What Makes a Resume Template ATS-Friendly
An applicant tracking system turns your resume into plain text before anyone reads it. A template is ATS-friendly when that text comes out complete and in the right order: real selectable text rather than images, standard section headings such as Experience, Education and Skills, contact details in the body instead of a page header, no tables or text boxes holding key content, and dates and job titles in a consistent format.
Layout Elements: What Parses Well and What Is Risky
Most parsing problems come from a handful of layout choices rather than from the template as a whole. Use this table to check any template, ours or anyone else’s, before you rely on it:
| Element | Safe choice | Risky choice |
|---|---|---|
| Section headings | Standard words: Summary, Experience, Education, Skills, Certifications | Creative labels such as “My Journey” or “What I Bring” that a parser may not recognize |
| Contact details | Name, email, phone, city and LinkedIn URL as plain text at the top of the page body | Contact details placed only in the document header or footer, or inside an image |
| Columns | One column, or a simple sidebar that holds short lists such as skills | Several columns of running text, where reading order can scramble |
| Tables and text boxes | Plain paragraphs and bullet lists | Job history or skills held inside table cells or floating text boxes |
| Dates | One consistent format, such as “Mar 2021 – Present”, on every role | Mixed formats, seasons only, or dates placed in a separate column far from the job title |
| Fonts and symbols | Common fonts and standard bullet characters | Icon fonts, decorative glyphs, or skill ratings drawn as bars and stars |
| File type | A text-based PDF, or a Word document when the posting asks for one | A scanned PDF or an image file, which contains no readable text |
Single-Column ATS Templates
The safest layout for strict screening systems. Olyres offers Classic ATS (timeless serif with strong readability, included in Olyres Free); Professional ATS (polished and corporate-ready, included in Olyres Free); Executive ATS (bold header for senior roles); Structured Executive (labelled expertise rows for director-level roles); Compact Timeline (dated timeline rail, single-column text); Minimal (ultra-clean, distraction-free).
Sidebar ATS Templates
Two-column layouts that keep skills in a side panel while staying ATS-safe in Olyres: Right Sidebar (dark header + right sidebar for skills); Right Sidebar Alt (bordered right panel, no colored header); Light Sidebar (soft left sidebar with wide main column). If you are unsure how a particular employer’s system handles columns, choose a single-column template instead.
When to Use a Creative Template
Olyres also has 5 creative templates (Sidebar, Portfolio, Editorial, Impact, Creative). They are not built for applicant tracking systems, so keep them for applications that go straight to a person, such as a referral, a portfolio submission or a networking email.
Which Templates Are Free
Classic ATS and Professional ATS are included in Olyres Free. Every other template is part of Olyres Pro. Whatever template you pick, the content is the same resume: you can switch templates at any time without retyping anything.
Choosing a Template by Career Stage
The right template depends less on taste than on how much you have to show and where you are sending it:
- Students and new graduates: a single-column template that puts Education near the top, followed by projects, internships, or clinical rotations. One page is usually enough.
- Early and mid-career: a single-column template that leads with a short summary and your most relevant experience. Keep older or unrelated roles brief.
- Senior and leadership roles: a single-column template with room for a two-line summary, scope (team size, budget, territory), and selected achievements. Two pages is normal at this stage.
- Career changers: a template with a clear Skills section near the top, so transferable skills are visible before the reader reaches job titles from another field.
- Skills-heavy roles: a sidebar template can keep a long tools or skills list tidy, as long as your experience still reads in order in the main column.
Choosing a Template by Field
Fields differ in what a reviewer looks for first, and a template should make that easy to find. Healthcare résumés need licenses and certifications visible near the top. Engineering résumés benefit from room for projects, tools, and registration status. Sales résumés should let numbers such as quota attainment stand out in each role. Marketing résumés can use a little more visual polish, but campaign results still need to read as plain text. Tech and product résumés usually need a compact skills section and space for measurable outcomes. The field guides show complete sample résumés for each:
Checklist Before You Export
Run through this list before you send a résumé built on any template:
- Your name, email, phone number, and city appear as plain text in the body of the page.
- Every section uses a standard heading that a recruiter would search for.
- Each role shows a job title, employer, location if relevant, and dates in the same format.
- Skills the job posting asks for appear in your experience bullets, not only in a skills list.
- No important information sits inside an image, chart, icon, or text box.
- You can select and copy all of the text in the exported PDF, and it pastes in a sensible order.
- The file name is clear and professional, for example firstname-lastname-resume.pdf.
- The length suits your experience: usually one page early in a career, up to two pages later.
Common Template Mistakes
These are the template choices most likely to cost you, even when the content itself is strong:
- Choosing a template for how it looks on screen rather than how it reads as plain text.
- Using a creative design for an online application that goes through an applicant tracking system.
- Rating skills with bars, dots, or percentages, which carry no meaning once converted to text.
- Shrinking fonts and margins to force too much onto one page instead of cutting weaker content.
- Adding a photo, which many employers in the US, UK, and elsewhere do not expect and which a parser cannot read.
- Switching templates late and not rechecking dates, headings, and bullet spacing afterwards.
ATS Resume Template FAQs
Common questions about choosing and using an ATS-friendly template:
- Is a two-column resume ATS-friendly?
- It can be, but it carries more risk than a single column. A narrow sidebar holding short lists such as skills usually parses well; two columns of running text can be read out of order. If the posting gives no hint about how applications are screened, a single-column template is the safer choice.
- Should I submit a PDF or a Word document?
- Follow the job posting first. When it does not say, a text-based PDF is widely accepted and keeps your layout intact. Avoid scanned PDFs and image files, which contain no readable text.
- Does a template change my ATS score?
- A template affects whether your résumé is read correctly, not whether it matches the job. Clean formatting removes a source of errors; the match itself comes from your skills, keywords, and experience compared with the posting.
- Can I change templates later?
- In Olyres, yes. The content is the same résumé whichever template you pick, so you can switch at any time without retyping anything.
A Template Is Only Half the Job
Clean formatting gets your resume read correctly; it does not make it relevant. After choosing a template, check the content against the job you are applying to, so the skills and keywords the employer asks for actually appear in your experience.
Build Your Resume on an ATS-Friendly Template
Pick a template in the Olyres Resume Builder, import or write your resume, and export a clean PDF.
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