Start with a straightforward reading order
Put your name and contact details at the top, followed by sections such as Experience, Education, and Skills. Within each role, keep title, employer, location, and dates in a consistent pattern. A simple single-column layout is a reasonable starting point when you do not know how an employer will process the file.
Keep important text in the document body
Avoid relying on icons to communicate a skill or on a graphic to show proficiency. If a fact matters, write it as text. Tables, text boxes, columns, and headers can sometimes change the order in which text is extracted; test the final file instead of assuming your design is safe or unsafe.
Use the job posting as a vocabulary check
Compare the posting with your résumé. If you have relevant experience but describe it with unfamiliar shorthand, use a clearer term. Include the employer's terminology only when it accurately fits your work. Repeating keywords without evidence makes the résumé less useful to a human reader.
Run a two-minute file test
- Open the final file and check spacing, page breaks, and font size.
- Select all text, copy it, and paste it into a plain-text editor.
- Read the pasted version from top to bottom. Are names, dates, job titles, and bullet points present and in a sensible order?
- Follow the employer's exact PDF or Word instruction. If none is given, choose a common format that preserves readable text.
Good text extraction is a useful signal, not proof that every applicant tracking system will interpret or rank your résumé the same way. Employers use different tools and settings.
Make it readable for a person too
Use descriptive headings, consistent spacing, and bullets that explain what you did. A document optimized only for keyword matching can still fail to show why your work matters. Try our five-pass checklist after the file test.
Further reading: UC Berkeley résumé guidance and University of Pennsylvania Career Services.