How to Beat an ATS Scanner: 12 Tactics That Work in 2026

1. Use a single-column layout

Two-column resumes look elegant on screen, but most ATS parsers read top-to-bottom, left-to-right, and treat each column as part of one continuous stream. The result is a jumbled mess where your job titles end up interleaved with your skills list. Single-column resumes parse cleanly every time. Every template inside Curriq (cornerstone, clarity, classique on the free tier, plus 17 more on Pro) ships as a single column for that exact reason. For more layout choices, see our roundup of ATS-friendly resume templates that pass scanners.

2. Stick to standard section names

ATS parsers look for predictable headings to slot your content into the right database fields. "Experience," "Work Experience," "Professional Experience," "Education," "Skills," "Certifications," "Projects," and "Summary" all parse correctly. Cute alternatives like "My Journey," "Where I've Been," or "Stack of Choice" do not. The parser will either skip the section entirely or dump it into a generic "Other" bucket. Standard headings are not boring, they are functional.

3. Submit the right file format

PDF is the universal choice in 2026. It preserves layout, fonts, and structure, and modern ATS parsers handle text-based PDFs cleanly. The one exception is when a job posting explicitly asks for .docx (some legacy Taleo and SAP SuccessFactors setups still prefer it). Avoid .pages, .odt, .rtf, and any image format. Curriq exports US Letter PDF directly to your iPhone Files app, which is the format US recruiters expect.

4. Match keywords from the posting

ATS systems score your resume against the job requisition. The simplest way to lift your score is to mirror exact phrasing from the posting for hard skills, tools, methodologies, and certifications. If the posting says "Kubernetes," do not write "K8s" alone. Write "Kubernetes (K8s)" the first time. This satisfies both literal and semantic matching parsers. Our ATS Keywords List 2026 has 80+ curated terms grouped by role to get you started.

5. Put contact info in the body, not the header

Headers and footers are the single most common parsing failure. Many ATS systems literally ignore the header region of a PDF, treating it as document chrome. If your name, email, and phone number live in a Word-style header, the parser may not pick them up at all. Put your contact information as plain text in the first 100 pixels of the document body. Curriq templates handle this by default; if you are building manually in Word or Google Docs, double-check.

6. Use a clean dates format

ATS systems parse dates to calculate role duration and recency. They expect predictable formats: "Jan 2024 to Present," "January 2024 to Present," or "01/2024 to Current" all work. Avoid creative formats like "Winter 2024," "Q1 '24," or "2024-now." Be consistent across the whole resume; mixing formats causes parsers to skip entries. Spell out the month or use a 3-letter abbreviation; do not use just numbers for the month if you can avoid it, because some legacy systems misread "03/24" as either March 2024 or March 1924.

7. Lead bullets with action verbs

Every bullet should start with a past-tense action verb (or present-tense for your current role). "Led," "Built," "Reduced," "Launched," "Architected," "Negotiated." Avoid starting bullets with "Responsible for" or "Tasked with." These are passive constructions that signal a job description, not an accomplishment. Then quantify whenever possible. "Reduced AWS spend by 31% over two quarters" parses, scores, and sells. For a deeper list, see our piece on the best resume words to use in 2026.

8. Skip the images, logos, and headshots

ATS parsers do not read images. A photo of you, a company logo, or a graphic skills bar contributes nothing to the parser and may actively confuse some setups (especially older ones that treat embedded images as text gaps). In the US and Canadian markets, a headshot can also work against you because most recruiters are trained to avoid them to reduce bias. Plain text everywhere. Save the visuals for your portfolio.

9. Do not use tables

Tables are the second-most-common parsing failure after multi-column layouts. Even when a table looks like a clean two-column block, the parser may read it cell by cell in an unexpected order. The fix is to use formatted text or simple indentation instead. If you need a skills "grid," use a paragraph with comma-separated values or a short bullet list. Curriq's templates avoid tables entirely for this reason.

10. Avoid headers, footers, and text boxes

Beyond contact info, do not put anything important in document headers, footers, or floating text boxes. Page numbers in the footer are fine and ignored. But page-spanning text boxes for "Skills" or "Education" sidebars will be skipped or scrambled by most ATS parsers. If you want a sidebar, you are using the wrong file format for ATS purposes; build a separate visual version for human-only situations like networking PDFs sent over email.

11. Name the file properly

Save your file as FirstName_LastName_Resume.pdf (or _Role.pdf when you tailor it). Avoid spaces, special characters, version numbers, and dates. A file named "Resume_FINAL_v7_2026-corrected.pdf" looks unprofessional in a recruiter's downloads folder and gives the ATS system unnecessary noise in the filename field. Some systems even use the filename as a fallback when parsing fails; "JaneDoe_Resume.pdf" is better than "Resume.pdf" or "JD_FINAL.pdf."

12. Run a post-export verification

This is the tactic almost nobody does, and it is the single highest-leverage one. After you export your resume to PDF, open the file and try the following: select all text (Cmd+A / Ctrl+A), copy it, and paste it into a plain text editor. Read the result. That is approximately what the ATS parser sees. If your name is missing, if dates run together, if sections are jumbled, fix the source document. If you skip this step, you are guessing. Curriq's PDF export was built to pass this exact test; the text comes out in reading order, contact info first, then sections in sequence.

Bonus: tailor per posting

The 12 tactics above get your resume past the parser. To actually rank well in the recruiter's queue, you need to tailor per job. That means reordering bullets so the most relevant ones come first, swapping in the exact tools and methodologies the posting names, and rewriting the summary section so the first line speaks directly to the role. Tailoring takes 10 to 20 minutes per application and often doubles your callback rate, anecdotally. Read our full guide on tailoring a resume for a specific job posting for a repeatable process.

If you want to tailor faster, Curriq's AI rewrite can rephrase a bullet to emphasize a different skill or outcome without you starting from scratch. Each rewrite costs 1 credit, and the launch promo through June 15, 2026 gives every user 50 free AI credits per month.