Read More: Beat the Robots: How to Get Your Resume Past the System and Into Human Hands If this doesn’t change the experience of reading your resume, columns may be OK.

Columns : ATSs are programmed to read left to right, so they’ll often read columns straight across rather than reading each column from top to bottom.

Images, including photos ( in the U.S.), logos, graphics, graphs, other visuals, or text contained in any of these elements.

So to give yourself the best chance of getting to the next round of hiring, you want to make sure any template you choose doesn’t include any of these formatting elements: These programs are pretty advanced, but they’re far from perfect, and certain types of formatting may make it difficult or impossible for an ATS to accurately parse your resume.

ATSs are software that most employers use to store, file, and search candidate resumes to help them stay organized and find the applicants that meet the most qualifications.

But you should also choose a resume template that can be easily “read” by an applicant tracking system (ATS). You want to pick one that’s visually appealing, easy to use, and allows you to include all the necessary resume sections.

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