Are you aware that most companies and brands have adopted a CV Screening method called the ATS, which they use in hiring?
If you are wondering what that is and why they use it at all. The answer is simple.
Companies receive a substantial number of applications, and they often lack the time and patience to review them thoroughly. Many candidates don’t get called back for an interview because the companies don’t even view their applications. They simply do not make the ATS cut.
Learn How to Format Your Resume for ATS and AI Filters
This article details essential resume tips that are also ATS-friendly to land any job in 2025.
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Make Your Resume ATS-FRIENDLY
ATS stands for Applicant Tracking System. It is a software used by recruiters to manage the entire screening and hiring process digitally, down to onboarding of successful candidates.
Essentially, the ATS filters the applications sent in before they reach the HR Manager, ie most CVs fail before they are seen by a human.
The tips to pass the ATS include:
- Use Standard Fonts like Calibri, Arial, and Times New Roman. Easy-to-read fonts should always be adopted. Avoid nice-looking fonts because the system finds it hard to read them.
- Avoid Tables, Columns, colours and graphics(pictures), ATS cannot read them properly, therefore, cannot certify your CV.
- Save as word(.docx), not just as a PDF. This is because ATS misses PDFs most times.
- Keep the CV in a simple format, focus on readability rather than decoration.
- Use Keywords from the Job ad
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Properly Format Your CV Structure
This is a very important tip in CV Writing and it helps in the placement of information in your CV. The first things your recruiter should see are the details and information relevant to him on a scale of preference.
Recruiters grade CVs according to the professional placement of details.
Your CV structure should take this format:
- Contact Information: Do not include your home address. The relevant information here includes your Name, Email, LinkedIn Profile Link and Telephone.
- Professional Summary: A short summary of your background, skills, education and interests relevant to the job.
- Skills: The recruiter wants to see your skills before any other information, like your educational background. He/she wants to see the relevant skills you are bringing to the table before other details.
- Work History: You need to show the experience you have in the job area you are applying for or another area related to it.
- Education: What is your educational history/background? Here, you start from the most recent educational achievement down to the least recent.
- Certifications: This includes job/skill certifications, including a certificate of participation in activities
- Awards: Maybe you won the “Most Punctual” Award. This is where you put it down. It is not directly related to the job, but it speaks to your character and will definitely impact your work ethic, so it is relevant.
- Volunteer Works: You could have volunteered in an area of interest, put it down.
- Publications: If you have any publications or a portfolio, you might want to add them here. However, if there is no publication, you could substitute it for “Interests”.
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Keep Your Work Experience Recent and Relevant
As a rule to stay relevant in the job market, you should only show the most recent years of your career and only include the experiences that are relevant to the positions you’re applying to.
You can include college internship or any other internships relevant to the role in question
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Include Your Transferable Skills and Experiences
Most times job seekers do not have the relevant work experience for the job they are vying for. Especially the entry-level job seekers. If you are in this situation, don’t panic, even if you don’t have any professional experience that fits the bill.
Focus your resume on your relevant and transferable skills along with any related side or academic projects, and then make sure to pair it with a strong cover letter telling the narrative of why you’re ideal for the job.
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Write Strong, Achievement-focused Bullet Points
The bullet points under each detail sets apart the relevant information in your CV and is arguably the most important part of your resume. They tell whoever’s reading it what you have, where to go and what to cast their mind to.
It is important whether you are outlining relevant skills, relevant job experiences or educational background.
In your experience, just list your job duties, how your work benefitted your team or company so they know what they stand to gain by hiring you.
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Don’t Neglect Non-traditional Work Experience
No law says you can only put full-time or paid work on your resume. So, if you’ve volunteered, worked part-time or as a temporary or contract worker, freelanced, or interned? These things absolutely qualify as their own job experience within your career. As long as they’re relevant to the job you’re applying for.
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Use Important Keywords from the Job Description
Scan the job description, see what words are used most often, and make sure you’ve included them in your bullet points. For example, does the job description list “CRM” or “Salesforce”? Make sure your resume matches. Not only is this a self-check that you’re targeting your resume to the job, but it’ll also make it easier to search for your resume in an ATS.
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Do Not Omit Education Details
Most hiring managers will want to know your education level, even if it’s not necessarily relevant to the position you’re going for. The first rule is that they want to know that you are literate
This section is especially important for those changing careers or applying for entry-level jobs, as your education can be an indicator of the skills you have.
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Always Put Experience First
Always put your experience before your education or unless you’re a recent graduate, only then might it be more relevant to education after your experience. Chances are, your last couple of jobs are more important to the recruiters and relevant to the job in question than your school/college.
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Keep your margins consistent
Resume margins are much more important than you think. It is crucial for readability and for ATS purposes. It is professional to have consistent margins because anything to the contrary will look messy and unprofessional. The acceptable margin is 0.5, or it can be extended to 0.75
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Include links to your professional website or portfolio
If you have a professional website or digital portfolio including Goggle Docs portfolio, include the URL in your contact section. Most professionals include their LinkedIn profile in their resume. Take an extra care to make sure your URLs are live and hyperlink them in the text so they are accessible.
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Know when to use a resume summary vs a resume objective
Even though a lot of resume formats include professional summary/objective column, it is not a necessity. There are circumstances you can choose not to include it. However, Resume summaries and objectives can be used interchangeably and they highlight your top qualities. But, the right one depends on your experience and goals.
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- Use a resume summary if you have at least five years of work experience and want to show your career growth and key accomplishments.
- Use a resume objective if you’re just starting out or changing careers and want to focus on your skills and goals.
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Keep it short and focused
There is no reason why your CV should be more than a page. Keep it short and relevant; it is basically a short summary/overview tailored to match a specific job. Whether you choose to include a summary or objective, aim for three to four short sentences.
Focus on your most relevant skills, experience, or goals for the role. Avoid buzzwords. Always get straight to the point and use your CV to show why you’re a great fit, right from the start
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Specific Resume
Each resume should be about a particular job/ role tailored to meet the requirements of a particular company or recruiter, outlining the relevant skills and particular experience. It is not unfounded that someone has more than one Resume.
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Keep Education in reverse chronological order
Generally, you should list your educational background with the most recent or advanced degree first, working in reverse chronological order. Maybe if your most recent educational qualification is a PhD, your recruiter wants to see that first before your Bachelor’s Degree.
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Keep an Outline of your Qualifications
Maintain a resume outline on your computer with all your qualifications, achievements, and special projects, tailored for different applications. Then, when creating each resume, you can easily cut and paste the most relevant information together.
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Impress Hiring Managers By Eliminating Ambiguity
Most resumes received by recruiters are notorious for being full of vague, ambiguous statements that read like they were written using a thesaurus. You need to totally avoid that because nobody wants to see all that unclear statements because they are on the clock.
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Showcase your Best Qualifications First
Ensure that your most relevant qualifications are prominently displayed at the top third of your resume, where the hiring manager will see them first. This is why you should always lead with the skills section or a resume summary.
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Choose the Right Resume Format
There are various resume formats to choose from, but the reverse chronological format (listing your most recent experience first) is usually the best option. Avoid functional or skills-based formats unless necessary, as they may raise questions from hiring managers.
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Keep it Concise
Keep your resume as short as possible because you only need to highlight the most relevant information. If you can showcase your skills and experience on one page, it’s ideal. However, if you have relevant and significant experience, training, and credentials, a two-page resume can suffice.
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Include Relevant Links
Depending on your type of work or the skill you intend to sell, you should consider including links to your website, online portfolio, or relevant professional social media profile (usually LinkedIn). But avoid hyperlinking over critical words as it may interfere with the resume screening software used by employers to store and parse resumes.
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Avoid Design Elements that can’t be read by Computers
Just as rightly explained earlier in this article, formatting for ATS is very important. On the other hand, there are certain design elements that ATSs have trouble with. These include tables, text boxes, logos and icons, images and photos, graphics, graphs, other visuals, headers and footers, less common fonts, and columns that can only be read from top to bottom. Avoid using these elements to ensure your resume passes the screening process.
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Highlight your Contact Information
Make sure to include your phone number and professional email address on your resume, as well as any other relevant contact information, such as your LinkedIn profile and make them as clear as possible. You don’t need to include your physical address, but ensure that your contact information is prominent and easily accessible.
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Don’t Overlook Your Transferable Skills
If you don’t have any professional experience that aligns with the job you’re applying for, don’t panic. Highlight your relevant and transferable skills and related side or academic projects on your resume, then pair them with a compelling cover letter that tells the story of why you’re the ideal candidate for the job. After all, employers today value your skills and personality.
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Use Achievement-Focused Bullet Points
The bullet points under each job entry are crucial in communicating your skills and how you have utilized them in the past, this sells you to the recruiter by giving the impression that you can convey your work duties and that you actually did something at the job. However, you need to start each bullet point with a strong action verb, and include relevant skills from the job description. Rather than simply listing your job duties, frame your bullet points around your achievements and how they benefited your employer or company.
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Curate your Bullet Points and Experiences
Limit the bullet points under each job entry to a maximum of eight, and reduce the number of bullet points for older or less relevant jobs to four to six.
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Remove Dates from Your Education Section
Unless you’re early in your career, it’s advisable not to list your graduation dates. The reviewer is more interested in whether or not you possess the degree than when you earned it. Listing dates may inadvertently expose you to age discrimination, which is a harsh reality in some job markets.
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Emphasize Honors and Achievements
If you graduated from the University with a First Class or a 2.1, you may want to highlight it on your resume. If you are yet to graduate, you may put your current academic standing. Again, it depends on what type of job you are looking at. Nowadays, employers don’t place as much emphasis on the CGPA as they do on the skills you gained during your academic career.
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Include Continuing or Online Education
Don’t hesitate to list continuing education, professional development coursework, or online courses in your education section, particularly if your resume feels light on the experience area.
Sometimes, when those programmes are still ongoing, you may want to include them and describe it with “in view”.
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Divide your Skills for Clarity.
Create a class or headings for the skills you are including in your CV. If you have numerous skills that could be useful for a job but aren’t necessarily in the same category, such as foreign language, software, and leadership skills, consider breaking up your skills section. Below your “Skills” section, create a subsection titled “Language Skills” or “Software Skills,” for example. This makes it easier for employers to skim your resume.
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Demonstrate your Soft Skills.
Listing soft skills on a resume can come across as a list of meaningless buzzwords. Don’t just state them, describe them. However, you may convey attributes such as being a strong leader or an effective communicator. Think about how you can demonstrate these qualities in your bullet points without merely stating them.
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Be Strategic about Listing Dates for Shorter Gaps
If you have gaps of a few months in your work history, consider listing only the years you worked at each position or just the number of years or months. Keep it consistent throughout your resume and be honest about gaps if asked during an interview.
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Address Serial Job Hopping
If you’ve frequently changed jobs, consider including a succinct reason for leaving next to each position. This could include reasons such as “company closed,” “layoff due to downsizing,” or “relocated to a new city”. These are legitimate reasons without risking being seen as a red flag. By proactively addressing the gaps, you can illustrate the reason for your frequent job changes and make it less of an issue.
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Explain a Long Break in Jobs
If you’re re-entering the workforce after a long hiatus, start with a summary statement at the top that outlines your best skills and accomplishments. Then, get into your career chronology, including any part-time or volunteer work.
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Be Intentional about Career Gaps
While career gaps are becoming more common, it’s still important to frame them in a way that’s relevant to a future employer. Talk about skills you gained or any professional endeavors you pursued during your break. Avoid describing unrelated experiences on your resume. Instead, focus on any professional skills you may have grown or activities you may have done.
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Improve The Visual Appeal
This is one of the most important resume writing tips. Make sure that your resume is easy on the eye and readable. Use white space to break up text sections and use bullet points to highlight critical information, and avoid over-crowding, always incorporate number formatting like bullet points
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Delete Buzzwords
If it’s generic, it is boring and it does not belong on your resume. Read your resume again, weed out these “unnecessary” buzzwords, and replace them with precise, commercially relevant phrases. Words to avoid:
- Team player
- Dynamic
- Hard worker
- Problem solver
- Extensive experience
- Self-starter
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Always be Honest
Honesty, they say, is the best policy. Don’t lie on your resume. Ever. Be honest about your qualifications and experiences. If you’re caught lying on your resume, you’ll lose your credibility with a recruiter (and potentially an entire recruitment firm or employer).
You’ll destroy all chances of getting hired not just for a particular role, but for any future roles with that recruitment firm or organisation.
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Delete Your Photograph
In certain parts of the world, including a photo on your resume is normal practice. However, do not include one on your resume, unless a job description specifically asks you to include it.
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Leave Out References
Just include “References Available Upon Request”. Don’t add references to your resume, but mention that they’re just an email away.
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Try Two-Column Layouts to Fit More Information on One Page
It is possible for two columns to fit more information than one. You can go ahead and make a narrow column on the documents’ left or right side and put your contact information and bulleted lists there. Use the wider column for more extensive work experience and education sections.
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Add Appropriate Social Media Links
“Appropriate” is key here. While an optimized LinkedIn profile is the most popular choice, you can also include Facebook or Instagram profiles on a resume, but only if you use them for business purposes. Don’t add any social media links that lead to personal pages. Nobody would take you seriously if you did that.
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Show Off Your Best Personality Traits
Start your resume profile with admirable personal qualities. There are dozens to choose from, so find one that matches your personality best. Try words such as “accountable,” “diligent,” “adaptable,” “creative,” “motivated,” etc.
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Make Your Resume Profile Sound Like an Elevator Pitch
This point highlights a scenario where you meet the owner of your dream company, probably in an elevator, and you think that it is your best and last chance to sell yourself. You’ve got 30 seconds to talk about yourself and what you can do for him; if you do it well, you can get the job.
The resume summary or objective is your elevator pitch: it must be short, concise, and highlight your best qualities.
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Be Specific About What You Can Help the Company Achieve
Leave vague statements to politicians. You need to be specific. Your potential employer wants to know if they’d benefit from hiring you. Convince them by providing an example of what you could accomplish in the new role and how it could help the company succeed.
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Make Personal Interests Count on Your Resume
Employers want passionate people to work for them. If your interests align with your profession, show them on a resume. It’s even better if you can mention an achievement or two that highlights your professional skills.
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Assert That Volunteering Is Just Like Working
Volunteer work is just like regular work, only unpaid. So you describe it just like work experience. Mention the organization name, volunteering period, and your specific duties or accomplishments just like you would work experience.
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Write a Matching Cover Letter
Most people hate writing those. But they improve your chances of landing that dream job. Just accompany it with a professional and cover letter that sells, then, you are good to go
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Include A Professional Email Address
Always stay professional in your dealings. Your email address must look like it belongs to a serious candidate. Don’t use email addresses such as [email protected] or [email protected].
Recruiters consider this a red flag.
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Proofread Your Resume 3 Times
This may be one of those resume tips that’s too obvious to mention, but I’ll do it anyway. Don’t forget to check for spelling mistakes and grammatical errors! This is a critical step that too many job seekers overlook. Also, scan the resume for unnecessary info. Study the document closely, and ask yourself: “Is this information necessary and relevant to the job posting?” Weed out anything that doesn’t contribute.