How to Make Sure Your Resume Passes an ATS Scan
Quick answer: To pass an ATS scan, use a single-column layout, standard section headers, a common font, no images/icons/text boxes holding key content, contact info as plain text in the body (not a header), a .docx or text-based PDF file, and language that mirrors the actual job posting. There's no guaranteed "pass" score — the goal is a resume that parses cleanly and is genuinely relevant, so it reaches a recruiter intact and gets read.
"Passing" an ATS scan isn't really a pass/fail checkpoint the way a driving test is — it's closer to making sure a delivery arrives at the right address instead of getting lost in the mail. The formatting choices that trip resumes up aren't obscure or sneaky; they're mostly design elements that look fine, sometimes even great, to a human eye but confuse a parser reading the underlying file structure. This guide breaks down exactly which elements are safe, which are risky, and why — so you can make informed choices instead of guessing.
ATS-Safe vs. ATS-Risky Resume Elements
| Element | ATS-safe choice | ATS-risky choice |
|---|---|---|
| Layout | Single column, top to bottom | Two or three columns, side-by-side sections |
| Fonts | Arial, Calibri, Georgia, Times New Roman | Decorative, script, or highly stylized fonts |
| Section headers | "Work Experience," "Education," "Skills" | Creative labels like "My Story" or "What I Bring" |
| Contact info placement | Plain text at the top of the main body | Inside a header, footer, or graphic box |
| Graphics and icons | Words instead of icons ("Phone:" not a phone icon) | Icons replacing text, skill-level graphics (bars/dots) |
| File type | .docx, or a text-based PDF | .pages, .odt, or a scanned/image-based PDF |
| Bullet points | Standard round or dash bullets | Custom symbol or emoji bullets |
| Tables | Avoided for core content | Used to structure job history or skills |
Why Headers and Footers Are Riskier Than They Look
Putting your name and contact details in the document header feels natural — it's how a lot of professional templates are designed, and it looks tidy on the page. The problem is that many parsers process the main body of a document separately from the header and footer regions, and some skip those regions entirely. If your name, phone number, or email lives only in the header, it's possible for that information to simply never reach the parsed record the recruiter searches. Keep that information as ordinary text at the very top of your document body instead.
Section Headers: Say What You Mean
Parsers are pattern-matching against a known set of common labels. "Work Experience," "Professional Experience," "Employment History" — all recognizable. "My Career Path" or "Where I've Been" — not so much. This doesn't mean your resume needs to sound robotic everywhere; your bullet points and summary can absolutely have personality and voice. It's specifically the section headers, the structural signposts, that benefit from being boring and predictable.
Fonts, Sizes, and Spacing
Stick to fonts that ship standard with most operating systems — Arial, Calibri, Georgia, Times New Roman, Helvetica. Unusual or downloaded fonts can render fine on your screen but substitute strangely (or not at all) once the file is opened elsewhere, which affects both parsing and how a recruiter's screen displays it. Keep body text between 10 and 12 points, and don't shrink font size just to cram more onto one page — a cramped, tiny-font resume is hard on both machines and human eyes.
Do This, Not That
- ✓ Write dates in one consistent format throughout, like "Jan 2023 – Present."
- ✓ List your most relevant, recent role first, in reverse-chronological order.
- ✓ Spell out acronyms at least once, then use the shorthand afterward.
- ✗ Don't split your resume into a two-column "skills sidebar" next to your experience.
- ✗ Don't rely on bold color or shading alone to signal importance — a parser strips visual styling and only sees the text.
- ✗ Don't submit a resume as a photo, screenshot, or scanned image, even inside a PDF wrapper.
Testing Your Own Resume Before You Submit
A simple, free way to sanity-check formatting: open your resume file, select all the text, copy it, and paste it into a completely plain text editor — Notepad, TextEdit in plain text mode, or a blank email draft with formatting stripped. If everything appears in the right order, nothing is missing, and your columns didn't merge into nonsense, that's a strong sign your file will parse reasonably well elsewhere too. It's not a perfect substitute for an actual ATS test, but it catches the most common structural problems for free, in under a minute.
Quick Facts
| Question | Short answer |
|---|---|
| Riskiest layout choice | Multi-column or table-based sections |
| Safest contact info placement | Plain text at the top of the document body |
| Best file type | .docx, or a text-based (not scanned) PDF |
| Free formatting self-test | Copy-paste your resume text into a plain text editor and read it in order |
| Does perfect formatting guarantee an interview? | No — it gets your resume read; content and fit still do the rest |
Frequently Asked Questions
Will one risky element (like a table) automatically get my resume rejected?
Not necessarily an outright rejection, but it raises the odds that some of your content gets scrambled or dropped during parsing, which can make you harder to find in a recruiter's search — even if a human eventually opens the original file and reads it correctly.
Is a two-page resume riskier than a one-page resume for an ATS?
Length itself isn't typically a parsing problem. What matters more is that each page follows the same clean, single-column structure — a well-formatted two-page resume parses just as reliably as a well-formatted one-page resume.
Do color accents count as "risky"?
A splash of color on text or a heading generally parses fine, since the underlying text is unaffected. The real risk is when color or shading is used as the only way to convey information (like a colored bar indicating skill level) with no text equivalent.
Should I remove all formatting entirely, like bold and headings?
No — bold text and heading styles are fine and even helpful; they don't interfere with parsing the way columns and text boxes do. The goal is avoiding layout tricks, not stripping every bit of visual structure.
Can I use a resume objective or summary safely?
Yes, as long as it's written as a normal paragraph in the main body, not placed inside a text box or sidebar. A brief, specific summary near the top can help both a parser's early keyword match and a recruiter's first skim.
What's the fastest way to check if my current resume is at risk?
Look at it and ask: is everything in one column? Is my contact info plain text, not in a header? Are section headers standard? If you can answer yes to all three, you've already avoided the most common and most damaging risks.
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