ATS-Friendly Resume Formatting: What Actually Matters

I learned something surprising when I started analyzing why some resumes get through ATS and others don't: formatting issues are rejection reasons more often than missing keywords.

People obsess over keywords—and that matters. But they ignore the technical structure that determines whether ATS can even read their resume correctly.

I've seen perfectly qualified candidates get rejected not because they weren't qualified, but because their resume was formatted in a way that broke the parser.

This guide covers what actually matters for ATS formatting. Not a 30-point checklist with checkboxes (nobody uses those anyway). Just the core rules that prevent automatic rejection.

The File Format Question

First thing: what format should you save your resume in?

I use .docx as my default. It's the most compatible. Microsoft Word format is what most ATS systems were built to read, and it almost never breaks.

.PDF is fine too, but with a caveat: it has to be a true PDF with selectable text, not a scanned image. If you save a Word document as PDF, you're usually fine. If you try to embed an image-based document as PDF, it won't parse.

I test by trying to highlight text in my PDF. If I can select and copy the text, it's good. If I can't, ATS won't be able to read it either.

.DOC (the older Word format)? I'd avoid it. It's older and some ATS systems have trouble with it.

Anything else? .Pages, .ODT, .TXT—don't use these. They're either too specialized or too bare-bones.

One more thing: the filename. I keep it simple. John_Smith_Resume.docx or JohnSmith_Resume_2025.docx. Nothing weird with special characters or emoji. ATS systems and recruiters both appreciate straightforward filenames.

Fonts and Styling

Here's where people go wrong: they use fancy fonts to make their resume look interesting.

I tried that once. Used a modern font, thought it looked sleek. It went through an ATS and came out completely garbled.

Now I stick to fonts that ATS systems were built to handle:

• Arial (my go-to, most compatible)
• Calibri (clean, modern-looking)
• Garamond (if I want something slightly more elegant)
• Times New Roman (traditional, always works)

That's it. No decorative fonts, no script fonts, no novelty fonts. One consistent font throughout the whole resume.

Font size: I use 10 or 10.5pt for my body text (experience bullets, description paragraphs). Section headers can be 12pt, maybe 14pt if I want them to stand out. Nothing smaller than 10pt though—ATS systems sometimes struggle with smaller text.

As for styling: I keep it minimal. Bold is fine for section headers and job titles. Italics I avoid (some ATS systems have trouble with them). Underlines, shadows, decorative effects—I never use those. They're formatting for humans, not machines.

Spacing That Works

Spacing is more critical than most people realize. Weird spacing confuses ATS parsers.

Line spacing: I use 1.0 or 1.15. That's it. No single-space, no double-space, definitely not 1.5 or double-spaced. The system parses line breaks as section boundaries sometimes, so unusual spacing throws it off.

Margins: 0.75 inch on all sides is my standard. I stay between 0.5 and 1 inch. If I go narrower than 0.5, things get cramped and ATS gets confused. If I go wider, I'm wasting space for no reason.

Between sections: I put about 6-8pt of space before a section header and 4-6pt after. This gives ATS breathing room to recognize where one section ends and another begins.

Between bullets: 3-4pt space between bullet points keeps things readable without wasting space.

I never use weird spacing tricks—no giant gaps to make the resume look longer, no double-spacing certain sections. Consistent, moderate spacing throughout.

Formatting That Gets Parsed Correctly

Here's what ATS actually needs to parse your resume:

Standard section headers. I use names like "Professional Experience," "Education," "Skills." Not creative names. Not "Where I've Been" or "My Superpowers"—those confuse the parser.

I keep headers bold or slightly larger (maybe 12pt instead of 10.5pt). That's enough to distinguish them without weird styling.

Left-aligned everything. The text flows from left to right, top to bottom. No centering, no right-alignment for large blocks of text, no weird indentation tricks.

Simple bullet points. I use standard symbols: a dash (-), a bullet (•), or an asterisk (*). Nothing fancy. Just clean, simple bullets that are easy to parse.

No tables, no columns, no graphics. This is critical. ATS systems read text linearly—left to right, top to bottom. If you have a two-column layout or a table, the ATS gets confused about reading order. Same with graphics—ATS doesn't see images at all. Just text.

No text boxes either. Those are invisible to ATS systems.

Contact Information and Headers/Footers

One mistake I see often: people put their contact info in the header or footer to save space.

Don't do this. ATS systems sometimes ignore headers and footers. If your phone number is in the footer, the ATS won't extract it.

I put my contact info right at the top of the document, in the body. Name, phone number, email, LinkedIn URL, city/state. All in plain text, not in a header.

I keep it simple:

John Smith (555) 123-4567 | john.smith@email.com | linkedin.com/in/johnsmith | New York, NY

That's it. Clear, readable, ATS-compatible.

I don't include my full address (privacy reason anyway), and I don't put photos or logos. Those aren't parsed, and they can sometimes cause formatting issues.

Length and Page Breaks

How long should your resume be?

I keep it to 1-2 pages. For 10+ years of experience, 2 pages is fine. For less than 10 years, 1 page is ideal.

The important thing is: if you go to 2 pages, make sure the page break happens between sections naturally. Don't break in the middle of a bullet point or right in the middle of a job entry. That confuses ATS parsers.

Some people ask: won't a 2-page resume hurt my ranking?

No. ATS systems read the whole thing regardless. A well-formatted 2-page resume will parse fine. A badly-formatted 1-page resume will parse worse.

Before You Apply: The Quick Check

After I format my resume, I do a final review:

Look at the file itself: Can I open it in Word, Google Docs, and Adobe Reader without corruption? Does it look the same across all three? If yes, ATS will likely handle it fine.

Read through it: Does it look clean? Is spacing consistent? Am I using just one font? Are there any random graphical elements that snuck in?

Check the content: No images, no weird colors, no special characters except basic bullets. The text is straightforward and readable.

Test it: I run my resume through an ATS checker tool (like RankMyCv) to see how it parses. If the tool can extract all my information correctly, the actual ATS will too.

I'm not perfect with this—sometimes I notice a formatting quirk after I've applied to three jobs. But the point is: clean, simple, consistent formatting doesn't just look better. It actually works with ATS systems.

The irony is that the formatting rules that work best for ATS are the same ones that make your resume easiest for humans to read. Recruiters want clean, simple resumes too.

Common Formatting Mistakes (And Why They Happen)

Mistake #1: Using a "creative" template

I see this a lot. Someone finds a beautiful resume template online—modern fonts, interesting colors, maybe some icons. They fill it in and send it out.

Then ATS chokes on it.

The problem isn't that the template is bad for humans. It's that it was designed by a designer, not someone who understands ATS parsing. All those design choices that make it look good often break ATS compatibility.

I stick to plain templates or build mine from scratch using standard formatting.

Mistake #2: Trying to "fit more" by shrinking spacing

I've been tempted to do this. You've got just slightly too much content, so you reduce margins to 0.25 inches, compress line spacing, shrink the font.

It works—your resume fits on one page. But ATS systems sometimes have trouble with it. The parsing gets harder when everything is crammed together.

Better to cut content than to compress spacing.

Mistake #3: Using headers/footers for important information

This one costs people jobs. They put their phone number in the footer to make the main resume area look cleaner.

ATS systems ignore that footer.

All your critical info (name, contact) goes in the body of the document.

Mistake #4: Mixing tabs and spaces

Some people manually align things using tabs in weird ways. Tabs can behave differently in different systems, and when your resume goes through ATS, the alignment breaks.

I use bullet points and simple spacing instead. Cleaner, more reliable.

What You Actually Need to Know

The mistake people make is thinking ATS formatting is complicated. It's not.

It's just: be boring. Be simple. Use standard fonts, standard spacing, standard formatting. Put your information in a straightforward order. Don't get creative with the structure.

Will it win design awards? No.

Will it survive ATS parsing intact? Yes.

And honestly, that's what matters.

Ready to check if your resume formatting is ATS-safe?

Run your resume through RankMyCv and see exactly how ATS would parse it. You'll get specific feedback on formatting issues, font problems, spacing that's breaking the parser, and exactly what to fix.

Last updated: January 20, 2025 Read time: 6 minutes Category: Resume Formatting