When you click "apply", the platform receives your PDF or Word file, runs it through a parser, and stores the extracted text in a structured database: name, contact info, jobs, dates, schools, skills.

From there, recruiters search and filter. A search like "Python AND San Francisco AND 3+ years" only matches resumes where the parser found those specific tokens. If your CV says "Python" but the parser saw it as part of an image — or pulled it under the wrong section header — you don't show up.

ATS systems don't have a magical "score". Most of the time, they're just searching. Format your CV so the parser sees what a human would.

The format rules that matter

1. Use real text, not images

If your CV is exported from Photoshop or Canva as a flat image, the parser gets nothing. Modern ATS systems do OCR as a fallback, but the results are noisy. The fix is simple: every word on your CV should be selectable text in the PDF. Open your file, try to highlight your name with the cursor — if it highlights as text, you're good.

2. Stick to standard section names

Parsers look for specific section headings to know where each block of text belongs. Use the boring versions: Summary, Experience (or "Work Experience"), Education, Skills, Projects. "Career story" or "Things I've done" might look creative, but a parser won't recognise them.

3. Avoid tables and text boxes

Word and Google Docs templates often use invisible tables to align dates and titles. Parsers handle these unreliably — sometimes you end up with "Senior Designer 2021–Present" reading as "Senior 2021 Designer Present". Stick to normal paragraph flow with text alignment via tabs or right-aligned spans.

4. One column is safest

Two-column layouts (sidebar + main content) can work, but only if the underlying HTML or document order still flows top-to-bottom logically. Many "modern" templates have parsers reading sidebar content first, scrambling the result. If you're not sure, default to single-column.

5. Standard fonts only

Inter, Helvetica, Arial, Calibri, Georgia, Times New Roman. Decorative fonts can fail to embed in the PDF and break extraction. Save the personal flair for your portfolio site.

6. Skip headers, footers, and page numbers

ATS parsers often ignore content inside Word's header and footer regions — meaning your name, email, and phone vanish if you put them there. Keep contact info in the main body of the document, at the top of page one.

7. PDF over Word, usually

Both work, but PDFs are more predictable — what you see is what gets uploaded. If a job posting specifically asks for .docx, send .docx. Otherwise, default to PDF.

Keywords: matching without stuffing

Once your CV is parsed, recruiters search for keywords from the job description. If the listing repeatedly says "Python", "FastAPI", and "PostgreSQL", those exact tokens should appear somewhere in your resume — not because of magic SEO, but because that's literally what a recruiter types into the search bar.

How to do it without sounding like a robot:

• Mirror the job ad. If the ad says "TypeScript", don't write "JavaScript / TS".
• Use both the spelled-out form and the acronym at least once: "Search Engine Optimization (SEO)".
• Put hard skills inline in your bullets, not just in a separate Skills section. "Reduced API latency by 40% using Redis caching" beats listing "Redis" once.
• Don't keyword-stuff. Recruiters read the actual text after they shortlist; a wall of skills will drop you out of consideration.

A clean ATS-friendly structure

Use this order. It's boring and it works:

1. Name, then job title beneath it.
2. Contact line: email · phone · city, country · LinkedIn URL.
3. Summary (2–3 sentences). Optional, but useful for senior roles.
4. Experience, reverse chronological. Each role: title, company, location, dates, then 3–5 bullets.
5. Education, reverse chronological. Each entry: degree, institution, dates.
6. Skills — a flat list separated by commas or bullets.
7. Projects (optional but strong for junior or career-switcher CVs).

Two pages is fine if you have 6+ years of experience. One page is best for early-career.

Test your CV in 30 seconds

Before you submit, do this:

1. Open your PDF.
2. Press Cmd/Ctrl + A to select all, then Cmd/Ctrl + C.
3. Paste into a plain text editor like Notes or Notepad.

What you see is roughly what an ATS parser sees. If sections are in the wrong order, dates are missing, or your name only shows up once near the bottom, your formatting needs fixing. If it reads cleanly top-to-bottom, you're in good shape.

Common ATS-killers in templates

• Profile photo or company logos. Stripped or ignored. Many corporate ATS configs reject CVs with photos to avoid bias.
• Skill bars or rating dots. Look pretty, parse as nothing useful.
• Icons before contact info. Mostly fine, but some parsers garble the email if a phone-icon is glued to it without a space.
• "Creative" date formats. "Summer of 2023" doesn't parse; "Jun 2023" does.
• Fancy bullet symbols. Use • or –, not custom glyphs from a graphic font.

Build one in five minutes

The Kodotools CV Maker follows every rule above by default — Classic, Minimal, and Executive stay single-column for the safest parsing; Modern keeps real text in a two-column flow. Standard fonts, no images, no tables, no watermark, free PDF download. Type your details, pick a template, click Download PDF. The file you get is text-based so parsers can read it.