11 of our 14 resume templates are built as a single column of text, which is what an applicant tracking system can actually read. Pick one, fill in your details, and download a PDF that survives the software before it reaches a person.
Live preview · PDF download · Works on mobile
An applicant tracking system is the software an employer uses to collect and sort job applications. When you upload a resume to a company careers page or a job portal, an ATS is usually the first thing that opens it. It extracts your name, contact details, work history, and skills into database fields, and recruiters then search and filter those fields.
The practical consequence is simple: if the software cannot pull your job titles and dates out cleanly, a recruiter searching for "frontend developer, 3+ years" may never see you — however strong your experience is. An ATS-friendly resume is one laid out so that extraction works.
This is a formatting problem, not a writing problem. You do not need to strip your resume of personality or stuff it with keywords. You need a layout the parser can follow.
Most advice on this topic is superstition. These are the things that genuinely cause a parser to lose your information — and the things that do not.
The single biggest cause of mangled resumes. A parser reading left to right across two columns interleaves your skills into the middle of your job history.
A name, logo, or skills chart rendered as a graphic contains no extractable text. To the software that region of the page is simply blank.
Contact details placed in a Word header or footer are frequently skipped entirely — which means a recruiter has your resume but no way to call you.
Coloured headings, rules, and accents are styling applied to ordinary text. Parsers read the text and ignore the colour. A tasteful accent costs you nothing.
Any standard font embedded in a PDF extracts cleanly. You do not need to restrict yourself to Times New Roman — only to avoid decorative or icon fonts.
Modern systems read PDFs without trouble, and PDF is what most portals request. The old advice to always send .doc predates the software most employers now run.
Every template below keeps your text in one column. Each preview is the real layout, not a mockup — and each says why it parses cleanly, so you are not just trusting a badge.
These templates are in the builder and they look good — but they put text in a side column, so save them for emailing a human directly or attaching to a portfolio.
Caution: Contact details and skills sit in a side column, which parsers often read across into the main text.
Caution: Two genuine columns. Skills and certifications in the rail can be scrambled on parse.
Caution: Side rail plus a photo frame. Best for portfolios and direct email, not job portals.