Great design, total silence
You polished the visuals and still no reply? Often the problem isn't the content — it's formatting the ATS can't read. What looks great to you can be illegible to the machine.
Context
This post is part of the complete ATS resume guide. If you want the big picture first, start there.
The 10 most common mistakes
- Tables and columns used to lay out content
- Text inside images or icons (the ATS can't read it)
- Essential information in the header or footer
- Skill-level graphics (bars, stars, percentages)
- Decorative fonts or tiny sizes
- Text boxes and floating elements
- Inconsistent date and job-title formats
- Creative section names the ATS can't map
- Wrong file: image, scan, or .pages instead of .docx/text PDF
- Too much design competing with scannable content
How to fix each one
- 1
Go back to one column
Top-to-bottom content, no tables. Use spacing, not grids, to organize.
- 2
Text is text
No info inside images. Stack and skills as plain text, with market naming.
- 3
Conventional sections
Experience, Education, Skills. The ATS looks for these labels to build your profile.
Layout in detail
For the full walkthrough of sections and order, see the resume structure the ATS understands.
The plain-text test
A quick trick: open your PDF, select all, copy, and paste into a plain text editor (Notepad). Whatever disappears or turns to mush, the ATS loses too. If the result is illegible, the filter sees the same thing.
See your real score
Want to go beyond the manual test? Test your resume's ATS score against the job — or start free on korecv, no card.
Related reading
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