7 ATS Resume Mistakes That Get You Rejected (And How to Fix Them)

You spent hours on your resume. You're qualified. You applied. And heard nothing.

The culprit is often one of a handful of formatting mistakes that cause ATS systems to misread or discard your resume before a human ever sees it. Here are the seven most common — and how to fix each one.

Mistake 1: Using a multi-column layout

Two-column resumes look clean to the human eye, but most ATS systems read left-to-right across the full page width before moving down. A two-column layout causes your skills column to get mixed in with your job descriptions, scrambling your data.

Fix: Use a single-column layout. All content flows top to bottom in one column. This is exactly how ResuMint.io formats your resume by default.

Mistake 2: Putting contact info in the header

Many people put their name, email, and phone number in the document header (the area above the main margins). Some ATS systems skip headers entirely when parsing, which means your contact information disappears from their database.

Fix: Put all contact information in the main body of the document, at the top of page one.

Mistake 3: Using graphics, icons, or skill bars

A progress bar showing your Python skill at "85%" looks professional in a design tool. But ATS systems can't read images. The bar is invisible, and the text next to it may get scrambled. The same applies to logos, icons, decorative lines, and any graphic element.

Fix: List skills as plain text. Instead of a bar chart, write: Python, JavaScript, SQL, Docker. The ATS can parse text; it cannot parse images.

Mistake 4: Non-standard section headings

ATS systems are trained to recognize standard section headings like "Experience," "Education," and "Skills." Creative alternatives — "My Story," "Where I've Been," "What I Know" — confuse the parser and cause your content to be categorized incorrectly.

Fix: Stick to standard headings: Summary, Experience, Education, Skills, Certifications, Languages. These are universally recognized.

Mistake 5: Missing keywords from the job description

ATS systems score your resume based on keyword matches with the job description. If the posting says "cross-functional collaboration" and your resume says "worked with different teams," those may not match in the system even though they mean the same thing.

Fix: Read the job description carefully and mirror the exact language where it accurately describes your experience. If they say "Agile methodology," use that exact phrase — not "agile processes" or "scrum."

Mistake 6: Listing skills without context

A skills section that just says "Leadership · Communication · Teamwork" provides almost no signal to an ATS (or a human). These are generic terms that every candidate lists.

Fix: List specific, measurable skills: Python, React, AWS, Salesforce, Google Analytics, JIRA. Put soft skills in context inside your experience descriptions ("Managed a cross-functional team of 12 across 3 time zones").

Mistake 7: Submitting a heavily designed PDF or .docx

Not all PDFs are equal. A PDF exported from Canva or Adobe Illustrator encodes the text as a visual layer, which many ATS systems can't extract. Similarly, a .docx with complex styling can get garbled during parsing.

Fix: Export your resume as a text-based PDF from a word processor or resume builder. Avoid PDFs created from design tools like Canva, Figma, or Photoshop. ResuMint.io generates a clean, ATS-compatible PDF automatically.

A quick self-check

Before submitting any resume, paste the text into a plain text editor (Notepad, TextEdit). If it reads clearly from top to bottom with no jumbled sections, you're in good shape. If it looks scrambled, the ATS will have the same problem.

The bottom line

ATS mistakes are almost entirely avoidable with a clean format and the right keywords. None of the fixes above require you to compromise on looking professional — a simple, well-formatted resume performs better with ATS and looks more credible to human readers.