Your resume looks great. Clean fonts, clear sections, good experience. And yet — it never reaches a recruiter. The problem usually isn't what you wrote. It's how the file is structured.
ATS software doesn't read resumes the way humans do. It parses them — extracting raw text and sorting it into fields. When the formatting gets in the way, the content gets scrambled, skipped, or scored as incomplete. These 10 mistakes are the most common reasons it happens.
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Scan my resume free →ATS parsers read left to right, top to bottom — like a single column of text. A two-column layout causes the parser to mix content from different columns together, turning your work history and skills into scrambled nonsense.
Most ATS software cannot read content placed in Word's header or footer areas. Your name, email, and phone number go into the void — meaning the recruiter who does see your resume has no way to contact you.
Text boxes and tables look clean in Word or PDF, but ATS parsers either skip them entirely or extract the content out of order. Skills listed in a table are often completely missed.
Design tools export PDFs where text is embedded as vector paths or images — not selectable text. To an ATS, the file is blank. Your entire resume scores zero because no content can be extracted.
ATS systems are trained to recognise standard headings: "Work Experience," "Education," "Skills." Creative alternatives like "Where I've Been" or "My Toolkit" confuse the parser — it doesn't know where to file the content that follows.
Images are invisible to ATS. Worse, they can disrupt the text flow around them, causing nearby content to be parsed incorrectly. In Canada, photos on resumes are also generally discouraged to avoid unconscious bias.
Decorative or uncommon fonts can cause character encoding issues during parsing, turning your carefully written bullet points into garbled symbols or missing text.
ATS software uses date fields to calculate tenure and sort work history. Mixing formats (Jan 2022, 01/22, 2022-01) or using vague entries like "Recent" confuses the parser and can result in your timeline being read incorrectly.
Skill bars — those horizontal graphic indicators showing "90% proficiency in Excel" — are images. The ATS reads nothing. Your skills section effectively disappears, costing you all the keyword matches those skills would have generated.
This isn't a formatting mistake in the traditional sense — but it's the most impactful one. A generic resume doesn't match the keyword profile of any specific posting. Even a perfectly formatted resume scores low if the language doesn't reflect the role.
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Get my free ATS score → Free · No sign-up · Results in 60 secondsMostly no — ATS software works the same way regardless of which country the company is in. But there are a few Canada-specific things worth knowing:
CV vs. resume: In Canada, "resume" and "CV" are often used interchangeably, but the standard for most jobs is a 1–2 page resume, not a full academic CV. Use the term the job posting uses.
Bilingual requirements: If a role is posted in both English and French — particularly for federal government or Quebec-based positions — submit separate versions optimised for each language. One bilingual document does not rank well in either language's keyword search.
No photos or SIN numbers: Never include a Social Insurance Number or a photo on a Canadian resume. This applies both to ATS systems and human reviewers.
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