How to Check if Your Resume is ATS-Friendly Before Applying

An ATS-friendly resume is designed to be easily understood by Applicant Tracking Systems. When you apply for a job online, your resume may first be processed by software that extracts information such as your name, education, skills, work experience and keywords.

The system may then compare your profile against the requirements mentioned in the job description. A resume with a clear structure and relevant information is more likely to be parsed accurately.

An ats compatible resume generally avoids unnecessary design elements that can interfere with parsing. For example, highly complicated layouts, excessive graphics, unusual fonts, text embedded inside images and complicated columns can make it difficult for some systems to interpret the content correctly. 

This does not mean your resume has to look plain or unprofessional. The objective is to create a document that balances professional presentation with machine readability.

Many candidates customise their resumes for different jobs but do not check whether the final version is actually compatible with ATS software.

A resume may contain impressive achievements but still underperform if it does not clearly communicate the skills and experience required for a particular role.

This is where an ats friendly resume checker can be useful. Instead of relying entirely on guesswork, candidates can analyse their resume and identify areas that need improvement before submitting an application.

Jaro Education’s ATS Resume Checker provides a high-level diagnostic of how a professional profile may be parsed by modern hiring systems. Its analysis includes a resume score, keyword match, formatting check and skills-gap assessment. 

1. Check Your Resume Formatting

Formatting is one of the first areas you should review. A visually attractive resume is not necessarily an ATS-compatible resume.

Some older parsing systems may struggle with graphics, complex columns and unconventional layouts. Jaro Education specifically highlights the importance of making resumes readable by parsing systems that can have difficulty with graphics or complex columns. 

A simple single-column layout is generally easier to process. Use clear section headings such as Professional Summary, Work Experience, Education, Skills and Certifications.

You should also avoid placing important information inside images, shapes, charts or decorative elements. Keep your contact information, job titles, company names and skills in standard text.

2. Compare Your Resume With the Job Description

One of the most important steps in creating an ATS-friendly resume is understanding the job description.

Recruiters often mention specific technical skills, soft skills, qualifications, tools, certifications and responsibilities they are looking for. Your resume should accurately reflect the relevant experience and skills you possess.

For example, if a job description repeatedly mentions “data analysis“, “Power BI”, “SQL” and “business intelligence“, candidates with genuine experience in these areas should consider using those relevant terms naturally in their resume.

An ATS does not simply look for impressive language. It needs relevant information that aligns with the position.

3. Identify Keyword Gaps

Keyword matching is another important part of an ATS resume review.

Jaro Education’s ATS Resume Checker provides a keyword match assessment and highlights missing industry-specific keywords. Its improvement roadmap, for example, identifies missing terms and recommends adding relevant keywords to strengthen the profile. 

This makes a resume ats checker particularly useful when you are applying for specialised roles.

However, keyword optimisation should not mean stuffing your resume with repeated terms. Instead, incorporate relevant keywords naturally into your professional summary, skills section and work experience wherever they genuinely describe your qualifications.

4. Check Whether Your Skills Match the Role

Your skills section should be relevant to the position you are applying for.

An ATS may compare your listed skills against requirements in a job description. If your resume does not clearly mention relevant capabilities that you actually possess, your profile may not demonstrate a strong match.

Jaro Education’s ATS analysis includes a “Skills Gap” component designed to identify areas where important skills or experiences may be missing based on specific industry job descriptions. 

Before applying, review the job description and ask yourself: 

• Which skills are essential for this role?
• Which of those skills do I genuinely possess?
• Are they clearly mentioned in my resume?
• Have I demonstrated those skills through work experience or achievements? 

This simple exercise can make your resume more targeted.

5. Strengthen Your Work Experience With Results

Listing responsibilities is not enough. Your experience section should show what you achieved.

Compare these two statements:

“Managed digital marketing campaigns.”

“Managed digital marketing campaigns that increased qualified leads by 28%.”

The second version gives the recruiter more context and demonstrates measurable impact.

Jaro Education’s resume improvement roadmap recommends using more quantification and adding metric-driven results to multiple experience points. 

Whenever possible, use numbers to communicate outcomes. These could include revenue generated, costs reduced, sales increased, projects completed, customers acquired, processes improved or time saved.

6. Test Your Resume With an ATS Resume Scan

One of the easiest ways to identify potential issues is to perform an ats resume scan before submitting your application.

Instead of assuming that your resume is readable and relevant, an automated scan can provide an additional perspective on its structure and content.

Jaro Education’s ATS Resume Checker allows candidates to upload their resume in PDF format, with the platform stating a maximum file size of 5 MB. It then provides an analysis covering areas such as resume score, keyword matching, formatting and skills gaps. 

The purpose of an ATS scan is not simply to obtain a number. The more valuable part is understanding what is affecting the score and using those insights to improve the resume.

7. Review the Resume Again After Making Changes

Your first scan should not necessarily be your final step.

After identifying formatting problems, missing keywords or skills gaps, make the appropriate changes and review the resume again.

For example, if the analysis indicates that your formatting is creating parsing problems, simplify the layout. If it highlights missing keywords, review the job description and add relevant terms where they accurately represent your experience. If your experience section lacks measurable outcomes, strengthen it with relevant metrics. 

The goal is to create an ats compatible resume that communicates your qualifications clearly to both automated systems and human recruiters.  

A good resume ats checker can help you review several important areas of your resume.

Resume Score

A score provides a quick indication of how well your resume performs against the system’s evaluation criteria. Jaro Education‘s tool displays a resume score as part of its ATS Resume Score Insights.  

Keyword Match

Keyword matching evaluates whether your resume contains relevant terms associated with the target role. This can help you identify important skills or terminology that may be missing.

Formatting

Formatting analysis can help identify potential parsing problems. A resume that looks good visually may still contain layouts that interfere with automated extraction.

Skills Gap

A skills-gap assessment can highlight missing capabilities or experiences that may affect your alignment with a particular job description.

Together, these insights provide a more comprehensive way to evaluate your resume before applying. 

Creating an ATS-friendly resume does not require removing all personality from your document. Instead, focus on clarity and relevance.

Start with a clean, professional structure. Use standard section headings and readable fonts. Keep important information in text rather than images or decorative elements.

Next, customise your resume for the position. Read the job description carefully and identify the qualifications, tools, skills and responsibilities that genuinely match your background.

Then, strengthen your experience section with measurable achievements. Instead of simply describing your responsibilities, demonstrate the value you created.

Finally, use an ats friendly resume checker to evaluate the final version before applying. Jaro Education’s tool is designed to provide actionable insights into compatibility, keyword gaps, formatting and skills alignment. 

Job applications are competitive, and small details can influence whether your resume receives attention.

An ats resume scan gives candidates an opportunity to review their resume before it enters the recruitment process. Rather than discovering formatting or keyword problems after submitting dozens of applications, candidates can identify potential issues beforehand.

Jaro Education positions its ATS Resume Checker as a way to analyse a resume against 50+ industry-standard recruitment algorithms and provide insights that can help candidates apply more strategically.  

This makes an ATS check especially useful when applying for competitive roles, changing careers or targeting a position where the job description contains specific technical or industry requirements. 

Before clicking the Apply button, take a few minutes to review your resume.

Make sure your resume has a clean and readable structure, uses standard headings and avoids unnecessarily complicated layouts. Check that your contact details, education, experience and skills are clearly presented.

Review the job description and ensure that relevant keywords and skills you genuinely possess are reflected in your resume. Strengthen your achievements with measurable results wherever possible.

Most importantly, run your final document through a resume ats checker. Review the results rather than focusing only on the score. Look for keyword gaps, formatting issues and missing skills, make the necessary improvements and scan the updated version again. 

An ATS-friendly resume is not simply a resume with keywords added to it. It is a document that combines clear formatting, relevant skills, job-specific terminology and measurable achievements in a structure that automated systems can understand.

Using an ats friendly resume checker before applying can help you identify potential issues that may otherwise go unnoticed. From checking keyword alignment and formatting to identifying skills gaps, an ATS review gives you useful insights into how your resume may perform during the initial screening stage. This is particularly useful for professionals pursuing career growth through online MBA programmes, as a well-optimised resume can help showcase newly acquired management skills, certifications, and professional experience when applying for new roles or career opportunities. 

Jaro Education’s free ATS Resume Checker provides resume scoring, keyword matching, formatting analysis and skills-gap insights, helping candidates make data-informed improvements before submitting applications. 

So, before your next application, don’t just proofread your resume—scan it. A few minutes spent checking your resume for ATS compatibility could help you create a stronger, more targeted application and improve your chances of getting noticed.