Most mid-size and large employers run every resume through an applicant tracking system (ATS) before a recruiter sees it. A resume that looks great as a PDF can still get mangled — or silently dropped — if the underlying formatting confuses the parser.
Stick to a single column
Multi-column layouts, text boxes, and tables often get read out of order by ATS parsers, scrambling your work history. Use a single-column layout with clear section headings instead.
Use standard section headings
“Experience,” “Education,” and “Skills” parse reliably. Creative headings like “Where I’ve Made an Impact” may not map to the fields a recruiter’s system expects.
Save as .docx or a text-based PDF
Avoid scanned images or resumes exported from design tools that flatten text into outlines — if you can’t select the text in a PDF viewer, an ATS can’t read it either.
Match keywords to the job description
Mirror the exact phrasing of required skills and qualifications from the posting (e.g. “project management” instead of only “led projects”) so keyword-matching systems don’t miss an accurate but differently-worded skill.
Getting the formatting right doesn’t guarantee an interview, but it removes a purely mechanical reason for getting filtered out before anyone reads your experience.