When you submit a resume, many applicant tracking systems attempt to parse the file. Parsing means extracting information such as your name, contact details, employers, job titles, dates, education, and skills so that the application can be stored, searched, filtered, or reviewed.
The original resume usually remains available to recruiters. However, the information placed into your candidate profile may depend on how successfully the system interprets the file.
That distinction matters because a resume can look polished on screen while still producing incomplete, incorrectly ordered, or poorly categorized information during parsing.
Modern resume parsers vary significantly. Some rely heavily on the document’s embedded text, while more advanced systems may also use optical character recognition, page coordinates, and layout analysis. Many can handle moderately complex formatting. Others may struggle with it.
Because applicants rarely know which system an employer uses, the safest approach is to create a resume that works well across both older and newer parsers.
Where resumes can run into problems
Contact information placed in graphics or unusual design elements
Icons themselves may not extract meaningfully. An envelope icon, for example, may appear as an unrecognized character or disappear from the extracted text.
An email address written as normal text beside the icon will often remain readable. The greater risk occurs when the contact information is embedded inside an image, graphic, floating text box, or other nonstandard element.
Many employers also collect your email address separately through the application form, so a parsing error may not make you completely unreachable. It can still cause your candidate record to be incomplete or make your information harder to find and review.
For maximum compatibility, place your name, email address, phone number, and location near the top of the main document body as ordinary text.
Multi-column layouts
Some modern parsers can recognize columns and reconstruct the intended reading order. Others may process the text in an unexpected sequence.
A parser might read across both columns, combine sidebar content with job descriptions, or associate dates and skills with the wrong sections. The risk is generally higher when both columns contain substantial amounts of important information.
A simple single-column resume is not mandatory, but it remains the lowest-risk format when broad ATS compatibility is the priority.
Tables
Tables are sometimes parsed correctly, particularly when they are simple. However, some systems remove the table structure and extract only the text contained in each cell.
When that happens, content may appear in the wrong order or lose the relationships that were visually obvious on the page. A date that appeared beside a job title, for example, may be separated from it during extraction.
Avoid relying on tables to establish the resume’s entire structure. Important information should still make sense when read as ordinary text.
Headers and footers
Some parsing systems handle document headers and footers correctly, while others ignore them or treat them differently from the main body of the document.
Because of that inconsistency, essential information such as your name, phone number, or email address should not appear only in a header or footer.
The information can still be repeated there for visual purposes, but it should also exist as normal text in the main document body.
Text boxes and floating objects
Text placed inside floating text boxes, shapes, or design elements may be extracted correctly by some systems and missed by others.
These elements are common in highly designed resume templates because they allow precise visual positioning. That visual flexibility can create parsing uncertainty.
If a piece of information is essential to understanding your experience, do not make a floating text box the only place where it appears.
Scanned or image-based resumes
A resume saved as an image, or a scanned PDF without selectable text, may require optical character recognition.
Many current systems can perform OCR, but recognition quality can vary based on image resolution, font size, contrast, and document complexity. Errors are more likely than they are with a clean, text-based PDF or Word document.
Whenever possible, submit a document containing real, selectable text.
A simple test you can run
Open your resume PDF, select all the text, copy it, and paste it into a plain-text editor such as Notepad or TextEdit.
This does not perfectly reproduce what every ATS will see. More advanced parsers may understand layout or recognize content that ordinary copy-and-paste misses.
The test is still useful because it can reveal obvious problems:
- Is your name and contact information present?
- Do your employers, job titles, and dates appear in a logical order?
- Are your section headings included?
- Did any important section disappear?
- Are words broken apart or replaced by strange symbols?
- Does the content remain understandable without the visual design?
Passing this test does not guarantee perfect parsing. A system could extract all the text but still categorize a job title, employer, date, or skill incorrectly. However, badly scrambled or missing pasted text is a strong sign that the document deserves closer review.
You can also upload the resume into an application form and inspect any fields the system automatically fills in. If employers, dates, titles, or contact details appear incorrectly, your formatting may be contributing to the problem.
Parsing is not the same as ranking
A resume can parse correctly and still fail to advance.
Parsing determines whether the system can extract and organize your information. Search, filtering, matching, and recruiter review are separate processes.
Applications may be evaluated using factors such as:
- Required experience
- Relevant skills
- Job titles and career progression
- Education or certifications
- Work authorization
- Location
- Compensation expectations
- Answers to application questions
- Recruiter judgment
- The qualifications of other applicants
Not every ATS automatically ranks candidates, and not every employer uses automated screening in the same way. In many hiring processes, recruiters still review resumes directly and decide who advances.
Formatting problems can reduce the clarity or searchability of an application, but they are only one possible reason an applicant may not receive a response.
What this does not mean
ATS-friendly formatting does not mean reducing your resume to an unattractive wall of text.
You can still use hierarchy, spacing, bold text, restrained color, and thoughtful typography. The goal is not to eliminate design. It is to avoid making the meaning of the resume dependent on formatting that a parser may not interpret correctly.
It also does not mean stuffing the document with keywords.
Using the language of the job posting can help when it accurately reflects your experience. Repeating terms you cannot support does not improve the underlying quality of your candidacy and may hurt your credibility during interviews.
The better approach is to describe your real experience using clear, recognizable terminology that aligns with the role.
The practical standard
You cannot design a resume for every ATS with certainty because employers use different platforms, configurations, and parsing technologies.
You can reduce unnecessary risk by following a few principles:
- Use a text-based PDF or Word document.
- Keep essential contact details in the main document body.
- Use clear, conventional section headings.
- Prefer a straightforward reading order.
- Avoid relying heavily on tables, floating text boxes, images, or icons.
- Make sure the resume still makes sense when converted to plain text.
- Tailor the content truthfully to the requirements of the position.
A complex resume will not automatically be rejected, and a simple resume will not automatically be selected. But when two formats communicate the same information equally well, the one that is easier for both software and humans to interpret is usually the safer choice.
Every Michaud Advisory resume review includes a plain-text parse check — see our services →