A resume can have the right keywords, the right experience, and still fail an ATS scan because of how it is formatted. Upload yours to check for layout and structure issues that cause parsing failures.
When you upload a resume to an ATS, the system runs it through a text extraction engine. This engine converts the visual document (your carefully designed PDF or Word file) into structured data: plain text, split into fields like "name," "email," "work experience," "education," and "skills."
The extraction works by reading the document's text layer (not the visual layout) and applying rules to segment that text into sections. It looks for common headings ("Experience," "Education," "Skills"), date patterns, company names, and job titles. It then maps the extracted text to the appropriate fields in the candidate record.
This process is where formatting problems surface. If the parser cannot determine where one section ends and another begins, or if it reads your content in the wrong order, or if decorative elements inject garbage characters into the text stream, the resulting candidate record is garbled. A recruiter looking at your record sees jumbled text, missing sections, or incomplete information.
Not all formatting problems are equal. Some cause total parsing failures. Others reduce your score slightly. Here they are in order of impact.
If your PDF is a scanned image rather than a native digital document, the ATS extracts zero text. The entire resume is invisible to the system. This happens most often with resumes that were printed and re-scanned, or exported from design tools like Canva as flattened images. To check: try selecting text in your PDF. If you cannot highlight individual words, it is likely image-based.
Text boxes in Word documents and floating frames in PDFs create content that exists outside the normal text flow. ATS parsers typically read the main text stream first, then append text box content at the end (or skip it entirely). If your contact information or job titles are in text boxes, they may appear at the bottom of the extracted text or disappear completely.
Content placed in document headers and footers is ignored by most ATS parsers. This is the single most common formatting mistake: putting your name, phone number, or email in the header because it "looks professional." The ATS never sees it. Your candidate record has no contact information, and the recruiter cannot reach you even if they wanted to.
Tables are commonly used to create multi-column resume layouts. Some ATS systems read tables correctly (cell by cell, row by row), but others merge all table content into a single text block. The result depends on which ATS the company uses. Workday handles simple tables reasonably well. Taleo often struggles with them. If you are applying to multiple companies using different ATS platforms, tables are a gamble.
Some templates create column layouts using tab stops or precise spacing rather than tables. This can look identical to a table layout visually, but in the underlying document structure, the text of both columns is interleaved line by line. ATS parsers read this as a single stream, producing output where your job title is followed by an unrelated skill, followed by a date, followed by another skill.
Using a phone icon instead of the word "Phone:" or a LinkedIn icon instead of the URL means the ATS extracts the number or URL but has no context for what it represents. Skill bars (visual progress indicators showing proficiency) are invisible to parsers. The ATS cannot see that the bar is 80% full. It just sees the skill name, if that.
Standard text formatting is stripped during extraction but does not interfere with the text itself. You can use bold for headings, italic for company names, and underline for links without worrying about parsing issues. The formatting is lost in the ATS record but the text comes through correctly.
ATS parsers extract text, not visual styling. Color choices and font selections do not affect parsing. The one exception is white text on a white background, sometimes used to hide keywords. Some ATS systems detect and flag this as keyword stuffing. Beyond that edge case, your color palette is irrelevant to ATS compatibility.
ATS parsers use section headings to segment your resume into fields. When the parser encounters "Education," it assigns everything below that heading to the education field until it hits the next recognized heading. Using non-standard headings makes this segmentation unreliable.
| Section | Reliably parsed headings | Risky alternatives |
|---|---|---|
| Work history | Experience, Work Experience, Professional Experience, Employment History | My Journey, Career Highlights, What I've Done |
| Education | Education, Academic Background, Education & Certifications | Learning, Where I Studied, Academic Life |
| Skills | Skills, Technical Skills, Core Competencies, Areas of Expertise | Toolkit, What I Bring, Superpowers |
| Summary | Summary, Professional Summary, Profile, About | Who Am I, Introduction, Hello! |
PDF is generally the safer choice for ATS submission. Modern ATS platforms (Workday, Greenhouse, Lever, iCIMS) parse PDFs reliably as long as the PDF contains real text and not scanned images. DOCX works well too, but formatting can shift across different versions of Word. Some older ATS systems still prefer DOCX. If the job posting specifies a format, use that format.
Not necessarily, but it increases the risk of parsing errors. Two-column layouts implemented with text boxes or frames often cause ATS parsers to merge content from both columns into a single stream, jumbling your information. Two-column layouts built with tables sometimes parse correctly, sometimes don't. Single-column layouts are the lowest-risk option for ATS compatibility.
Yes. Many ATS parsers ignore or mishandle header and footer content. If your name, contact information, or LinkedIn URL is only in the header or footer, it may not be extracted. Always place critical information in the main body of the document.
ATS systems extract text, not visual styling, so the font itself does not affect parsing. However, some decorative fonts use Unicode characters or ligatures that can cause extraction errors. Standard fonts (Arial, Calibri, Times New Roman, Garamond) are reliably parsed. If you use a custom font, verify that the extracted text is correct by copying text from the PDF and pasting it into a plain text editor.
Ajusta identifies formatting issues during the scan and flags them with specific recommendations. The optimization process can restructure content for better ATS compatibility while preserving your visual design. It works at the content level, adjusting how information is organized and expressed, rather than changing your template.
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