ATS friendly resume format: exact rules that parse cleanly

File format: PDF or DOCX

Submit a PDF when the job posting does not specify a format. Modern ATS platforms including Greenhouse, Lever, Workday, iCIMS, and SmartRecruiters all parse PDFs reliably as of 2026, provided the PDF contains selectable text rather than a scanned image. If you are uploading to an older government or enterprise portal, a DOCX file is safer because some legacy systems still struggle with PDF text layers.

Never submit a JPEG, PNG, or a PDF that was exported from a design tool as a flattened image. Run a quick check: open your PDF, try to highlight a word. If you cannot select text, the file will fail parsing.

Fonts, size, and spacing

Use a font the parser recognises as standard. Decorative or custom fonts can be substituted with unknown characters during text extraction, turning your name into a string of symbols.

Keep body text between 10 and 12 points. Use 13 to 14 points for your name and 11 to 12 points for section headings. Set line spacing to single or 1.15. Set margins to between 0.5 and 1 inch on all sides. Do not compress spacing to squeeze in more content; parsers sometimes misread lines that overlap.

• Safe fonts: Calibri, Arial, Garamond, Georgia, Times New Roman, Cambria
• Avoid: Helvetica Neue (substitution issues on Windows), any script or handwriting font, icon fonts such as Font Awesome
• Body size: 10 to 12 pt
• Heading size: 11 to 14 pt, bold is fine
• Margins: 0.5 to 1 inch
• Line spacing: 1.0 to 1.15

Section headings the ATS expects

ATS software matches your content to fields by reading your section headings. If your heading says 'Where I Have Worked' instead of 'Work Experience', the parser may skip the section entirely or file it under the wrong field. Use the exact standard labels below.

Capitalise headings consistently. Bold them if you like. Do not use all-caps for body text, but all-caps headings are parsed correctly by most systems.

• Contact information (no heading needed; place at the top)
• Summary or Professional Summary
• Work Experience or Experience
• Education
• Skills or Core Skills
• Certifications (if applicable)
• Projects (if applicable)
• Volunteer Experience (if applicable)

Layout rules: no tables, no columns, no text boxes

A single-column layout is the only safe choice. Two-column resumes are popular in design templates, but most ATS parsers read left to right across the full page width. A two-column layout causes the parser to merge the left and right columns into a single jumbled line, mixing your job title with a skill from the sidebar.

Tables are equally problematic. Even a simple two-cell table used to align a job title on the left and a date on the right can produce garbled output. Use tab stops or right-aligned text instead of tables for date alignment.

Text boxes and shapes are invisible to most parsers. Any content inside a text box, including your contact details if you placed them in a header box, will be dropped. Place all content directly in the document body. The same applies to headers and footers in Word: do not put your name or phone number in the document header field, because several ATS platforms do not read Word headers.

• Single column only
• No tables, even for alignment
• No text boxes or shapes
• No Word headers or footers for contact details
• No graphics, logos, or photos
• No horizontal lines created with drawing tools (a line of dashes or underscores is fine)

Contact section and date formatting

Place your name on the first line, then your phone number, email address, city and state or city and country, and your LinkedIn URL on the lines below. You do not need a full street address in 2026; city and state is standard in the US and Canada, city and country in the UK and Australia.

Format dates consistently throughout the document. The safest format is month and year written as 'Jan 2023' or '01/2023'. Avoid writing only a year for roles that lasted less than twelve months, because the parser may calculate your tenure incorrectly. For current roles, write 'Jan 2023 to Present'.

• Name: first line, larger font
• Phone: include country code if applying internationally
• Email: professional address, not a university address if you graduated more than two years ago
• Location: City, State (US/Canada) or City, Country (UK/Australia)
• LinkedIn: optional but recommended; use the shortened custom URL
• Dates: consistent format, month and year, throughout

Bullet points and keyword placement

Use standard round bullets or hyphens. Fancy bullet symbols such as arrows, checkmarks, or custom glyphs from symbol fonts are sometimes converted to question marks or dropped entirely. In Microsoft Word, use the default bullet from the Home tab. In Google Docs, use the standard disc bullet.

Each bullet under a role should start with a past-tense action verb for previous roles and a present-tense verb for your current role. Keep bullets to one or two lines. Three-line bullets are often truncated in ATS candidate profiles.

Keywords matter because many ATS platforms score your resume against the job description before a recruiter opens it. Mirror the exact phrases from the posting. If the job says 'project management' do not substitute 'programme management' unless you also include the original phrase. Spell out acronyms at least once: 'Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)'.

How Break-In Bad handles ATS formatting for you

If you want to skip the manual formatting work, Break-In Bad's resume enhancement conversation checks your existing resume line by line and rebuilds it in a clean, parser-safe layout. Omar asks up to 20 questions about your experience, confirms every fact with you, and produces a tailored resume per job that mirrors the posting's keywords without inventing anything. The output is a properly structured document ready to submit to Greenhouse, Lever, Workday, and other employer sites. Enhancement costs 15 credits; building from scratch costs 30 credits. New accounts get 50 free credits on signup.