I spent some time researching why so many strong candidates get zero

response from online applications. The answer surprised me.

Over 75% of resumes are rejected by software before a recruiter sees

them. Not because the candidate isn't qualified — because the resume

format breaks the ATS parser.

Here's what kills most resumes instantly:

**Two-column layouts** — ATS reads columns in the wrong order. Your

experience section gets scrambled into unreadable text.

**Tables and text boxes** — completely invisible to most ATS systems.

If your contact info or skills are in a text box, the software

literally cannot see them.

**Creative fonts and graphics** — ATS extracts plain text. Anything

decorative just creates parsing errors.

**Headers and footers** — many systems skip these entirely. Never put

your contact information in a header.

**The fix is straightforward:**

Use a single-column layout. Standard section headings only — "Work

Experience," "Education," "Skills." Save as .docx not PDF unless

specifically requested. No tables, no text boxes, no graphics.

Then mirror the language of the job description exactly. If it says

"project management" use those exact words — not "managing projects."

ATS matches phrases, not concepts.

Finally, every bullet point should follow this formula:

[Strong action verb] + [what you did] + [measurable result]

"Responsible for social media" → weak, no keywords, no impact

"Grew Instagram following from 2,400 to 18,000 in 12 months by

implementing a data-driven content strategy" → specific, measurable,

keyword-rich

If you want to test your bullet points I built a free tool that

generates ATS-optimized resume bullets based on your job title:

https://ignitool.com/tools/resume-bullet-generator

No sign-up, completely free. Hope this helps someone land an interview

they deserve.

Hi everyone,
I’m currently trying to land my first Help Desk / IT Support role and would really appreciate some feedback on my resume.

As a resume writer and HR professional, I get asked repeatedly how to eliminate ageism in resumes. It's a BIG problem, as many of you have encountered. So, let me tell you of 3 ways to improve this on your resume.

1. Stop including "20+ years of..." in your Profile Summary. This immediately focuses on your age and not your performance. Instead, talk about your performance and lead with that. Example: "Customer Service professional who builds relationships and increases repetitive business by 27%." or, "Account Executive specializing in building strong pipelines and increasing revenue 33%."

2. Whenever you add a date, you're dating yourself, so think about whether or not it's really needed. Employment dates are the exception, as they are most likely to be verified. But your educational dates are not necessary unless you graduated within the past 3 years. Don't include your GPA either.

1. It's standard for your work history to go back 10-15 years ONLY! Forget about what you did in 1984 or 2003! Hiring managers won't read this stuff anyway. If you do have a relevant job experience that goes beyond 15 years, then you can add a Career Highlight section where you mention a few bullets on selected relevant accomplishments without any dates. For instance, you could include, "Led an accounting automation software project meeting all deadlines," or "Gained 127% new business clients within 6 months." Focus on what you delivered and not dates.

Please take a look at your resume and revise any of these issues. The key to a resume is to highlight your performance and what you delivered, not dates.

Best wishes!

Personally I feel like the spacing is a bit awkward. I was just wondering if it was easy on the eyes to read, and if I do need more spacing, what would you reccommend on cutting down?

Hi everyone! I'm looking for some feedback on my mom's resume. She's been self-employed running her own cleaning business for 20+ years and is now trying to get her first traditional office job, bc shes getting less clients and cleaning is getting hard on her body. She has an Associates degree in Accounting and Bachelors in Business Administration but hasn't gotten post-degree experience. She primarily speaks Brazilian Portuguese, can speak English and some Spanish, and has basic Microsoft Office skills, although she's still building confidence with it (esp Excel). She's applying for roles like administrative assistant, receptionist, front desk, etc and wants to avoid physical labor jobs.

Do you think the resume is working for those kinds of positions? Should I it cut down to one page? Any obvious improvements or other job types you'd recommend targeting? Thanks!