Guide · Updated 15 September 2026
How to make an ATS-friendly resume
An ATS-friendly resume is one a parser can read: real selectable text, plain section headings, dates on every role, contact details written as text, and descriptions that say what you did with numbers where you have them. Layout matters far less than most advice suggests — bullets or paragraphs, month names or numbers, the content is what gets read.
What an ATS does with your resume
An applicant tracking system is the software employers use to collect applications. It extracts the text from your file, splits it into fields such as contact details, work history, education and skills, and lets recruiters search and filter what it found.
The risk isn't that software rejects you for a design choice. It's that the parser misreads you — misses your email, can't find your experience, or reads a scanned page as empty — and you don't show up in the search a recruiter runs. Different systems parse differently, so the safe approach is to give all of them as little room to get it wrong as possible.
The checklist, in order of what it costs you
These are the eleven checks OneCV's free ATS checker runs, ordered by how much each one weighs in the score. Fix the top of the list first.
- 1.
Make sure the text can be read at all
A parser needs real text. A resume exported as an image, or scanned, reaches the system as a blank page, and nothing else on this list matters until that is fixed.
Check: Open your PDF and try to select a word. If you can't, neither can the parser. OneCV's checker treats fewer than 30 readable words as an image or scan.
- 2.
Use headings a parser recognises
Systems sort your resume into buckets by its headings. Experience (Work History works too), Education and Skills are the three that matter most. A Projects section can stand in for experience if you don't have a job yet. A summary helps but isn't required.
Check: Replace creative labels like "Where I've Been" or "My Toolkit" with the plain words.
- 3.
Put an email address where it can be found
A recruiter who can't reach you won't try twice. Use an address you check, near the top of the page.
Check: Your email should be text, not part of a header image or icon.
- 4.
Show scale wherever you have it
Numbers turn a claim into evidence: people reached, revenue, a percentage change, team size, time saved. Currency in any format counts, as do lakh and crore. Only use numbers you can explain in an interview.
Check: Aim for at least three points with a number, amount or scale in them.
- 5.
Open each point with what you did
"Built", "Led", "Reduced" and "Negotiated" tell a reader your contribution in the first word. "Responsible for" and "Worked on" describe a job, not what you achieved in it. Present tense is fine for a role you're still in.
Check: At least four in ten of your description lines should open with an action verb.
- 6.
Include a phone number
Add the country code if you might be contacted from abroad, for example +91 98765 43210.
Check: Write it as text in your contact line.
- 7.
Keep the length proportionate
Too thin and there isn't enough to screen you on; too dense and the important parts get lost. One page suits most people. Two is normal once your experience genuinely fills it.
Check: Roughly 200 to 950 words on one page, or up to about 1,400 across two.
- 8.
Add a profile or portfolio link
Recruiters check. LinkedIn works for anyone; add GitHub if you write code, or Behance, Dribbble or your own site if that's where your work lives.
Check: Put the link in your header with your other contact details.
- 9.
Drop first-person pronouns
Resume convention is implied first person: "Built an API", not "I built an API". It reads tighter and saves space.
Check: Search your resume for "I", "my" and "me". Job levels like "Engineer I" don't count.
- 10.
Cut filler phrases
"Results-driven", "team player", "hard-working", "passionate about", "proven track record" and "detail-oriented" appear on so many resumes that they carry no information about yours.
Check: Replace each one with something only you could have written.
- 11.
Date your roles and education
Parsers use dates to build your timeline. Any common format works: "Jun 2023 – Present", "2021 – 2023" and "06/2021 – 08/2023" all read correctly.
Check: Pick one format and use it everywhere.
Layout matters less than you've been told
A lot of advice treats formatting as make-or-break: bullets, not paragraphs; month names, not numbers; a special "ATS template". What a parser works from is the text it extracts, and the same words extract the same way however they're arranged.
We test OneCV's checker against exactly this. The same career written four ways — paragraphs, bullets with year-only dates, a marketing manager's "Work History" layout, and a US-style resume with numeric dates — has to score within two points, and it does. A resume from Word, Canva, Google Docs or any other builder is judged on what it says.
There is one real exception. In a two-column layout, some parsers read straight across the page, so a line from your skills column can end up in the middle of a job description. If your resume uses columns, check what actually comes out: a good checker shows you the text it extracted, and if that reads out of order, a single column is the safer choice.
What no checker can tell you
A checker can confirm your resume is readable and well built. It can't know which job you're applying for. Recruiters often search for the skills and titles in their own posting, so the most valuable edit is usually matching your wording to theirs: if the posting says "PostgreSQL" and your skills say "Postgres", use their word. Only list skills you actually have — the interview will find out.
PDF or Word?
A PDF with real, selectable text is widely accepted and keeps your formatting intact. If an application form specifically asks for a Word document, send one — follow the instructions in front of you over any general rule.