ATS-friendly resume: a format software can read

Before a person reads your resume, a program may have read it first. Write so that neither of them has to guess.

What an ATS is

An applicant tracking system is software that employers and recruitment firms use to collect applications, store them and search them. Job portals work in a similar way. When you upload a resume, the software tries to pull out your name, contact details, education, employers, dates and skills, and stores them so that a recruiter can search, for example, for "GST" and "Tally" in Pune.

Different systems behave differently, and no one outside a company knows exactly how its system is set up. So be wary of anyone who claims a secret trick or a guaranteed score. What can be said safely is simple: if the software cannot read your resume correctly, a recruiter searching for your skills may never see you. A plain, well-labelled resume avoids that risk and is also easier for a human to read.

Layout rules

• One column, top to bottom. Text in side columns and text boxes may be read out of order or missed.
• No tables for layout. A simple table may be read correctly by some systems and scrambled by others.
• No important text in the header or footer of a word-processor document. Put your contact details in the body.
• No text inside images. A resume made as a picture, or a logo with your name in it, cannot be read as text.
• Standard fonts and simple bullets.
• No skill bars, stars or percentage circles. They mean nothing to software and little to people.

Headings the software expects

Use ordinary section names: Summary or Career objective, Work experience, Education, Skills, Projects, Certifications. Creative headings such as "My journey" or "What I bring" may not be recognised.

Keywords, honestly

Recruiters search by the words in the job advertisement. Read the advertisement and note the skills, tools, qualifications and job titles it uses. Where you truly have them, use the same words in your resume, in the summary, the skills section and inside experience points.

• If it says "bank reconciliation", write "bank reconciliation", not only "BRS". Better still, write both once: "bank reconciliation (BRS)".
• If it says "MS Excel", do not write only "spreadsheets".
• Spell out an abbreviation the first time, then use it.
• Use the common job title for what you do, even if your company uses an unusual one: "Customer Support Executive (designated Happiness Officer)".

Do not paste the advertisement into your resume, repeat a word twenty times, or hide words in white text. People still read the resume before calling you, and such tricks are both obvious and dishonest.

Dates and details

• Give month and year for each job in one consistent form: Jun 2023 to Mar 2025.
• Put the job title, employer and dates on one or two lines in the same order for every job.
• Write your phone number as plain digits and your email in full.
• Include your city. Recruiters often search by location.

File type and name

Follow the employer's instruction if there is one. Otherwise send a PDF made from text (not a scan or photograph of a printout), or a word-processor file. To check that your PDF contains real text, open it and try to select and copy a line. If you can paste it as text, software can read it. The builder on this site produces a text PDF through your browser's print command and uses a single-column layout with standard headings.

Name the file with your name and the word resume: Mahesh_Patel_Resume.pdf.

A quick self-test

1. Select all the text in your resume file, copy it, and paste it into a plain text editor.
2. Read the pasted text from top to bottom.
3. Is everything there? Is it in a sensible order? Are your job titles next to their dates and employers?

If the plain text reads correctly, most systems will read it correctly. The builder's "Copy as plain text" button gives you this version directly, which is also handy for pasting into online application forms.

Job portal profiles

On portals, the profile fields matter as much as the uploaded file, because recruiters search the fields. Fill them fully and keep them in line with your resume. See job portal profile.

Remember the human

Software only decides whether you are found. A person decides whether you are called. Everything on the experience points page still applies: clear lines, real numbers, results.

Questions people ask

Open the resume builder

More guides

Sample resumes

General guidance. This page gives general suggestions on writing a resume, reviewed in November 2026. Employers differ: if an advertisement or application form asks for a particular format or detail, follow it. Every name, employer and college in our examples is invented. Nothing here promises an interview or a job.