Oct 12, 2026 · João Lionel da Lima
A confession from someone who has read thousands of resumes
Your resume might be excellent, yet never reach human eyes. I'm writing this after more than 30 years in recruitment, from the days when applications arrived on paper, in envelopes, to today when a single vacancy receives hundreds of files in just a few hours.
At the beginning of my career, I personally opened every envelope. Today, no HR team can read everything. That's why Applicant Tracking Systems, known by the acronym ATS, exist. In 2026, practically all medium and large companies, and many small ones, use one.
What concerns me, and what led me to write this article, is seeing good professionals fail for avoidable reasons. Competent people, with years of real experience, who miss opportunities because their resume has a table the system can't read, a header in a strange place, or language that doesn't match the job description.
The good news is that passing ATS filters isn't magic, nor does it require dubious tricks. It requires understanding how the tool works, writing clearly, and presenting your experience in a way that both machines and people can quickly understand.
In the following sections, I will explain, without unnecessary jargon:
- what an ATS actually does (and doesn't do);
- how it reads your document;
- which format and structure work best;
- how to intelligently choose and use keywords;
- common mistakes that eliminate candidates every day;
- what has changed with artificial intelligence in 2026;
- how to adapt your resume to each vacancy without spending hours.
Finally, I'll provide a checklist to print or save. Let's begin.
What an ATS really is (and isn't)
An ATS is a program that receives, organizes, and helps search applications. Think of it as a digital archive with a search bar and some filters, not as a judge who decides who deserves a job.
There are many manufacturers, and each company configures its own differently. But the core functions are similar:
- Receive* applications from various channels (company website, job boards, LinkedIn, email);
- Convert* the resume into a digital profile, extracting name, contact information, job titles, dates, education, and skills;
- Organize* candidates by vacancy and by process stage;
- Search and filter*, so the recruiter can quickly find who they are looking for.
Three myths I constantly hear
Myth 1: "The ATS rejects 75% of resumes." This statistic has been circulating for years, and I've never seen a reliable source behind it. In practice, most systems don't eliminate anyone on their own. What happens is more subtle: the recruiter searches for keywords or applies filters, and those who don't appear in the results are rarely read.
Myth 2: "Just fill the resume with keywords." Not enough. A resume full of loose terms, without context, might pass the search, but it fails when a human reads it. And it's a human who decides on the interview.
Myth 3: "There's a magic format that all ATS approve." There isn't. There are best practices that work in the vast majority of systems, and those are what I'm going to show you.
What changes in practice
If you understand that an ATS is, first and foremost, a search engine, your strategy changes. You stop writing to impress and start writing to be found and understood. In 30 years, that was the mindset shift I saw most often separating candidates who get calls from candidates who wait.
How the ATS reads your resume, step by step
To write well, it helps to know the path your file takes from the moment you click the "send" button.
- Parsing.* The system opens the file and tries to identify each part: where the name is, where experiences begin, which text is a job title, which text is a date.
- Profile creation.* With what it managed to extract, it builds a digital candidate profile. If parsing failed, the profile remains incomplete or disorganized.
- Screening questions.* Many forms include direct questions: do you have a driver's license? Availability to travel? Years of experience? An answer that doesn't meet a mandatory requirement can disqualify you right here.
- Search and ranking.* The recruiter searches for terms like "project manager," "advanced Excel," or "accounting" and sees a list. Some systems rank candidates by their match to the vacancy.
- Human review.* Those who reach the top of the list, or pass the filters, have their resume read by a person. On average, this initial review lasts only a few seconds.
Where things usually go wrong
The most fragile point is step 1. If the system cannot read the file correctly, everything that follows fails. I've seen beautiful resumes, with columns, icons, and graphics, arrive at the recruiter as a jumble of letters: the job title mixed with the date, the company name stuck to the phone number.
The second fragile point is step 4. If the vacancy asks for "stock management" and your resume only says "warehouse control," the search might not find you, even if you do exactly the required work.
About "scores"
Some systems assign a compatibility score. This can help the recruiter rank, but it's rarely the only criterion. In my experience, what decides is the combination of two things: the resume being read without errors by the system and being convincing to the person who opens it. Work on both.
Format and structure: simple is smart
An "ATS-friendly" resume is not ugly or poor. It's a clean, predictable, and easy-to-read resume, for machines and for tired people at the end of a long day.
The file
- Word (.docx) or searchable PDF.* In general, both work well. If the vacancy indicates a format, follow it precisely. A PDF created from an image or scan is unreadable to the system.
- Clear file name:* FirstNameLastNameJobTitle.pdf is much better than CVfinalv7NEW.pdf.
- One language per resume*, the language of the vacancy. If the advertisement is in Portuguese, write in Portuguese.
The appearance
- Common and legible font (Arial, Calibri, Garamond), between 10 and 12 points.
- Single column. Two columns and text boxes confuse many automated readers.
- Avoid tables, icons, bar graphs for "skill levels," and images with text.
- Do not place important information in the document header or footer: some systems ignore these areas.
- Photo: in many contexts, it's not necessary, and some systems don't process it. If the vacancy or market requires it, include it, but never as a substitute for content.
The order of sections
Use conventional headings. Systems look for names they recognize. A creative title like "My Journey" means nothing to a machine.
- Contact information:* name, phone, professional email, city, and LinkedIn profile.
- Professional summary:* three to four lines with your job title, years of experience, strong areas, and a concrete achievement.
- Work experience:* from most recent to oldest, with job title, company, location, and dates (month and year).
- Education:* course, institution, year of completion.
- Skills:* technical skills and tools, in a simple list.
- Languages, certifications, and courses:* only relevant ones.
Dates and job titles
Always write dates in the same format, for example, Mar 2021 – Sep 2024. Write the job title exactly as it was, but if your company's internal title was unusual, add the market equivalent: "Customer Support Technician (Customer Service)". This helps both the search and the recruiter who doesn't know your company.
How many pages?
One page for those with little experience. Two for most professionals. More than that only for very long careers, and even then, it's almost never worth it. In 30 years, I've never hired someone for having a longer resume.
Keywords: the language of the job is your map
Keywords are the terms the recruiter searches for and that the job description repeats: job titles, tools, skills, certifications, areas of knowledge. Using them well is the difference between appearing or remaining invisible.
Where to find them
The job advertisement is your best source. Read it with a pen in hand (or a highlighter) and underline:
- the exact title of the position;
- the skills and tools mentioned more than once;
- the mandatory requirements (years of experience, education, certifications);
- the verbs that describe the work: manage, negotiate, coordinate, analyze.
If you want to go further, read three or four ads for the same position in other companies. The terms that repeat in all of them are the industry vocabulary.
How to use them without cheating
The golden rule is simple: only write what is true. If the vacancy asks for SAP experience and you've never used it, don't include it. Besides being dishonest, it's risky: in the interview, the first technical question will expose everything.
What you can and should do is use the same language to describe what you actually did. Compare:
- Before: "Handled purchasing and suppliers."
- After: "Managed the procurement process and negotiated contracts with 15 suppliers, reducing purchasing costs."
The second sentence contains terms a recruiter would search for ("procurement," "negotiation," "contracts," "suppliers") and also shows impact.
Acronyms and full names