A candidate can be genuinely well-qualified and still never get a callback because their CV, however nicely designed, never made it past the software that screens resumes before a human recruiter opens it. Applicant tracking systems (ATS) parse text into structured fields, and certain design choices break that process quietly, with no error message to warn you.
Multi-column layouts confuse the parser
A CV with two side-by-side columns often gets read left-to-right across the whole line by ATS software, mixing your job titles with unrelated skills text and producing a garbled mess in the system, even though it looks perfectly organized to a human eye.
Text inside images or graphics doesn't get read at all
A skills chart rendered as a graphic, or contact details embedded in a designed header image, is often invisible to ATS parsing entirely — the software simply skips over anything that isn't real, selectable text.
Unusual section headers can get missed
Some systems look for standard headers like "Work Experience" or "Education" to categorize your content correctly. Creative header names ("My Journey", "What I Bring") can leave that content unclassified in the system, even if a human would read it just fine.
Tables and text boxes are a common failure point
Content placed in a table or a floating text box sometimes gets skipped, reordered, or duplicated when converted to plain text by parsing software — a simple linear layout avoids this risk entirely.
What still works fine
Bold and italic text, standard bullet points, a single-column layout with clear standard section headers, and a straightforward reverse-chronological work history all parse cleanly across virtually every ATS in use.