Let's Start with a Common Scenario
You spend an afternoon polishing your layout. You use some designer template you found online—two columns, icon accents, skill bars showing proficiency. It genuinely looks more polished than the default template.
You send out 30 applications. Crickets.
You start wondering if your experience just isn't strong enough. But the problem might be something you never considered: the ATS system never actually finished reading your resume.
ATS (Applicant Tracking System) is what most mid-to-large companies use to collect and screen resumes. It reads resumes completely differently from a human. It doesn't "look"—it parses text structure. A two-column layout to an ATS is like two documents glued together, with no way of knowing which side is the main content.
This doesn't mean formatting doesn't matter. It means the primary goal of formatting should shift from "looks good" to "reads well"—for machines and for humans.
Problem 1: Two-Column and Multi-Column Layouts
ATS systems typically parse resumes top-to-bottom, left-to-right, line by line. Two-column layouts break that reading order:
Left column: Name | Skills | Contact
Right column: Work Experience | Education
ATS reading order: Name → Skills → Contact → (jump back to left? or continue right? depends on the system)
The result: your work experience and projects might get skipped entirely, or merged with your education section.
What to do instead: Single-column layout is the safest bet. If you absolutely must use two columns, make sure the left side only holds secondary info (skills, languages, certifications), put your main content on the right, and export as PDF rather than DOCX.
But honestly? I'd just go single-column. There are plenty of good-looking single-column templates out there. No need to gamble on this one.
Problem 2: Replacing Text with Icons or Images
Phone number with a 📞 in front of it, email prefixed by ✉️, skills shown as star ratings or progress bars—
These are intuitive for a human reader, but ATS can't parse icons and images. It either reads garbage or skips right past them.
What to do instead: Use plain text for contact info—no emojis, no icons. For skills, skip the progress bars and star ratings. Just list them. "Python: Proficient" is way more useful than a 4/5 bar—for humans, too.
Problem 3: Unclear Section Headers and Labels
Some templates use fancy fonts or background colors to differentiate sections, but don't have clear text headings. ATS relies on keywords to recognize "this is work experience" and "this is education."
If your work experience section is titled "Work," "Experience," or—worse—has no title at all, the system might not recognize it as a distinct section.
What to do instead: Use standard heading labels: "Work Experience," "Education," "Projects," "Skills," "Summary." Don't get creative with "About Me," "My Story," or "The Journey So Far."
Problem 4: PDFs Where Text Isn't Actually Selectable
Some tools generate PDFs that are essentially scanned images or image embeds—the text is visually there, but you can't select it, you can't copy it. To an ATS, it's just a picture, not text.
What to do instead: Use proper tools to export PDFs. Word export, Google Docs export, or an online tool that supports real text output. After exporting, try selecting and copying some text to verify—if it pastes as gibberish, the ATS can't read it either.
Problem 5: Mixing Abbreviations and Full Names
ATS keyword matching works on exact match logic. You write "Google Cloud Platform," but the job description says "GCP"—the system doesn't know they're the same thing.
Same thing in reverse. The JD says "Software Engineer," your resume says "SDE2"—no match.
What to do instead: The first time you mention something, write the full name plus the abbreviation, then use just the abbreviation after that. For example: "Natural Language Processing (NLP)… later applied NLP techniques to…"
So What Does an ATS-Friendly Resume Look Like?
Here's a checklist:
- Single-column layout
- Standard section headings
- Plain-text contact info (no icons, no emojis)
- Skills described in words, not progress bars
- PDF text is selectable and copyable
- Keywords aligned with the JD (cover both full names and abbreviations)
- Font size no smaller than 10pt
- Don't put critical info in headers or footers (some ATS skip those)
None of these will make your resume ugly. Truly good resume formatting means "clear for humans, accurate for machines"—not "flashy for humans, unreadable for machines."
If you're not sure how your resume reads to an ATS, try uploading it to DeepResume for a free diagnosis. It'll show you exactly which parts the system might skip or misread, with specific suggestions for fixing them.