Most resumes never reach a human recruiter. Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) parse your document, score it against the job description, and quietly rank you against hundreds of other candidates — all before anyone opens your file. Good news: the fixes are small, specific, and take less than an hour.
1. You uploaded a PDF with columns, text boxes, or icons
ATS parsers read top-to-bottom, left-to-right. Fancy two-column templates scramble that order. Export a single-column version just for applications; keep the designer one for in-person meetings.
2. Your section headers are creative, not conventional
Call them "Experience", "Education", and "Skills". Not "My Journey" or "What I Bring". Parsers key off literal strings.
3. Dates aren't in a consistent format
Pick one — Mar 2022 – Present — and use it everywhere. Mixed
formats cause tenure math to silently fail.
4. You're missing the exact keywords from the job post
Open the posting, highlight every noun that describes a tool, framework, certification, or responsibility. If you've done it, name it the same way. "React" and "React.js" aren't always matched by lightweight parsers.
5. Your bullet points start with weak verbs
"Responsible for" and "Helped with" rank poorly. Start with the outcome verb: Shipped, Reduced, Led, Built, Negotiated.
6. You buried numbers in paragraphs
Numbers are the fastest trust signal a recruiter has. Pull them to the front: "Cut onboarding time 40% by rewriting the new-hire playbook."
7. Your contact block has a photo, logo, or address
Photos and company logos break parsing in older ATS. Street addresses are unnecessary — city + state is enough and protects your privacy.
8. Skills are listed as a wall of commas
Group them: Languages, Frameworks, Data, Soft skills. Easier to parse and faster to skim.
9. The file name is resume_final_v3.pdf
Use Firstname-Lastname-Role.pdf. It signals care and gets
indexed cleanly if the recruiter saves it to a shared drive.
10. You never customized for the specific role
You don't need to rewrite everything. Swap the top summary (3 lines) and the first 3 bullets under your most recent job to mirror the job description's language. That alone lifts most match scores by 15–25%.
The 15-minute checklist
- Single column, standard fonts (Calibri, Helvetica, Arial)
- Standard section names
- Consistent dates
- Keywords mirrored from the posting
- Strong outcome verbs
- Numbers up front
- No photo, no logo
- Grouped skills
- Clean file name
- Tailored top summary + top bullets
Need a human to look at yours? Send it to a Simonara strategist — we review hundreds per week and will tell you the exact two things to fix first.