Why ATS-Friendly Resumes Avoid Fancy Formatting

Your resume's first reader is often software, not a person

Many employers, especially larger companies, run incoming resumes through an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) that parses the document into structured data (name, work history, skills) before a recruiter ever opens it. If the parser misreads your layout, your actual qualifications may never make it into the system correctly — regardless of how good they are.

What tends to trip a parser up

Multi-column layouts can cause a parser to read across columns instead of down them, scrambling sentences. Text placed inside design elements like text boxes, header/footer regions, or graphics is sometimes skipped entirely, since many parsers only reliably read the document's main body text flow. Tables used for layout (rather than genuine tabular data) can suffer the same scrambling issue as columns. Icons used in place of text labels (a phone icon instead of the word "Phone") convey nothing to a parser that only reads text.

What parses reliably instead

A single column, read top to bottom in a natural reading order, with plain text section headings that match common conventions ("Experience," "Education," "Skills") rather than creative renamed versions, parses consistently across the vast majority of ATS software. It's less visually distinctive than a heavily designed template, but it reliably gets your actual content into the system intact.

The real tradeoff

A visually striking, multi-column resume might impress a human reviewing it directly, but if it has to pass through an ATS first, that same design can work against you. Which approach to prioritize depends on how a specific employer's application process actually works — when in doubt, and especially for larger companies, the simpler, more parseable structure is the safer default.

Try it yourself

Our Resume / CV Builder uses a single-column layout with standard section headings specifically to parse reliably, while still looking clean and professional to a human reader.