Top ATS Resume Formatting Mistakes That Hurt Your Score

Even the most qualified candidates can be rejected by an Applicant Tracking System if their resume uses formatting elements that confuse automated parsers. While modern word processors and design templates offer sleek visual features, many of these design choices create significant parsing errors behind the scenes.

In this guide, we review the top formatting mistakes job seekers make, explain why ATS software struggles with them, and demonstrate how to format your resume for flawless automated parsing.

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1. Multiple Columns and Complex Layouts

Multi-column layouts are visually popular because they pack more information onto a single page. However, ATS parsers read documents horizontally, from left to right across the entire page, rather than reading down Column 1 before moving to Column 2.

What Goes Wrong:

When an ATS encounters a two-column resume:

• A job title in the left column may be combined with an unrelated company name or date in the right column.
• Bullet points get merged across columns, creating nonsensical sentences like:
  Managed a cross-functional engineering team Proficient in Adobe Creative Cloud and Figma.
• Entire sections can disappear from the parsed applicant profile.

The Fix:

Use a clean, single-column vertical layout. A logical top-to-bottom flow guarantees that your experience, dates, and achievements remain paired correctly.

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2. Using Tables to Align Dates and Titles

Many candidates place job titles, company names, and dates inside borderless tables to keep margins aligned. While this looks neat to the human eye, tables are one of the primary culprits of ATS parsing failures.

What Goes Wrong:

• Many enterprise parsers skip table structures entirely to avoid reading tabular tabular artifacts.
• Cells can be parsed in an unpredictable sequence, dissociating your employment dates from the respective positions.

The Fix:

Use standard tab stops, indentations, or simple line breaks instead of table cells to format your titles and dates.

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3. Placing Contact Information Inside Headers and Footers

Word processors place text in header and footer zones to keep them consistent across pages. Unfortunately, many ATS parsers explicitly disregard headers and footers to avoid repeating pagination text on every page.

What Goes Wrong:

• If your phone number, email address, LinkedIn profile, or physical city/state are in the header margin, the ATS may mark your contact information as missing.
• When recruiters search candidates by geographic radius or attempt to send automated interview invites, your profile may be overlooked.

The Fix:

Always place your contact information directly in the body text at the very top of your document, outside the header area.

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4. Rating Skills with Graphic Bars or Star Ratings

Design-heavy templates often feature visual rating scales (e.g., 4 out of 5 stars for Python, or an 80% progress bar for Project Management).

What Goes Wrong:

• Automated parsers cannot interpret graphics, vector shapes, or progress bars.
• In many cases, the parser reads nothing at all, meaning your core proficiencies are completely absent from the extracted skills inventory.

The Fix:

List skills as clear, searchable text terms grouped by category:

• Languages: Python, TypeScript, SQL
• Cloud & DevOps: AWS, Docker, Kubernetes, CI/CD
• Methodologies: Agile Scrum, Jira, OKR Tracking

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5. Non-Standard Section Headers

While creative section titles like "Core Superpowers" or "Where I Have Worked" may show personality, ATS parsers rely on predefined lexicons to categorize content.

What Goes Wrong:

If the software does not recognize a heading, it may place all subsequent work experience under an "Unclassified" category or omit it entirely from timeline scoring.

The Fix:

Stick to standard, recognized headings:

• `Summary` or `Professional Summary`
• `Work Experience` or `Professional Experience`
• `Education`
• `Skills`
• `Certifications`

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6. Saving in the Wrong File Format

While both PDF and DOCX formats are widely accepted, certain PDF types create critical issues:

• Scanned Image PDFs: If you scan a paper resume or export an image as a PDF without optical character recognition (OCR), the file contains pixels, not text. An ATS will read an empty file.
• Canvas-Exported PDFs: Resumes designed on graphic platforms like Canva or Photoshop often convert text elements into individual SVG glyphs or disordered coordinates rather than continuous strings.

The Fix:

Always generate your resume from Microsoft Word, Google Docs, or a dedicated ATS resume builder. Test your PDF by pressing `Ctrl+A` (or `Cmd+A`) to ensure you can highlight and copy the text cleanly.

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Summary Checklist

Before submitting your next application, verify:

• [x] Single-column layout with no tables or text boxes
• [x] Contact info situated in the main document body
• [x] Conventional section headings
• [x] Text-based skills without graphics or progress bars
• [x] Selectable text that can be copied cleanly

Run your resume through our free ATS Checker to verify that your document passes all automated formatting and parsing tests.