An ATS resume is structured so that applicant tracking systems – the software employers use to manage applications – can parse it accurately. These systems extract sections, map them to fields (work experience, education, skills) and match keywords to the job posting. Resumes that fail to parse are filtered out before any human ever sees them.
In practice this means: simple single-column layouts instead of tables or columns; standard headings like "Work Experience" and "Education"; common fonts such as Arial, Calibri or Helvetica; no graphics, icons or embedded images that carry text; classic bullet points rather than special symbols. The file should be saved as a text-based PDF, not a scanned image.
At the same time, the terms used in the job posting should appear in the resume – without crude keyword stuffing. If "project management" is required, that exact phrase should ideally show up, embedded in real context.
For Lunigi users, ATS optimisation alone is not everything – semantic matching systems beyond classical ATS evaluate profiles independently of literal keywords.