How to make your resume ATS-friendly without keyword stuffing

Most medium and large employers collect applications through an applicant tracking system, or ATS. There is a lot of folklore about these systems — that they “reject” most resumes automatically, or that a secret score decides everything. The reality is more ordinary, and easier to prepare for.

What an ATS actually does

An applicant tracking system stores applications and helps recruiters manage them. To do that, it converts your resume into plain text and pulls out details such as your name, contact information, job titles, dates and skills. Recruiters then search and filter that text, often using words from the job advert. Whether anything is filtered out automatically depends on how the employer has set the system up; very often, a person reads the resumes that match their search.

Two things follow from that:

• your resume has to convert to clean text, or parts of it effectively disappear;
• it has to contain the words a recruiter is likely to search for.

Make sure it reads as text

Save your resume as a text-based PDF or a Word document, whichever the application asks for. A scanned resume, or a design exported as one big picture, contains no text at all. A quick test: run your PDF through PDF to Text. What comes out is roughly what a parser sees. If sections are missing, jumbled or out of order, the layout is the problem.

Formatting that causes trouble

• Two or more columns. Text can be read straight across the columns, mixing your skills list into your job history. A single column is safest.
• Tables and text boxes. Content inside them is often read out of order or skipped.
• Icons instead of words. A phone icon next to your number is fine for a person, but icon fonts are not readable text. Write “Phone” and “Email” or simply give the details.
• Important details in the header or footer. Some systems miss text placed there, so keep your name and contact details in the main body.
• Unusual section headings. “Where I've been” is charming but harder to recognise than “Experience”. Use conventional headings: Summary, Experience, Education, Skills.

The Resume Generator produces a plain, single-column CV with standard headings and real text for exactly these reasons.

Match the job advert — honestly

Read the advert and note the skills, tools, qualifications and phrases it repeats. If you genuinely have them, make sure your resume uses the same words, in context:

• Use the employer's term. If the advert says “stakeholder management”, write that rather than a synonym.
• Give both the abbreviation and the full form once, such as “search engine optimisation (SEO)”, so either search finds you.
• Put keywords where they show what you did: “Built monthly reports in Power BI for the finance team” beats a bare list of tools.

Do not paste the job description into your resume or add skills you do not have. Recruiters recognise keyword stuffing immediately, and a person reads the resume next — then interviews you on it.

Check it against the advert

1. Open the Resume ATS Checker.
2. Add your resume as a PDF, Word file or plain text.
3. Paste the whole job advert, including the requirements and responsibilities.
4. Work through the missing keywords and the failed format checks, update your resume, and check again.

The checker reads your file in your browser; nothing is uploaded. Its score is a checklist for tailoring, not a prediction. There is no universal ATS score — every system works differently — so use it to find gaps, not to chase a number.

The details recruiters search for

• Job titles that match the role you want, where they honestly describe what you did.
• Dates for every role, in one consistent format such as “March 2023 – June 2025”.
• Qualifications and certifications written out in full.
• Location, at least the city, if the role is location-based.

Write for the person who reads it next

Getting through the system only earns your resume a human reader. What persuades that person is evidence: results with numbers where you can give them — time saved, revenue grown, customers served, errors reduced — in short bullet points under each role. One or two pages is usual for most roles, with your most relevant experience first.

Keep one complete master resume, and make a tailored copy for each application. It takes ten minutes and is the single most effective thing you can do.