How to Pass ATS With Your Resume: An ATS-Friendly Resume Checklist

By Pooja Goenka · Published 2026-10-17 · Updated 2026-10-18

An applicant tracking system (ATS) is software employers use to collect, sort and organise job applications, and the two things that matter most for your resume are that it can be read by the system and that it uses the language of the job it is for. Everything else on the checklist below supports one of those two.

A lot of ATS advice online is confident and unsourced, including pass rates and "75% of resumes are rejected by robots" claims. I could not trace those figures to a primary source, so I have left them out. This post separates what career offices and job sites say in print from what is common advice I cannot verify, and I will mark which is which.

What is an ATS, and does it reject resumes automatically?

Indeed describes an ATS as recruiting software employers use to collect, sort and organize resumes, with a recruiter or hiring manager typically reviewing applications more closely afterward. It says the software scans for details the employer considers relevant, such as skills, job titles, certifications and keywords from the posting. MIT's Career Advising and Professional Development office describes an ATS as working like a database and says some can score applicants by comparing a resume to the job posting.

Neither source says that the system throws out most applications on its own. Whether a given employer auto-rejects, ranks, or just stores resumes depends on how they configured their system, and I have not found a neutral source that quantifies it. So my honest position is this: do not assume a robot is rejecting you, and do not assume it is not. Make the resume easy for both a machine and a person to read.

What file format should an ATS resume use?

Verified: MIT says a .doc, .docx or .pdf is usually safe, and to follow the file type the application asks for. It also cautions that tools like Canva, LaTeX and online resume builders can add formatting that confuses an ATS.

Common advice: some guides say Word is always safer than PDF. The sources above do not say that. My rule is simple. If the posting names a format, use it. If it does not, a text-based PDF or a .docx exported from a normal word processor is a reasonable choice. A PDF made from a scanned image is the one I would avoid, since the text may not be readable at all. MIT also suggests saving your resume as a .txt file to check for missing or out-of-order text.

Which headings should an ATS-friendly resume use?

Verified: Indeed recommends standard headings such as Work Experience, Education, Skills and Certifications, and says simple section headings make a resume easier for ATS software to categorise.

So use "Experience" instead of "Where I've Made Impact." Creative labels read well to people and can confuse a system looking for a section it recognises. I will concede that this makes resumes look alike. That is the trade, and it is a small one, because the content under the headings is where you stand out.

How do you pick the right keywords?

Verified: Indeed says to take keywords from the job description, including skills, tools, credentials and role-specific terms, and notes that repeated terms often signal what the employer values most. It also says to add only keywords that reflect your experience and warns that stuffing them in unnaturally makes the resume harder for a human to read. MIT adds that you should spell out keywords rather than abbreviate, avoid vague words like "various" and "etc.," and make sure you can account for everything you list.

In practice:

1. Copy the job description into a document and highlight the nouns: tools, methods, certifications.
2. Check which ones you can honestly claim. Skip the rest.
3. Use the posting's wording where it is accurate. If it says "Kubernetes" and you wrote "container orchestration," say Kubernetes.
4. Write both forms once if a term has a common abbreviation, such as "search engine optimization (SEO)".
5. Keep a master resume and adjust it for each role, which Indeed also suggests.

Do not claim skills you lack. It will not survive the first interview question, and MIT explicitly warns that falsifying materials is a serious breach.

Do tables, columns and graphics break an ATS?

Verified: Indeed warns that resumes with tables, text boxes, columns, headers, footers or graphics can be harder for some systems to parse. MIT advises avoiding graphics, icons, images, tables and text boxes, since an ATS may distort, ignore or erase them.

Notice the wording: "some systems" and "may." Parsers differ, and I cannot tell you which ones handle a two-column layout well. The safe approach is a single column, with contact details in the body of the page and not in the header or footer. If you want a designed version for sending directly to a person, keep it as a second file and submit the plain one through the portal. MIT makes the same distinction.

How should dates and contact details look?

Here the sources are thinner, so I will label this one as common advice with some support.

Harvard's Office of Career Services advises listing information in reverse chronological order, most recent first, and checking that formatting survives conversion to PDF. That is for human readers as much as machines. Beyond that:

• Use one consistent date format, for example "Mar 2024 to Jun 2026", throughout.
• Put your name, email and phone number at the top of the main page, in plain text.
• Use a standard font at 10pt or larger. MIT suggests common fonts such as Arial, Calibri, Cambria, Georgia, Helvetica or Times New Roman.
• Skip photos. Harvard advises against including one.

I have not seen a neutral source that tests how every parser handles a date range with an en dash or a month name, so consistency is the advice I would give, not a particular format.

What does a before and after bullet look like?

An ATS cannot judge whether a bullet is good. A person reading it can. Keywords get you matched, and specifics get you interviewed.

Before: "Responsible for various backend tasks and improving performance."

After: "Reduced median API response time for the orders service by caching product lookups in Redis, and added load tests to the CI pipeline in Python."

The second line names the tool, the task and the outcome, so it matches a posting that asks for Redis or Python, and it tells a recruiter what you did. Only write a number if you actually measured one. If you did not, describe the change without inventing a figure.

Can a tool check your resume for ATS issues?

MIT notes that free or paid services such as Jobscan, Skillsyncer and Resume Worded can simulate an ATS. Treat any score as an estimate. No outside tool has access to a specific employer's system or its settings.

The resume optimizer in LogicWiz Interviews for candidates is one of these. It gives an ATS-style score covering job keywords, bullet strength, structure and format, suggests keywords only where your experience supports them and names the gaps that remain, and exports an ATS-safe PDF or Word file. It is free to start. The score is an ATS-style estimate and does not reflect any real employer's system, so I would use it to find weak spots and still read your resume the way a recruiter would. If you are also preparing for the conversation that follows, how to prepare for an AI interview covers that.

FAQ

What is an ATS in simple terms?

It is software that employers use to collect, sort and organise job applications. Indeed describes it as helping recruiters handle large applicant pools, with a person usually reviewing applications more closely afterward.

Is a PDF or Word file better for an ATS?

MIT says .doc, .docx and .pdf are usually safe and to follow the format the application asks for. A text-based PDF is fine. Avoid PDFs made from scans or images.

How many keywords should I include?

There is no verified number. Indeed's advice is to use the keywords that accurately reflect your experience and to avoid unnatural stuffing. If a person reading it would find the repetition odd, there is too much.

Should I use a resume template from a design tool?

MIT cautions that tools like Canva, LaTeX and online resume builders can add formatting that confuses an ATS. Use them for a version you send directly to a person, and submit a plain version through the portal.

Does every company use an ATS?

I do not know of a reliable source for that, and I would not guess. Assume that larger employers probably do and write the resume to work either way.