How to Make Your Resume ATS-Friendly
If you want to change your resume to ATS friendly, the short answer is: strip it down to a simple, single-column layout, use standard headings, and mirror the exact words from the job description. An applicant tracking system (ATS) is software that companies use to scan resumes before a person ever reads them. It looks for matching keywords and clean formatting, so anything fancy like graphics, tables, or unusual fonts can cause your resume to be misread or rejected.
Start with a Clean Layout
Open your current resume and remove anything that isn't plain text. Delete photos, icons, charts, tables, text boxes, and columns. ATS software reads from left to right, top to bottom, so a single-column layout with standard margins is safest.
Use a common font like Arial, Calibri, or Times New Roman at 10 to 12 points. Keep your contact information in the body of the document, not in a header or footer, because some systems skip those areas. Save your file as a .docx or a text-based PDF, never a scanned image.
Use Standard Section Headings
Label your sections with names the software expects: Contact Information, Professional Summary, Skills, Professional Experience, Education, and Certifications. Avoid creative titles like "Career Journey" or "Professional Highlights."
List your work history in reverse chronological order. For each role, include your job title, company name, location, and dates in a consistent format like MM/YYYY. Start every bullet point with a strong action verb such as Led, Developed, Managed, or Increased, and back it up with a number where you can. For example, instead of "Managed budgets," write "Managed a budget, reducing costs."
Match the Keywords from the Job Description
The most important step is tailoring your resume to each job. Read the job posting carefully and pull out the exact phrases they use, like "project management," "stakeholder engagement," or "agile methodologies." Weave those phrases naturally into your summary and bullet points.
Spell out acronyms the first time you use them, like "Search Engine Optimization (SEO)," then use the short form after. Don't stuff keywords into every line, that looks bad to human readers and can hurt you later. Aim to include the main skills and qualifications the company asked for, but only where they genuinely apply to your experience.
Test and Fix Common Mistakes
After you edit, copy the entire text of your resume and paste it into a plain text editor like Notepad. If the content looks jumbled or out of order, the ATS will read it the same way. Fix any formatting issues you see there.
Watch out for these frequent problems:
- Headers and footers with contact details that get skipped
- Tables or columns that break the reading order
- Inconsistent date formats or missing months
- Creative fonts or text boxes that don't parse
- Generic resumes that aren't tailored to the specific job
Keep your resume to one or two pages. For most professionals, two pages is fine, but every line should earn its place. Focus on your last 10 to 15 years of experience and cut older roles down to a single line each.
Once your resume is clean and keyword-matched, you can use it as a base for every application. Just update the keywords for each new job description. If you want help building and fixing your resume, improving your LinkedIn profile, or drafting posts, Destava's AI career manager can handle those tasks and also find jobs and apply to them for you.