I've seen a lot of resume structures that look fine to humans but completely break when they go through an ATS system.
Here's the problem: ATS systems read resumes linearly, top to bottom, left to right. They're looking for landmarks—standard section headers, clear date formats, predictable information placement. When your resume doesn't follow standard structure, the ATS extracts the wrong information.
I worked with a candidate once who had her dates in a column on the right, job title on the left, company name somewhere in the middle. It looked nice visually. But when ATS parsed it, the system listed her dates as job titles. She got filtered out.
Once I reorganized it into a straightforward structure, she passed ATS fine.
How ATS Actually Parses Your Resume
When you upload your resume to an ATS system, here's what happens:
First, the system extracts the text. It converts your resume into plain text. Some formatting information gets lost in the process.
Then it looks for section headers. The ATS is programmed to find standard headers like "Professional Experience," "Education," "Skills." These help the system understand where information belongs.
It extracts specific information based on structure. Based on where things appear and how they're formatted, ATS pulls out:
- Your contact information
- Job titles and company names
- Employment dates
- Skills
- Education details
Then it searches for keywords. Once it's extracted the information, the ATS searches for keywords related to the job posting.
The critical piece: If your structure is confusing, ATS extracts the wrong information. So even if you have the right keywords, if they're associated with the wrong job or misidentified, you won't match properly.
The Section Order That Works
Over years of analyzing successful resumes, I've found this order consistently wins:
Contact info at the top. Name, phone, email, LinkedIn URL, city/state. All in plain text. Put this right at the top of the document, not in a header or footer.
Professional summary (optional). 3-4 sentences about your experience and what you're looking for. This should immediately follow contact info if you include it.
Professional experience. This is the bulk of your resume. List your roles in reverse chronological order (most recent first), with 3-5 bullet points per role.
Education. Your degree, university, graduation year. Nothing fancy needed.
Skills. List 15-25 skills, organized by category if you want. Order them by relevance to the job you're applying for.
Certifications (optional). Only include if you have relevant professional certs.
Why this order? Because it's what both ATS systems and human recruiters expect. Your experience is the most important part—it should be prominent. Education comes after because it's less critical for experienced professionals. Skills go near the end so people can quickly scan them.
How to Format Each Section
Contact information: Keep it simple and straightforward.
Put your name on its own line, slightly larger (11-12pt works). Then on the next line(s): your phone number, email address, LinkedIn profile, and city/state.
Don't put contact info in the header or footer. ATS systems sometimes ignore those. Don't include your full mailing address (privacy concern anyway). Don't add a photo or logo.
Example:
John Smith (555) 123-4567 | john.smith@email.com | linkedin.com/in/johnsmith | New York, NY
Professional summary: If you include this (and it's optional), keep it brief—3-4 sentences. Just a paragraph, no bullets. Write it in actual prose, not as a list.
Professional experience: This is where structure matters most.
Format each job entry like this:
Job Title | Company Name | Start Date - End Date City, State • First achievement bullet • Second achievement bullet • Third achievement bullet
Put your most recent job first. Leave a blank line between jobs for readability.
For dates, use Month/Year format (e.g., "Jan 2020" or "January 2020"). Be consistent throughout.
Start each bullet with an action verb, include a keyword or two, and end with a result. "Led digital marketing campaigns using SEO and content marketing, generating $3.2M pipeline" is better than "Responsible for marketing campaigns."
Education: Just the facts.
Bachelor of Science, Computer Science University Name | Graduated 2020
That's it. Don't include your GPA unless it's 3.5 or higher and you're still early in your career (recent grad). Don't list high school. Don't mention honors unless they're truly significant.
Skills: List them by category if you want, or as a simple comma-separated list. Order them by relevance—skills that match the job posting should come first.
Don't use skill rating systems ("Expert," "Intermediate") or skill bars. ATS systems have trouble parsing those. Just list the skills.
Certifications: Name, issuing organization, date. Most recent first.
One Page vs. Two Pages
I get asked about this constantly: "Should my resume be one page?"
For early career (less than 10 years): One page is ideal. Shows you can be concise.
For 10+ years of experience: Two pages is fine. You have legitimate content.
The important thing is: if you go to two pages, don't break in the middle of a job entry or a bullet point. Break between sections. That way ATS doesn't get confused about where information starts and ends.
And don't add filler to make it two pages. If you've got two pages of real content, great. If you've got one page of solid content, stop there.
Real Example: The Mess vs. The Clean Version
Before (Poor structure that breaks ATS):
When this person uploaded their resume, ATS couldn't parse it correctly:
John Smith | New York, NY
Email: john@email.com | Phone: (555) 123-4567
OBJECTIVE: Seeking a marketing position
ABC Company (2020-Present) – Marketing Manager Managed campaigns. Improved engagement. Worked with teams.
Education: B.S. Marketing, State University, 2018
XYZ Startup (2018-2019) – Marketing Analyst Analyzed data. Created reports. Worked with marketing team.
Skills: Excel, Google Analytics, Social Media, Marketing
The ATS got confused about:
- Where one job ended and another began
- Which dates went with which jobs
- What the actual accomplishments were
After (Clean, ATS-friendly structure):
John Smith (555) 123-4567 | john.smith@email.com | linkedin.com/in/johnsmith | New York, NY
PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY
Marketing Manager with 5+ years driving digital growth at SaaS companies. Proven track record: led marketing initiatives generating $5M+ pipeline. Expert in SEO, content marketing, and marketing automation.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Marketing Manager | ABC Company | Jan 2020 - Present New York, NY • Led integrated marketing strategy across 5 channels, generating 2.1M impressions and $3.2M pipeline • Managed team of 3 marketing specialists, improving campaign ROI by 35% • Designed social media strategy using HubSpot, reaching 150K+ followers
Marketing Analyst | XYZ Startup | Jun 2018 - Dec 2019 San Francisco, CA • Analyzed customer data using SQL to identify growth opportunities • Created Tableau dashboards used by 50+ stakeholders • Optimized email campaigns, improving click-through rate by 28%
EDUCATION
Bachelor of Science, Marketing | State University | Graduated 2018
SKILLS
Digital Marketing, SEO, Content Marketing, HubSpot, Google Analytics, Tableau, Data Analysis, Social Media Strategy, Email Marketing, A/B Testing, Project Management
Now ATS can correctly identify:
- Her name and contact info
- Her two jobs and the dates for each
- Clear accomplishments with metrics
- Relevant skills
She went from a 45% ATS match to 88%.
The Key Principles
Stop thinking of resume structure as "design" and start thinking of it as "data structure."
ATS systems need:
- Clear landmarks (standard section headers)
- Predictable information placement (dates in dates, jobs in jobs section)
- Linear information flow (top to bottom, left to right)
- Consistent formatting (same format for all job entries)
If you provide that, you'll pass ATS fine.
The good news: this format is also what humans prefer. Clean, scannable, professional-looking. You're not sacrificing anything by making it ATS-compatible.
Ready to check how ATS would parse your resume?
Run your resume through RankMyCv and see exactly how the system reads your structure. You'll get feedback on section order, formatting, and whether your information is being extracted correctly.
Last updated: January 22, 2025 Read time: 8 minutes Category: Resume Formatting