What is an ATS and how does it read your resume?

What is an ATS?

An ATS, or applicant tracking system, is software employers use to publish job postings, receive resumes, store them and search them. Before a recruiter reads your application, the software breaks it into fields: identity, contact details, experience, education, skills. That parsed version is what recruiters then filter and search.

An ATS is not a mysterious judge that rejects candidates behind their backs. It is first and foremost an organizing tool. But the way it works has a direct consequence: if the software cannot extract your name, dates or skills, your application may not surface when the recruiter filters or searches by keyword. A strong profile can go unnoticed simply because it was hard to read.

ATS products vary from one vendor to another, and each employer configures theirs differently. The advice below targets what most of them have in common: reliably reading plain text.

What does an ATS read in your resume?

An ATS first looks for your name, email address and phone number, then identifies sections by their headings: experience, education, skills. For each role, it tries to isolate the job title, the employer and the dates. Finally, it compares your resume’s vocabulary with the posting’s, which recruiters use to filter applications.

Why standard headings matter

The software relies on section headings to know where your experience starts and where your education begins. An original heading may charm a human reader, but it takes away the machine’s landmark. Keep the structure conventional and let your personality show in the content.

Which formatting traps should you avoid?

The most common traps are multiple columns, text boxes, layout tables, images and information placed in the page header or footer. These can scramble the reading order or vanish during extraction. A single-column layout with plain text is the safest choice for most applicant tracking systems.

• Columns: the software may read across the page and merge two unrelated sections.
• Text boxes and headers: their content is sometimes ignored, including your contact details.
• Images, logos and charts: they contain no usable text.
• Decorative characters: fancy bullets, symbols and unusual fonts can turn into unreadable characters.
• File format: send the format the posting asks for; otherwise, a PDF exported from a word processor, not a scanned image, is usually read well.

A simple check: copy all the text from your PDF and paste it into a plain text editor. If the order makes sense and nothing is missing, the document has a good chance of being read correctly.

Before each application, run our 15-point resume checklist: it covers these traps and adds the file and proofreading.

How should you use keywords from the posting?

Reuse the posting’s exact terms where they genuinely describe your experience: job titles, tools, certifications, skills. A recruiter filtering for "project management" may not find a resume that only mentions "coordinating initiatives". Never add a skill you do not actually have; it will surface in the interview.

A four-step method:

1. List the skills and tools that recur in the posting or appear in its requirements.
2. Identify the ones that match your real experience.
3. Work them into your profile, achievements and skills section, in sentences that show the context.
4. Check readability: a resume stuffed with keywords may satisfy a filter, but not the person who reads it next.

Artificial keyword stuffing, whether hidden text or an endless list, should be avoided: it is obvious to a human reader and undermines your credibility.

What does an ATS score measure, and what does it miss?

An ATS score estimates how easily screening software can read your resume and find the posting’s vocabulary in it. It is an indicator of readability and relevance, not a prediction of being hired. It does not judge the quality of your achievements, your fit with the team or each employer’s specific configuration.

Treat it as a scored checklist: it helps you fix formatting issues before you apply, and then your content and human judgment take over.

How can Postulio help?

Postulio’s CV Studio simulates how an ATS reads your resume: it shows what a machine extracts (name, email, phone, sections, roles with title, employer and dates, skills) and lists the words from the posting that are missing. Its ATS score combines five dimensions, each scored out of 100: contact details, structure, experience, formatting and keywords. The calculation follows fixed rules, without AI, so it is reproducible and explained. One stated limit: the analysis works on text, so columns or text boxes only show up at export. The score is an indicator, not a guarantee, and you send every application yourself. Job posting analysis complements it by comparing the posting with your profile. For the substance of your resume, see our guide to the Canadian resume, and for the letter, how to tailor it to each posting.

Sources

• Job Bank, Government of Canada (opens in a new tab) — official advice on job searching and resume writing.
• Government of Canada (opens in a new tab) — employment and career resources in Canada.
• Government of Quebec (opens in a new tab) — information on job searching and employment services in Quebec.