Applied to 20 roles last month. Silence. Not even rejections.
I spent a weekend going through every resume I submitted and found the same six failures, over and over.
Turned it into a checklist. Here it is.
The 6 ATS killers
1. Wrong file format
.docx or PDF with a real text layer. Not a scanned image saved as PDF. ATS systems can't parse image-only PDFs. They see a blank page.
2. Columns and tables
Two-column resume templates look clean to humans. ATS reads them left-to-right across columns. Your experience merges with your skills section into nonsense.
3. Graphics and icons
Any image, icon, or logo goes invisible. Your phone icon next to your number? The ATS sees the number floating alone, sometimes fails to parse it.
4. Keywords not mirrored from the job description
ATS scores your resume against the job description. If the posting says 'cross-functional collaboration' and you wrote 'worked across teams' -- zero match. Copy their language, not your paraphrase.
5. Contact info in header boxes or text boxes
Some templates put name and email in a text box at the top. Text boxes are often invisible to ATS. Your contact info vanishes.
6. Font below 10pt anywhere in the document
Some parsers skip lines they can't read confidently. Anything under 10pt is a parsing gamble. Not worth it.
The checklist
- [ ] File is .docx or PDF with actual text layer
- [ ] Single-column layout
- [ ] No graphics, icons, or images
- [ ] Keywords from job description appear verbatim in resume
- [ ] Contact info in the main text body (not a text box)
- [ ] All fonts 10pt or larger
- [ ] Filename is clean: FirstLast_Resume.pdf (no spaces, no special chars)
- [ ] No headers/footers (some ATS ignore them)
What's next
Building a full ATS resume template pack -- Google Docs templates formatted for ATS parsing, with keyword checklists by industry.
If this was useful, leave a comment. I'll share the full system when it's ready.
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