How ATS-friendly resume formatting actually works

What is an ATS, and what does it actually do?

An applicant tracking system is a database and workflow tool that an employer or recruiter uses to collect, store, tag, and search job applications. When a resume is submitted, the system typically extracts the text and tries to populate structured fields such as name, contact details, work history, and education, then makes the file searchable and filterable alongside every other application for the same role.

There is no single universal ATS, and there is no one hidden score that every system calculates the same way. Some systems rank or highlight applications based on keyword overlap with the job requirements; many simply make applications searchable and leave the ranking to a human. The practical risk is not a mysterious rejection algorithm. It is a parsing failure: a field extracted incorrectly, a section skipped entirely, or a phone number and email address that never made it into the structured record a recruiter is looking at.

Does a plain-text resume beat a designed one?

Not exactly. The useful distinction is not "plain text" versus "designed," it is whether the document's structure is carried by real, extractable text or by visual layout alone. A resume can use bold text, clear headings, and bullet points and still parse cleanly, because those are native formatting features that a parser reads along with the words. What causes trouble is relying on a visual arrangement, a table, a sidebar, a text box, for the reader to understand which words belong to which section, because a parser does not always read a page the way a human eye scans it.

Which formatting choices actually create parsing problems?

Tables and multi-column layouts

Text placed in table cells or side-by-side columns can be extracted out of the order a human would read it in, because some parsers read a page line by line rather than block by block. A two-column layout with a skills list on the left and a summary on the right can come out interleaved, word by word, into something unreadable once it reaches a structured field.

Headers, footers, and text boxes

Content placed in a document's header or footer, or inside a floating text box, is sometimes skipped entirely by parsers that only read the main body flow of the page. Contact information is the highest-risk content to lose this way: if a phone number and email address exist only inside a header, a system that does not read headers has no record of them at all.

Images, icons, and graphics used for text

Text rendered as an image may be missed or misread by systems that do not use reliable optical character recognition. An icon used in place of a written label, for example a phone glyph with no text alternative, can also make the meaning less clear to parsers and assistive technology. Use visible, selectable text for information an employer needs.

Non-standard fonts and special characters

Decorative fonts, symbol fonts, and manually inserted special characters used as bullet markers can extract as blank spaces or garbled characters once the text is pulled out of the file. A standard, widely available font and native bullet formatting reduce that risk.

What should a resume file actually look like?

File format: DOCX or PDF

Both DOCX and PDF are broadly supported by modern systems. A PDF exported directly from a text-based document, not a scanned image of a page, keeps its text selectable and extractable, which is what matters. If a specific job posting's application form asks for one format over the other, follow that instruction: it reflects the actual system being used for that specific application.

Section headings

Use conventional section headings, Experience, Education, Skills, Summary, rather than creative alternatives. Both parsing systems and human reviewers rely on a section label being unambiguous at a glance.

Contact information placement

Put name, phone number, email, and location in the main body of the document near the top, not only inside a header or footer, so it extracts along with everything else.

Fonts and formatting

Use a standard, widely available font at a readable size, and use the document's native bold and bullet formatting rather than manually typed characters, such as asterisks or dashes, used to imitate a bullet point.

Do keywords matter, and how should they be used?

Yes, in a straightforward sense: matching the language of a specific job description matters both to a search or filter tool and to a human reviewer, because both are looking for evidence of the same skills and requirements described in the posting. The useful response is to describe your actual experience using the same accurate terms the posting uses, written naturally into real accomplishments, not to append a hidden or irrelevant list of keywords. A skill or tool listed on a resume without real experience behind it creates risk later, in a screening call or interview, even if it helped the resume get noticed initially.

How does I start Monday help with this?

I start Monday renders a generated CV locally from a structured document using a single-column, standard-heading layout by default, and it draws only from the facts in your approved Master Profile, so a generated resume avoids the layout risks described above and does not introduce a claim you have not approved. Every generated document goes through a fact-check step before you finalize it, and you keep full editing control before you submit anything.

Sources

• CareerOneStop (sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor) - resume and job search guidance
• Indeed Career Guide - resume and cover letter advice
• USA.gov - Job Search