An ATS-friendly resume should be easy to extract and understand.

An applicant tracking system can store an uploaded resume and may parse its text into fields such as work history or education. iCIMS describes resume parsing as extracting information from a Word or PDF document and converting it into structured data. Parsing is not the same thing as an employer deciding whether you qualify.

“ATS-friendly” should not mean a secret template that guarantees an interview. It means making information portable: software can extract it, an application form can represent it correctly, and a recruiter can read it quickly. Employers configure systems and hiring workflows differently.

This guide focuses on document readability. To compare the substance of your resume with a role, use Scoritly’s free ATS resume checker.

There is no honest universal answer to “PDF or DOCX?” Greenhouse currently accepts DOC, DOCX, PDF, RTF, and TXT candidate uploads. Lever documents DOC, DOCX, PDF, and TXT among its supported files and warns that image files are not parsed for information. A specific employer can still restrict what its form accepts.

Use the requested format. If either PDF or DOCX is accepted, choose a file with real, selectable text and confirm the preview and populated fields are correct. Do not submit a scan or image of your resume when the goal is text parsing.

A portable default is one main column with familiar headings. Put each employer, title, date range, and its achievements together. Visual polish is fine when it does not make the underlying text order ambiguous.

1. 1.

   Name and contact information

   Keep essential contact details in the document body as text.

2. 2.

   Professional summary

   Optional; state the target role and strongest relevant evidence briefly.

3. 3.

   Skills

   Use truthful, job-relevant terms that you can support.

4. 4.

   Experience

   List roles consistently, usually most recent first, with outcomes and context.

5. 5.

   Education and credentials

   Use recognizable institution, program, and credential names.

Modern parsers differ, so claims that every ATS rejects every table or column are too broad. The practical risk is reading order: content in sidebars, nested tables, text boxes, icons, charts, headers, or footers may be extracted separately, out of sequence, or not as meaningful text.

Keep critical facts in the main flow. If you use a designed template, copy all text into a plain-text editor. Your name should still come first, each achievement should remain attached to the right role, and section boundaries should remain clear.

Formatting and job fit are separate checks. Once the text is readable, compare the posting with your real experience. Use the employer’s terminology when it accurately describes work you did, and connect important skills to a project, responsibility, or result.

Do not hide keywords, paste the whole job description into the document, or invent a credential. See how to tailor a resume to a job description while keeping every claim grounded in your own background.

• ✓The employer's file instructions take priority.
• ✓Your name, email, phone, and location are selectable text.
• ✓Sections use familiar labels such as Experience, Education, and Skills.
• ✓Each employer, title, date range, and set of achievements stays together.
• ✓Important details are not communicated only through icons, charts, or images.
• ✓Copying the resume into plain text preserves a sensible reading order.
• ✓Job-description language appears only where your experience supports it.
• ✓The application fields populated after upload match the original resume.

This checklist reduces avoidable parsing ambiguity; it cannot reproduce an employer’s proprietary system or guarantee a hiring outcome.