Beat the ATS: How to Build a Resume that Gets Hired

What is an ATS?

An Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is software used by corporate recruiters and HR departments to filter, scan, and rank thousands of job applications. Before your resume ever reaches a human hiring manager, it must pass through this digital gatekeeper. If your resume contains unreadable graphics, complex tables, or non-standard fonts, the ATS parser will fail to extract your skills, and your application will be automatically discarded—even if you are the perfect candidate for the role.

The Problem with Canva Resumes

In an effort to stand out, many job seekers use highly stylized resume templates from Canva or Photoshop. While these graphic-heavy resumes look beautiful, they are an absolute nightmare for parsing algorithms. Text embedded inside vector shapes, progress bars for skills, or complex multi-column layouts often get completely scrambled when converted to plain text by the ATS. The bot might read your contact information as part of your work history, resulting in a 0% match score.

How to Beat the Bots

To ensure your resume reaches a human, you must design it for the machine first. Follow these critical rules:

• Use Standard Headers: Don't use creative headers like "My Journey" or "What I Do." Stick to standard terms like "Work Experience," "Education," and "Skills" so the ATS knows exactly what section it is reading.
• Avoid Tables and Columns: ATS bots read left-to-right, top-to-bottom. Multi-column layouts confuse the parser, mixing your technical skills with the dates of your previous employment.
• Keyword Optimization: Read the job description carefully. Ensure that the exact skills, software, and keywords mentioned in the posting appear naturally in your resume. If they ask for "Search Engine Optimization," don't just write "SEO."
• Ditch the Graphics: Remove profile pictures, skill sliders, and custom icons. Use standard bullet points (solid circles or squares) to list your accomplishments.

The Zenixtools ATS Resume Builder

We built our free ATS Resume Builder to solve this exact problem. It is specifically designed to output clean, single-column, highly parsable PDFs. You just focus on writing compelling content and impact-driven bullet points, and we handle the algorithm-friendly formatting. Stop letting bad formatting cost you job interviews.