How to Write an ATS-Friendly Resume in 2026

You spent hours perfecting your resume, tailoring every bullet point, and yet you never heard back. Sound familiar? The problem may not be your qualifications. It may be that your resume never reached a human being at all.

Over 90% of large companies and a growing number of mid-size firms use Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to filter resumes before a recruiter ever sees them. In India, top employers like TCS, Infosys, and multinational corporations operating across Mumbai, Bangalore, and Delhi NCR all rely on ATS software. Globally, platforms like Workday, Greenhouse, and Lever power hiring at thousands of companies. If your resume is not formatted for these systems, it gets discarded silently.

This guide will show you exactly how to write an ATS-friendly resume that passes automated screening and gets you in front of real decision-makers.

What Is an ATS and How Does It Work?

An Applicant Tracking System is software that employers use to collect, sort, and rank job applications. When you submit your resume through a company career portal or a job board like Naukri, LinkedIn, or Indeed, the ATS parses your document into structured data. It extracts your name, contact details, work history, education, and skills, then compares that data against the job description.

Resumes that match well are ranked higher and forwarded to recruiters. Resumes that the system cannot parse correctly, or that lack relevant keywords, are filtered out. The key insight is this: an ATS does not read your resume the way a person does. It processes text mechanically, which means formatting choices that look great on paper can completely break the parsing process.

Formatting Rules for ATS Compatibility

Use a clean, single-column layout

Two-column layouts, sidebars, and creative grid designs confuse most ATS parsers. Stick to a straightforward top-to-bottom, single-column structure. Your content should flow in a natural reading order: contact information at the top, followed by a summary, work experience, education, and skills.

Choose standard section headings

ATS software looks for conventional headings to categorize your information. Use headings like "Work Experience", "Education", "Skills", and "Certifications". Avoid creative alternatives like "Where I've Made an Impact" or "My Journey" because the system will not recognize them.

Avoid tables, text boxes, and graphics

Tables can scramble the order of your content. Text boxes are often skipped entirely. Images, icons, and graphics (including skill-level bar charts) are invisible to ATS parsers. If you use a star rating to show your proficiency in Python, the system will see nothing at all.

Use a standard font

Fonts like Arial, Calibri, Times New Roman, and Helvetica are universally safe. Avoid decorative or uncommon fonts that may not render properly.

Submit in the right file format

Unless the job posting specifies otherwise, submit your resume as a .docx or .pdf file. Most modern ATS platforms handle both well, but .docx tends to have the highest compatibility rate. Avoid image-based PDFs (scanned documents) because the text is not extractable.

Keyword Strategy: Matching the Job Description

ATS ranking is heavily driven by keyword matching. Here is how to approach it thoughtfully:

Step 1: Analyze the job description. Read it carefully and identify the specific skills, tools, qualifications, and phrases used. If a posting asks for "project management" and "Agile methodology," those exact phrases should appear in your resume.

Step 2: Use keywords naturally. Place them within the context of your achievements and responsibilities. Instead of listing "data analysis" in isolation, write something like "Conducted data analysis on customer behavior patterns, resulting in a 15% improvement in retention rates."

Step 3: Include both abbreviations and full forms. Write "Search Engine Optimization (SEO)" rather than just "SEO" because you cannot be sure which version the ATS will search for. This is especially important for technical roles where acronyms are common.

Step 4: Do not keyword-stuff. Repeating the same term ten times will not help you. Modern ATS platforms are sophisticated enough to detect unnatural repetition, and even if you pass the automated screen, a recruiter will notice and reject your resume.

Structuring Your Work Experience for ATS

Each work experience entry should follow this format:

Job Title
Company Name, Location
Month Year - Month Year (or "Present")

Follow this with 3 to 6 bullet points describing your responsibilities and accomplishments. Start each bullet with a strong action verb: managed, developed, implemented, increased, reduced, designed, led, analyzed.

Quantify your achievements wherever possible. "Increased sales by 25% over two quarters" is far more compelling to both humans and algorithms than "Responsible for sales growth."

Common ATS Mistakes to Avoid

• Headers and footers: Some ATS platforms ignore content placed in document headers and footers. Put your contact information in the main body of the document.
• Fancy bullet points: Use standard round bullets or hyphens. Custom symbols may be converted into garbled characters.
• Spelling errors: If the ATS is looking for "JavaScript" and your resume says "Java Script" or "Javascrpt," it will not register as a match.
• Overly designed templates: Many free resume templates available online prioritize visual appeal over ATS compatibility. A beautiful resume that never gets read is not doing you any favors.

How EasyResume Helps You Build ATS-Compatible Resumes

Building an ATS-friendly resume from scratch can feel restrictive. You want your resume to look professional and pass automated screening. That is exactly the problem EasyResume's resume builder is designed to solve. Every template is engineered with ATS compatibility in mind: clean formatting, proper heading structure, and standard fonts, while still looking polished and professional when a recruiter opens it.

You fill in your details, and the builder handles the formatting decisions that trip most people up. No invisible text boxes, no problematic tables, no parsing issues.

Final Checklist Before You Submit

1. Have you used a single-column, clean layout?
2. Are your section headings standard and recognizable?
3. Have you incorporated keywords from the job description naturally?
4. Are acronyms spelled out at least once?
5. Is your contact information in the document body, not in a header or footer?
6. Have you avoided tables, text boxes, images, and graphics?
7. Is the file saved as .docx or a text-based .pdf?
8. Have you proofread for spelling and consistency?

Getting past the ATS is not about gaming the system. It is about presenting your genuine qualifications in a format that technology can understand. Do that well, and you dramatically increase your chances of landing an interview.