ATS systems are pickier than candidates think. A resume that looks beautiful in design tools often parses badly in ATS software. Here's how to audit yours.
Test 1. The plain text test.
Copy your resume, paste into a plain.txt file. Read it. If sections are in the wrong order, dates are missing, or bullet points are gone, your ATS parsing is broken.
Test 2. The Adobe Acrobat select test.
Open your PDF in Acrobat. Try to select all text and copy it. If selection is jumbled, multi-column issues are hiding parsing problems.
Format patterns that break ATS:
Multi-column layouts. Two-column resumes parse left column then right column, which scrambles the reading order.
Headers and footers. Many ATS strip headers/footers. If your name and contact are in the header, they may be lost.
Text inside images. Skills bar charts, infographics, or any text rendered as graphics is invisible to ATS.
Tables for layout. Tables used to align content often parse as gibberish.
Custom fonts. Stick to Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, Times. Custom fonts can render as squares.
Special characters. Custom bullet symbols (◆ ★ → ▶) often disappear or become "?" in ATS.
Photos. Most US ATS parse them as junk; international ATS often fine. Default: no photo unless you're targeting EU/MENA.
Section names like "My Journey." ATS expects "Experience," "Education," "Skills." Creative names break categorization.
Format patterns that work:
Single-column layout
Standard fonts (10-11pt body, 12-14pt headers)
Standard bullet (• or –)
Standard section names
Date format consistent throughout
PDF or.docx (both work;.docx safer for older ATS)
The 2-minute audit:
Copy your resume into Notepad or TextEdit. If it's readable plain-text, your ATS parsing will be clean. If it's scrambled, fix the layout.
— Dr. Hosney Adel