Why Formatting Your Resume Correctly Matters

In recent years, there has been a trend to create resumes that have graphics, tables, and images embedded throughout the document. While these may be visually appealing, they often are a detriment to the candidate. When submitting your resume through an Applicant Tracking System (ATS), that technology scans hundreds and thousands of resumes to make it easier for the recruiter/hiring manager to find the best talent. This is why it’s critical to ensure your resume is formatted properly – you don’t want your resume to be ignored or rejected from the system just because it wasn’t formatted correctly.

Often, if a resume is submitted that uses graphics, tables, etc. – it can come across garbled on the receiving end and sometimes illegible. One example is featured below, as this is an actual example from Indeed – a candidate submitted their resume and Indeed was unable to display the resume. From a Recruiter or Hiring Manager’s perspective, they will usually pass these resumes as there are thousands of resumes to review and consider. Typically 3-6 seconds is spent reviewing a resume, so if it’s unable to be displayed as this example shows below, a Recruiter will likely pass on this and move to the next candidate. Time is of the essence in Recruiting!

Ensuring your resume is properly formatted is critical to ensuring you have a greater chance of making it through the ATS platforms AND attracting the hiring manager or Recruiter’s attention.

The resumes our team produces are all “Applicant Tracking Friendly”, formatted to ensure that the likelihood of this example happening to you is slim to none.

We would love to help you produce a resume that will get noticed!