ATS Resume Format Guide

• Multiple columns. Text can come out in the order it was written into the file, which can mix a sidebar into your work history.
• Tables. Cells can be read in an order that does not match what you see.
• Text in the page header or footer area, which some parsers may skip.
• Text saved as an image. A scanned or flattened resume contains no text.
• Text boxes and floating shapes, which can extract out of order or not at all.
• Decorative symbols and emoji, which can extract as "?" or disappear.

Whether a two-column file extracts in the right order depends on how the tool that made it wrote the text. You cannot tell by looking at the page.

This site compared a one-column and a two-column version of the same resume in its own parser (results). In the two-column version, the "Professional Summary" heading merged onto a line with a contact detail from the other column, and the parser no longer recognised it as a section. The number of lines it could not assign to any section rose from 2 to 6. That is one layout tested in one parser.

To test your own file:

A two-column design is fine when a person reads the file directly, for example when you email it to a hiring manager. You can keep a single-column version for online applications and a designed version for direct contact. The builder on this site only produces single-column PDFs.

• Bold and italic. Extraction drops the styling and keeps the words.
• Lines under headings. They are drawn shapes and contain no text.
• Colour. Keep body text dark so it is easy to read and print.
• A second page. Length depends on your experience; see the resume length guide.
• Links. Write the readable address, such as linkedin.com/in/yourname, so the extracted text still makes sense.

A PDF has to contain its fonts correctly, or extracted text can come out garbled. Helvetica, Times and Courier are standard PDF fonts that every PDF reader has built in, and they are the three fonts the builder offers.

Set body text between 10 and 11.5 points, make headings slightly larger and bold, and make your name the largest text on the page. The ATS checker warns when body text is below 9.5 points or above 12.5 points.

Avoid decorative and script fonts, very thin or condensed weights, and more than two fonts on one page.

Use margins between 0.5 and 1 inch and line spacing between about 1.15 and 1.4. For a resume built in the builder, the ATS checker warns when margins drop below about 0.4 inch, where printing can cut off text, and when line spacing drops below 1.05, where lines can overlap and extracted characters can mix.

If you need more space, the resume length guide lists what to change before you cut content. For the wording inside the layout, the resume guides cover summaries, bullets and skills.

Use one date format everywhere, such as "Mar 2022". If one job says "03/2022" and the rest say "Mar 2022", a parser may misread that job's dates. The ATS checker flags mixed formats and any date it cannot read as a month and year.

Dates, headings, spacing and the copy-and-paste test are all on the pre-submission checklist, so you can check them together before you apply.

The builder's PDF export draws no icon into the file, even with contact icons turned on, so this site's experiment does not show how a parser reads a real icon. The evidence page reports what that test did and did not measure. The ATS checker deducts 3 points in its formatting category when icons are turned on in the builder, because a parser may read nothing where an icon sits.

If you use a different tool, make sure an icon never replaces a label. An envelope symbol in place of the word "Email" leaves no label in the extracted text. The ATS checker also flags emoji, decorative bullet characters, tab characters and HTML tags in your text.