Introduction
In 2025, about 97.8 % (≈ 489 of 500) of Fortune 500 companies still use an ATS, and you can reduce your workload if you already have some ATS-friendly resume/ CV templates to choose one out of those templates before applying for your dream job.
Furthermore, many large employers report that ATS screening significantly reduces their time-to-hire / applicant overload, making ATS use standard in modern hiring. ATS systems have become your decision-makers, deciding whether your resumes go to the Yes pile or the No pile.
To help you land your dream job and never get rejected in the initial screening, I have gathered information from recruiters having 10+ years of experience as well as from job seekers from various fields, including development, designing, sales, marketing, and engineering, before crafting this up-to-date and relevant guide on how you can craft an ATS-friendly resume in 2026.
What Is an Applicant Tracking System
An ATS (Application Tracking System) is software that scans every application submitted for a job. After screening, it decides whether a recruiter should see a resume, based on the job requirements and the candidate’s profile.
What does an ATS check in the Initial Screening
An ATS checks the following in your resume:
- Keywords that the recruiter plugged in for the job
- Required Work Experience
- Core Skills
- Soft Skills
- Any Action Verbs that can help you stand out among other candidates
How does ATS Software Scan for Keywords?
ATS software is designed in a way that it picks the keywords that are plugged in by the recruiter in the job description, and then it checks your resume to see how many of them match with each other. The more you have the keywords in your resume, the better you score in the ATS.
Furthermore, I would encourage you to stick to the article till the end because I have explained how to incorporate keywords in your resume along with ATS-friendly resume/ CV templates.
It is important to place the keywords in your CV because 55–60 % of recruiters report that keywords and proper formatting are critical for ATS-pass success.
Why Do So Many Companies Use ATS
Around76.3 % of recruiters use ATS at least occasionally in their hiring process, and with the evolution of AI and automation being everywhere nowadays, companies are expected to automate their tasks so that they can save their time and utilize their productivity the right way.
Also, ATS helps recruiters to analyze CVs that are more likely to be hired and are well-capable to pass through the hiring process. Consequently, job seekers should not neglect the importance of the ATS in 2025 and beyond.
What Is an ATS Resume
An ATS resume is a resume that is crafted to parse through an Applicant Tracking System.
- It follows an easy-to-read layout so that the software can compare your skills and experience with the job description (JD)
- It is also kept in mind that an ATS resume can be read by both the system software and humans
- It has a neat, simple format with relevant headings under sections.
- It comprises relevant keywords that must match the job requirement and focuses on mentioning your qualifications a nd skills without any fancy graphics or formats that might puzzle the ATS.
Example of an ATS-Friendly Resume/ CV Templates
Why are ATS-Optimized Resumes Important
Among employers using ATS, about 79 % have integrated or plan to integrate some form of AI or automation for resume screening or hiring tasks by 2025. Therefore, it raises the importance of creating resumes that can navigate through the ATS systems. Also, you should create a single-page resume mentioning your summary, relevant experience, keywords that can add significant value to your resume, and achievements (if any)
How to Create ATS-Friendly Resume/ CV (Step-by-Step)
Around 60 % of resumes are rejected before a human recruiter even sees them, mainly due to keyword mismatches or poor formatting – Gitnux
Let’s delve into the step-by-step guide where you will master how to make an ATS-friendly resume/ CV and land your dream job.
1. Review the Job Description
To begin with, you must read the job description and see the following:
- Required Skills
- Qualifications
- Experience
- Potential Keywords
- Any past project or volunteering that could be a plus
2. Choose the Right Layout
Secondly, you should choose a resume layout. It is recommended to create a resume/CV with a simple layout. You should choose a single-column structure for your resume because it is easy to understand for the system as well as for humans.
3. Write an SEO-Optimized Professional Summary
Furthermore, while making your resume ATS-friendly, you will see that all the ATS-friendly resume/ CV templates have a professional/ description in the beginning. You should write it within 50 words and try to add keywords to it.
4. Contact Details and Languages
Add your contact details, which include the following:
- Professional Email
- Phone Number
- LinkedIn Profile Link
- Website Link (if any)
- Languages
5. Mention Educational History
Moreover, it really boosts your ATS score if you place your educational background in the reverse chronological order (the most recent education first). Never forget to add the school’s name, degree name, passing year, state, and your grade.
6. Incorporate Relevant Keywords
Once you’re done with adding the summary, contact details there comes the most crucial step of adding the relevant keywords. ATS always checks whether your resume has the keywords mentioned in the job requirements and evaluates your score based on it.
7. Mention Relevant Core Skills.
You should add 6-10 hard skills that must resonate with the required job role. Over two-thirds of recruiters (≈ 64.9 %) say hard-skills filtering by ATS influences which resumes pass. This will increase your ATS score and boost your chances of getting an interview call from HR.
9. Add Soft Skills
Write after expertise, you should add a section where you will add your soft skills, ideally using keywords mentioned in the job description.
10. Mention Relevant Experience
Never underestimate the importance of adding your work experience. Use action verbs (Assist, Improve, Develop, Fix) while elaborating your job role for a particular experience.
Pro Tip: Use conducted, assisted action verbs just like those used in the picture above
11. Add Certifications/ Volunteering/ Past Projects
Additionally, adding certifications, past projects, and any volunteering adds value to your resume and makes you a credible candidate
12. Hobbies/ Interests
You can add your interests or hobbies so they can have an idea of your interests and what you prefer to spend your free time doing.
13. Format for Resume
You should save your resume in .pdf or .doc. However, it is recommended to share it in .pdf format with the recruiters.
If you are interested in getting free ATS-friendly Resume/ CV templates, just fill the form and get your templates straight to your inbox
ATS-FRIENDLY RESUME/ CV Templates: How to Get a 90+ Score with ChatGPT
Around 70 % of large enterprises (1,000+ employees) use ATS; many mid-sized and small firms are also constantly adopting ATS systems. You can get the advantage of ChatGPT while creating an ATS-friendly resume.
Now you will have a case study on how to create an ATS-friendly resume with ChatGPT to get a 90+ ATS score.
1. Evolution of AI
We all know that artificial intelligence has revolutionized every field of life, from tech to healthcare. Thus, job seekers can also utilize the power of AI to land their dream job.
86 % of companies using ATS reported a reduction in time-to-hire after adoption, i.e, hiring becomes faster and more efficient.
2. Prompt Engineering
Prompt Engineering is itself a skill where you give a prompt as input, mentioning your query to the bot, and it will answer it accordingly.
Sample Prompt
This is a job requirement: you have to be my ATS-optimized resume creator, and your task is to assist me in creating SEO-optimized resume sections. Keep in mind that the resume must be able to score 90+ in the screening test
3. How to Get a Professional Summary
You can share the job description with ChatGPT and ask it to write you an SEO-optimized professional summary using the prompt shown in the picture below.
Sample Prompt
Give me a professional summary with keywords, and it must be within 50 words.
4. How to Get Core Skills and Soft Skills
You can ask ChatGPT to specify core skills and soft skills according to the job description.
Sample Prompt
Please give me 10 core skills and 10 soft skills.
5. Feedback on ChatGPT on Your Resume
Once you are done with everything, share your resume with ChatGPT and ask for feedback. It will help you analyze your work, improvements, and fix errors.
Sample Prompt
You are my ATS score analyzer. Your task is to critically examine my resume based on the above job description and match the keywords, action verbs, qualifications, professional summary, title, resume layout, and after all these analyses, give me my ATS score. Also, you have to analyze whether my resume is good enough to pass the screening test or not. You are more than welcome to give me suggestions for improvements in my resume.
How to Check Your ATS Score
Once you have created your resume, it is equally important that you run a test of your resume through an online ATS resume score checker. It will help you to fix errors, and based on the given suggestions, you can even improve your score to stand out among other candidates.
The following are my trusted platforms, out of which you can use to check your ATS score:
1. MyPerfectResume
- It offers pre-built templates and provides keyword suggestions
- It also offers automated formatting checks, which ultimately help you pass digital screening systems easily
2. Resume Worded
- It gives you instant feedback on your resume
- It highlights weak areas and also suggests improvements in the keywords, skills, and formatting
3. Novorésumé
- It offers premium pre-built templates that are ATS-optimized
- It offers compatibility with most tracking software
4. Jobscan
- This is known to be the most accurate ATS-score checker because it checks your resume directly with the job description
- It also provides you exact keyword match percentage and suggestions to raise your score
5. Enhancv
- It is proficient in analyzing readability, tone, and ATS keyword presence in your CV.
- It is better for freshers who want to improve their resume strength,
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Free ATS-Friendly Resume/ CV Templates
According to Dr. Jasmine, a career expert,
To get past the ATS, tailor your resume with relevant keywords and skills from the job description – Dr. Jasmine Escalera,
Template for an ENGINEERING Role
Template for a Developer Role
Template for a Chemist Role
Template for a Designer Role
Template for Real Estate Agent Role
Template for Accounting Officer
Conclusion
Finally, you have mastered the secret of creating an ATS-friendly resume with this practical guide. You can surely get the help from the above templates while applying for your dream job. However, there is a quick follow-up about what we’ve covered in this blog.
In this ATS-friendly resume/ CV templates guide, we have discussed how to choose the right layout, keywords, skills, certifications, and format. Additionally, we have seen how to use ChatGPT through a case study.
If you want an ATS-optimized resume for your upcoming interview, feel free to get in touch with me, and I’ll make sure that your CV passes through ATS screening. Get in touch!
FAQ
1. What is an ATS-friendly Resume?
An ATS-Friendly Resume means your resume is formatted in a way that’s easy for ATS software to read, with a clean layout, relevant keywords, proper headings, and no complex design elements.
2. What is an ATS-Compliant Resume?
ATS-Compliant Resume goes a step further. It not only follows ATS readability guidelines but also meets the specific job requirements, keyword density, and scoring criteria used by most ATS rating systems.
3. Can ATS reject my resume if there are no keywords?
Yes, this is a common reason why ATS rejects most of the resumes in the screening.
4. Can ATS read PDFs?
Yes, ATS systems can read PDF files.
5. Does ATS read graphics?
No, ATS systems cannot read graphics.
6. Do you offer ATS-friendly resume service?
Yes, we are a team of professionals who have mastered making ATS-friendly resumes for over 5 years for our clients.
7. What would be the charges of an ATS-friendly resume?
The prices are kept very low so everyone can afford our service. You can have your ATS-optimized resume in just 10$.
Hi, I’m Usama, the passionate creator behind usamawrites.com. My mission is to help you unlock your full potential by mastering English communication and the art of copywriting. Whether you’re looking to enhance your writing skills or boost your content’s impact, I’m here to guide you every step of the way. Let’s transform your ideas into powerful words together!
