FCK ATS

A finished example

One made-up candidate, three versions of their resume, one job. Nothing to upload: the result is already here.

Polished resume with tables The same, as plain text Scanned PDF

The job we compare against: We're hiring a Python Developer. You'll build on Django, work with PostgreSQL, containerise services with Docker and build ETL pipelines. Requirements: 2+ years of experience, Upper-Intermediate English, Git.

Polished resume with tables

A two-column PDF: name in a colored header, experience in a table, skills as colored tiles. People like how it looks.

38 out of 100 Fail 

MISSING: Django, Docker, PostgreSQL, the job title "Python Developer"
FORMAT: the name is split into single letters and doesn't read as a name; footer text lands in the middle of the experience section; the experience table collapses into one stream; skill levels are drawn as squares, which the parser sees as noise
FIX: rebuild the resume as one column with no tables; put your name on a plain line of text; use the job title exactly as the posting does

How to rewrite it

Your Name
Python Developer
your.name@example.com | London

Experience
- Lead Specialist, Alpha Ltd, 2023–2026
  Reporting automation with Python and SQL
- Analyst, Beta Ltd, 2021–2023
  40+ reports a month, Power BI dashboards

Skills
- Python, SQL, Git, Power BI, Excel, ETL

Education
- City University, Accounting and Audit, BSc, 2019

This is the file you'd get:

Not added, and why

- Django: not mentioned anywhere in the resume. It has to be learned for real, not written in.
- Docker: no experience listed.
- PostgreSQL: there's SQL in general, but not this database.

Check your own resume